Labels

Tang Dynasty Warrior by Haijun Wang 唐十三铠




A tang dynasty warrior in heavy armor. Digital painting by Haijun Wang. You can find his Artstation page here, and you can also find his Weibo profile here. The officer carries a Tang era straight single edged long sword (Tang Dao.) Such armors were very colorful to behold and usually featured silk frills and tassels of many colors.


To appreciate this painting to see its full details please click on the image to zoom in. Several details are included below. Hope you enjoy it. 








Tang dynasty officer's saber, or "Tang Dao," 唐刀, silver inlays, lacquered scabbard and occasionally shagreen or ray skin wrap around the handle. The blade would be either straight or curved (always curved for the cavalry) and often only has one sided tip.








→ ☯ [PLEASE SUPPORT ME @ PATREON] ☯ ←


Thank you to my Patrons who has contributed $10 and above: You made this happen!

➢ ☯ Vincent Ho (FerrumFlos1st)
➢ ☯ BurenErdene Altankhuyag
➢ ☯ Stephen D Rynerson
➢ ☯ Steven Chan
➢ ☯ Michael Lam
➢ ☯ Peter Hellman

Labels:

Comments

Der said…
Is this an example of a fuping 府兵 militia soldier or a professional Tang imperial guard type?
February 6, 2019 at 12:58 PM
Dragon's Armory said…
Imperial guard type, by the end of the dynasty there is actually a crippling lack of armors for a lot of the troops. By then the affairs are largely co-opted by Eunuch factions. And the regional governors dealt with local military affairs by themselves.

In fact they have became a joke before the 900s and were not very effective against Huang Chao's rebellion. True strength and perhaps the few true people you rely on are the regional governors themselves- if anything this guy would be more likely a well provided and proven soldier serving one of the military governors. The picture at the end of the Tang looked quite like that of late Han.
February 6, 2019 at 1:33 PM
Der said…
Yes, the armor is too elaborate to be militia I guess.

The late Tang is like the late Han, indeed, also like the late Roman Republic, with Marius' Reforms and the abolishment of universal military conscription leading the professionalization and increased instability as professional (mercenary) troops are loyal to who can pay them rather than the state.
February 6, 2019 at 3:18 PM
Dragon's Armory said…
I'd actually wager to say that the late Tang (as well as late Han) is more similar to the late western Roman Empire. The emperors were weak and largely kept as hostages, the frontiers increasingly has to rely on itself to face against an escalating series of invading barbarians, and power was devolved from what was formerly a capable central authority to the hands of the local military governors. In fact there is a parallel of the Roman Magister Militum and the hereditary "Dux" (Duke) to that of the Jiedushi- or the late Tang hereditary military governors. The Romans were so desperate that they enoffed foreign barbarian chieftans and raised them as Roman governors just to protect the empire's frontiers. This is paralleled by the Tang desperation to enoffed the various Tang- loyalist Turkics and Tanguts as Jeidushi. When western Rome fell many of its frontiers were essentially succeeded by the Franks and when the Tang fell those Turkic and Tangut districts became Sinicized kingdoms that pursued their own agendas.

Both the Han and the Tang eventually portioned out its territories to that of their military governors. And when the central government was done with, the entire realm descended into long anarchy. The Han disintegrated into the catastrophic Three Kingdoms period and the Tang disintegrated into the chaotic Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Both of these massive internal blood letting also created an environment where the steppe Khanates in the north took over northern China in the periods that succeeded it. The Jin (Sima) quickly lost the north to the steppe invaders and Liao- Jin (Jurchen), and the Mongols dominated northern China both before and after the Song.
February 6, 2019 at 5:12 PM
Unknown said…
Tang helmet reminds of Japanese samurai helmets with those folded plates.
March 10, 2019 at 10:10 PM
Dragon's Armory said…
Yes. If you just add a V shaped golden crest on the front it practically looks like Gempei era samurai helmets.
March 12, 2019 at 3:30 AM
Unknown said…
Thats because the Tang was especially influential on Japanese culture.
October 14, 2019 at 1:23 PM
Anonymous said…
The Tang Armoury literally provided the blue print of the Japanese armoury developed later on. The Japanese developed into such a way became distinctively Japanese, but if being compared the tell tale signs of Tang influence can still be clearly seen. The Tang armour had influenced from outside as well from the Persian as well. The Xianbei cultural elements also made the Tang armour unique as well
May 22, 2020 at 10:36 PM
Riekko said…
This is great--the detail is amazing; I wish I could paint this well. As a bonus, and I hope you don't mind my saying this, this guy is hot as well :D!

Thanks for this and the great blog; it's been really, really useful for my research. I'm writing an alternative history story set in 820s Persia/Central Asia and one of the characters, a Persian warlord himself, befriended a Tang officer who later became a Jiedushi. Your blog has been a great resource in trying to reconstruct that era.

BTW, what do you reckon a guy like that--a battle-worn, aging Jiedushi close to the Persian border circa 827--would've worn, armour-wise? You don't have to reply if you don't have time, but I'm interested for obvious reasons. :)

Thanks again for a great blog and your splendid artwork.
August 7, 2020 at 12:25 AM
Dragon's Armory said…
Thank you for your kind words about my blog! Lol, I can't tell, I guess he's hot lol.

As for armor designs? Try these out. Most of these are from Mid- late Tang so fits your time period, and they are painted in the western regions of China Yulin Caves in the Gansu Corridor that's close to the Tarim Basin, so very western.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rlnFlcMEKjw/Wbaj3o7CfWI/AAAAAAAAN-g/Ny86R36pdkk4P3umAL-0BRlZH0SojzjTQCLcBGAs/s1600/17883528_1705043216190249_5818269289073106318_n.jpg

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rDfX2IsXdt4/WbaiujD8flI/AAAAAAAAN-U/_TFK50PvjnkgHmWq8aM7tMOwJZTj6oPMwCLcBGAs/s1600/Yulin_Cave_5_antechamber_s_wall_lokapala_%2528Tang%2529%2B%25281%2529.jpg

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aiP5Eb9_wzo/WbaixNr7hLI/AAAAAAAAN-Y/hW1ajuRef5cb-4t5y66WbHh29G6t_UYDACLcBGAs/s1600/Yulin_Cave_25_n_wall_Maitreya_Sutra_3_%2528Tang%2529%2B-%2BCopy.jpg

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gdAb7IYL9EQ/Wbas5w6FADI/AAAAAAAAN_Q/ZR9VVRBR4yEZ7asaQOMckV2YdVQcD4ViACLcBGAs/s1600/213300011113c971f9a9.jpg
August 7, 2020 at 9:41 AM
Riekko said…
Heh, it's just a lady's POV, going by that playful, plotting smirk of his--usually when a guy's looked at me like that, some *very* good times have followed.

Thanks for the links! I'd actually seen most of those; I guess my problem is in the dearth of more realistic illustrations of those guys. Even if I'm used to the cave art style, it's still difficult to try and reconstruct that into a more photographic image in my head. But I appreciate you digging those out for me; thanks :)
August 8, 2020 at 6:33 AM
Dragon's Armory said…
No problem. And yeah, being a very visual person myself I am a stickler for visual details. The more realistic they look it's like they are resurrecting the past back to life. I live for it.

Thanks for your questions, feel free to take a look around my blog and see if there's more that's to your liking.
August 9, 2020 at 1:01 PM
Post a Comment