Tang Dynasty General in Armor 唐代将军甲


Artwork by: Wei Guan


A Tang dynasty general in elaborate armor. This type of armor was fielded from the Sui, the early Tang, and also the high Tang periods. They were worn by imperial officers, royal guards, and were sometimes worn by the elite soldiers within the military. Because of their ornate appearance, warriors who wore such armors were commonly depicted across East Asia and murals in western China.




Several types of helmets from this period all had extended helmet flaps that either swept up or extended out and rolled down. They served as additional armored skirts that further protected the wearer's head from impact. 




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Bishamonten- the Japanese God of War in contemporary Tang armor.



Comments

Der said…
The Tang had extensive contacts with the Turkic, Persian and Muslim worlds and yet their armors didn't resemble each other very much. The Chinese never adopted nose guards on their helmets, nor did they adopt chain mail at all. I wonder why that is?
Dragon's Armory said…
I don't remember seeing nose guards but there are plenty of sources that mentions face masks or helmet masks. Unfortunately aside from some sketches from manuals there's not many archaeological examples. There are some helmet masks from Jin helmets. And even the Ming supposed to have had them.

As for chainmails. China didn't adopt a lot of them, though they were aware of them. The Ming did use them in limited numbers. I am not sure why China did not adopt it, because when they received them as gifts from foreign countries they were considered ornate treasures.My hunch is that its discouraged because of economic reasons. Some elite guards probably preferred them but in large. They are too time consuming and labor intensive to equip a large army. In that respect lamellar's much more economical of an option.
Dragon's Armory said…
Also, these early Tang armor does have Central Asian and Iranian influences, if you look at the armors of, say, various steppe polities in Central Asian around the 5-6th century you'd find a lot of examples of the chestpieces very similar to those worn by the Sui and Tang. It's very likely a foreign invention that's brought into the Northern Wei and subsequently Northern Qi and Zhou then Sui via the Silk Road.

There are also plenty of Sassanian noble's tombs from the Sui dynasty in China that featured tomb guardian murals/ reliefs with them depicted with these chest piece on their armors.
流云飞袖 said…
Ok,The tang dynasty's round-collared robe is a costume from Sassan Persia.
Tang people like things from the northwest and western regions, including women.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranians_in_China
流云飞袖 said…
There are rumors that the Western region countries pay tribute to some women to Tang Taizong,but not sure whether Taizong likes these exotic women,because he was particularly fond of hot springs,so his later sexual abilities were not particularly good.
流云飞袖 said…
@Dragon's Armory
Can you write some articles about Ming-Taizong/Zhu Di and PRC-Taizong/Deng Xiaoping?
流云飞袖 said…
Taizu太祖/Mao毛泽东
?Hui Di惠帝/Hua华国锋
Taizong太宗/Deng邓小平
Xingzong兴宗/Jiang江泽民
Shunzong顺宗/Hu胡锦涛
Shizong世宗/Xi习近平
Dragon's Armory said…
@萧炎

Did you even bother to read the banner on top of this blog which mentions I am not covering anything post-1912?

Why the hell do you think that is, you spastic goldfish.
流云飞袖 said…
Actually I'm a little bit of Zhong Er/中二 sometimes,
and what's “spastic goldfish”.( °◅° )y
Raynor said…
萧炎 is probably schizophrenic given their odd cringey speech pattern and non-sequiturs.
kol said…
Are you going to do anything on Nanman There's a new Total War Three Kingdoms dlc about Them
Dragon's Armory said…
@Kol Hmmm Probably not, there's very little we know for certain about them and much of the personages featured in ROTK are very cartoonish. Their inclusion in 3K looks very fantasy based, which is fine in a way given how little we know of them.. Since standard 3K is lacking a lot of factional variety it's a logical step.

Although I'd personally love to see more units with the anachronistic lacquered leather armor of the later Yi people rather than simply have folks running around wearing woodboards