History of China

[no_name]

Song Dynasty (960–1279AD) statue armour:

It features what seems to be star-scale armour.

Ming Dynasty (1368–1644AD) statue armour:

Featuring mountain-scale armour.

These types were developed during Tang Dynasty and became popular during song dynasty. They provides mobility and flexible light weight but rigid armour. The star configuration leaves a small hole in the centre which was fixed by the mountain scale design.

Star design:

Mountain design:

Song Dynasty cavalry:

 

[siegecrossbow]

Song Dynasty (960–1279AD) statue armour:

It features what seems to be star-scale armour.

Ming Dynasty (1368–1644AD) statue armour:

Featuring mountain-scale armour.

These types were developed during Tang Dynasty and became popular during song dynasty. They provides mobility and flexible light weight but rigid armour. The star configuration leaves a small hole in the centre which was fixed by the mountain scale design.

Star design:

Mountain design:

The Mountain design is my favorite. They, however, are more difficult to produce than fish-scale or brigandine so they were not that commonly used during the Song and Ming Dynasties. It appears that only high ranking officers used them.

Have you got any pictures of Ming Guang Kui? That was the closest that China got to developing true plate armor. Unfortunately they were deemed too expensive after the fall of the Tang Dynasty and weren't used as often as a result.

p.s. I think I'll get a mod to sticky this thread.

 

[no_name]

The Mountain design is my favorite. They, however, are more difficult to produce than fish-scale or brigandine so they were not that commonly used during the Song and Ming Dynasties. It appears that only high ranking officers used them.

Yeah only generals or elite unit uses them.

Shown below are normal units:

Song Heavy cavalry

Tang heavy cavalry

Tang heavy cavalry replica (cheap steel work )

The Japanese were really fond of the scary masks and had them on their samurai armour.

Have you got any pictures of Ming Guang Kui? That was the closest that China got to developing true plate armor. Unfortunately they were deemed too expensive after the fall of the Tang Dynasty and weren't used as often as a result.

Have an example here, they are supposed to be shiny under the sun though:

This one is from Sui dynasty. I expect tang ones to be flashier

An illustration of the Tang dynasty imperial guards

 

[no_name]

Couple of illustrations, probably Han dynasty general with leather armour:

 

[siegecrossbow]

Thnx for the pictures noname . Looks like you are a fan of ancient Chinese military history as well? What history forums do you frequent?

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Hey no_name, thank you for the beautiful pictures.

 

[Water Car Engineer]

Tang emperor

Han emperor

 

[no_name]

I guess you could say I'm a military fan. I don't frequent any particular forum and it is only in the last year or so that i starting research into china's military history.

I feel due to some confucian scholar nonsense this country supresses it's military exploits. (not counting the red army tales)

Google image search is my friend and most of my pic above you can find at :
OLD...History forum: Some pix of historical Chinese soldiers

loading all those pic to imageshack and then linking them here was alot of work.

 

[siegecrossbow]

I guess you could say I'm a military fan. I don't frequent any particular forum and it is only in the last year or so that i starting research into china's military history.

I feel due to some confucian scholar nonsense this country supresses it's military exploits. (not counting the red army tales)

Google image search is my friend and most of my pic above you can find at :
OLD...History forum: Some pix of historical Chinese soldiers

loading all those pic to imageshack and then linking them here was alot of work.

Thnx for your effort. I shall continue in your footsteps lol.

I think we've seen enough armor. Time to go on the offensive and start talking about the weapons.

A lot of the fancier weapons in Chinese military fiction like the Fang tian hua Ji (a type of halberd) and Guandao (Chinese broadsword) weren't actually invented until the Tang and Song Dynasties, respectively and remained relatively rare even after their invention.

Here are the illustrations of those beautiful weapons:

Fang tian Ji (keep in mind that the halberd with two crescents is the true Fang tian hua Ji. The one with one crescent is the Qing Long Ji (green dragon halberd)):

Guan dao:

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

I feel due to some confucian scholar nonsense this country supresses it's military exploits. (not counting the red army tales)

Yeah, I've heard too much about the Red Army in school. The Long March was impressive, no doubt, but there should be more focus on Ancient China.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Yeah, I've heard too much about the Red Army in school. The Long March was impressive, no doubt, but there should be more focus on Ancient China.

Wait they taught you about the Red Army in Hong Kong? At what level of education did you start learning about it?

 

[siegecrossbow]

Here is an interesting video from Ancient Discoveries, a show on the History Channel that is a refreshing departure from the usual WWII fair and shows on Aliens/truckers . This clip is from an episode on Chinese weaponry where crossbows and early firearms were also covered. Unfortunately I can't find other parts to the video.

This clip is on ancient Chinese MRLs. Enjoy.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Wait they taught you about the Red Army in Hong Kong? At what level of education did you start learning about it?

I went to an International High school in HK (Island School), and we learned about contemporary Chinese history at GCSE level.

Started off with the 1911 revolution (Sun Yat-Sen etc.) and then we spent forever talking about the Chinese Civil war, the Sino-Japanese war, the Long march, etc.

The education system in Hong Kong is quite pro-China in my experience. After all, 95% of people in Hong Kong are Han Chinese, so it's our history too. It makes sense that we would be learning about our own history, right?

 

[siegecrossbow]

I went to an International High school in HK (Island School), and we learned about contemporary Chinese history at GCSE level.

Started off with the 1911 revolution (Sun Yat-Sen etc.) and then we spent forever talking about the Chinese Civil war, the Sino-Japanese war, the Long march, etc.

The education system in Hong Kong is quite pro-China in my experience. After all, 95% of people in Hong Kong are Han Chinese, so it's our history too. It makes sense that we would be learning about our own history, right?

Nice to know that they place such an emphasis on history in Hong Kong. I read, much to my shock, that some post 90 youths in the mainland didn't even know about the Long March.

Since you like ancient history so much I think it is only appropriate that we keep up with the theme of ancient Chinese weapons. Here is a interesting video clip about the Triple-bow siegecrossbow (yes my name sake ). It is in Chinese, unfortunately, but you can guess what the content is fairly easily.

ÖлªÎ书ȫ¼¯Ö®´²×Óåó ÔÚÏß¹Û¿´ - ¿á6ÊÓƵ

 

[Speeder 2]

Correct. Guess what I am going to bring up next:

China was at the forefront of siege weaponry for much of her history. We produced innovations such as the triple-bow siegecrossbow, multi-shot crossbow, traction trebuchets, and early gunpowder weapons like the huochong and rocket launchers. One thing that bugged me, however, is the fact that although China invented trebuchets they never utilized the counterweight trebuchet, an Arabic innovation. Instead of using large counterweights to power the weapon hundreds of men are used to yank on ropes tethered to the catapult. Although I think that traction catapults are suitable for smaller catapults due to the ease of operation and faster rate of fire, counterweight trebuchets are far better for large scaled weapons. As a matter of fact the Arab engineers helped demolish the walls of Xiangyang during the Mongol siege. Any ideas on why that is the case?

Apologies that I was off for some days.

NO, I dunno way so, please explain why. I would be reading your analysis with a great interest.