Chinese armor

[txwingchun]

Does anybody know of a website that has pictures and info on ancient chinese armor? The only thing I've found so far is samurai.

[Ego_Extrodinaire]

The chinese use iron body conditioning as a substitute for steel.

[Stranger]

No, the Chinese wore armor as well.

[alecM]

Once again Ego show's he is never afraid to expose his ignorance to the world.
Any way back to the subject. From what I remember reading during the tang dynasty 618 AD to 907 AD the typical armour of the period was lamellar scale armour, which was a sort of long leather tunic covered with small squares of metal linked together.

http://alecmorris.topcities.com/armour.htm

[Budokan]

Some of the higher nobles also wore jade armor--small squares of jade linked together like scales. I bet that was a beautiful armor to behold.

[Kristoffer]

I usually wear a hoody

[guohuen]

Ego, a grin would have made that funny. You need work on your comedy fu bro.

[joedoe]

Ego wasn't trying to be funny. He likes to make fun of what he classes 'non-scientific' ideas in CMA.

[The Whyzyrd]

There really isn't that much available on the web about chinese armor. You will find more information on Mongol Armor and "Asian Armor" but little about Chinese per se.

There are several sites which discuss the Terra Cotta Warriors (about 200 bc - I THINK) and you can see a whole series of discussions on various Asian Armor types here:

Silk Road Armoury
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/3505/index.html

And some research was done here on a unique style of scale:
www.armourarchive.org/essays/Shanwenkia.pdf

If you find other resources post them. I am always looking for more information.

[red5angel]

On an interesting side note, I learned recently that Samurai wore silk for two reasons. The first was that it was comfortable in the heat, the second was that arrows often times didnt penetrate the silk so much as puch it into the wound. This allowed the samurai to pull on the silk and dislodge the arrow!

[JWTAYLOR]

It wasn't just the Samurai. Many European soldiers did the same thing.

JWT

[Budokan]

I've also heard tales that some old Chinese warriors used to wear armor made of spider silk--extremely lightweight and practically impenetrable. Must've took a lot of spiders, though, to spin enough spidersilk to weave into wearable armor.

While I've heard this tale from time to time I've never actually seen any hard evidence that it's true. It'd be interesting if it were since spidersilk is one of the toughest natural fibers with high tensile strength ever made.

[joedoe]

The Mongols also wore silk to help stop arrows. Apparently the idea was that the arrowhead gets tangled up in the silk and so less damage is done, and the arrow could more easily be extracted if it penetrated.

[Ego_Extrodinaire]

Budokan

Yes, i've also heard of spiderman. So you're saying that they wear sticky skin tight suits of spider silk - oh how sexy. The armed forces wore armor. it is the southerners during the boxer rebellion who thought that iron body could stop bullets.

that's why the effect of iron body training is fake. If a person can genuinely stop a spear from piercing their thoat (without trickery) why then would they bother to wear amor?

[Budokan]

Wrong, not Spiderman. Just go back to playing with your Transformers and leave KFO to the adults.

[Xebsball]

First...

why is this thread on Other Arts???


Here is a site with huge pics of chinese armor:

http://chinese-armour.freewebspace.com

[Pawa-eri-to]

Ego, perhaps you dont know the difference between iron body and chi kung. Iron body is the process of doing controlled damage to parts of the body to build up calluses and cause the bodys tendons and bones to become thicker. This is a natural process of adaptation the body will undergo to allow it to deal with gradually inceasing levels of damage. although this wont stop blades and bullets it would certainly allow you to deal with punches and kicks.

Oh almost forgot to add: Chi Kung is what was used in the boxer's rebellion.

[grogan]

IN 92 while in Singapore they had an exhibition of Chinese History at their museum and I was luck enough to see a Jade suit of armour made for one of the emperors I think I do have photos of it and one day when I go backe to my home state to pick it up I will try to place a picture of it on this forum. The suit even had a jade face mask it was truely magnificent. About the spider thread I doubt that had that in ancient times as I am pretty sure that the Americans are working on that theory now to create bullet proof vests using the silk but they have been working on the idea for awhile now.

[wangsizhong]

a summer or two ago there was a jade exhibit at a local museum in Canada (hamilton, ontario). they had a jade suit (jade scales linked together) for the whole body. it might have been the same thing grogan saw back in '92. but this one was being billed as a burial suit, so its combat application seems doubtful--especially given the cost it must have incurred. on the other hand, it proves they did make them so maybe they used them in life after all...either way, it looked way snazzy.

-Wang Si Zhong

[Machine_Phantom]

we dont need no education
we dont need no thought control