Defensive Armor of the Archaic Period 181 



is very strong. 1 Japanese accounts of the Mongol attempt to invade 

 Japan allude likewise to the cuirasses of the Mongols. 2 



The leather corselets kia seem to have been in general use, even at an 

 early date, among the people of the state of Ts'in, who were prepared to 

 don them in case of war, as mentioned in a song of the Shi king. 3 Meng- 

 tse 4 speaks of the strong armor and the sharp weapons of Ts'in and 

 Ch'u. Siiin K'ing, a philosopher of the third century B.C., ascribes 

 armor of sharkskin and rhinoceros-hide to the people of Ch'u; both were 

 hard like metal and stone. 5 This is the more remarkable, as the author 

 goes on to say that the people of Ch'u possessed the iron and steel of 

 Yuan, a place corresponding to the modern Nan-yang in Ho-nan Prov- 

 ince, and that their lance and arrow heads, apparently of iron or steel, 

 were sharp like the stings of wasps and scorpions. We may therefore 

 infer that the people of Ch'u, despite their acquaintance with iron, had 

 not yet advanced to the stage of iron armor. Their hide armor must 

 have been light in weight; for they are reported to be "light and agile, 

 fiery and swift, and rapid like a hurricane." In general, however, or in 

 other states, these cuirasses seem to have been heavy and uncomfortable; 

 for we hear that they were donned only during battle, but rolled up and 

 carried by the soldiers during the march. 6 They did not allow the 

 wearer to run; and when driven to flight, the soldiers threw them off, 

 trailing their arms behind. 7 



From a text in Tso ckuan 8 it appears that rhinoceros cuirasses were 



1 Buffalo-hide came up as a substitute for rhinoceros-hide in the making of armor 

 during the T'ang period (p. 162). 



2 A. Pfizmaier, Die Geschichte der Mongolen-Angriffe auf Japan (Sitzungs- 

 berichte Wiener Akademie, 1874, p. 151). 



3 Legge, Chinese Classics, Vol. IV, p. 202. 

 * Ibid., Vol. II, p. 135. 



5 This passage is quoted also by Se-ma Ts'ien (Chavannes, Les Memoires histo- 

 riques de Se-ma Ts'ien, Vol. Ill, p. 217). The Wu pel chi, an extensive work on mili- 

 tary science written under the Ming dynasty by Mao Yuan-i, and published in 

 162 1, comments on this statement of Siun K'ing that sharkskin armor equals rhino- 

 ceros-hide armor in hardness, and is therefore styled shui si ("water-rhinoceros"), 

 because the shark is produced in the water. Another instance of sharkskin armor 

 occurs in the T'ung kien kang mu (quoted in T'u shu tsi ch'eng), where it is ascribed 

 to the Mongols. Shagreen seems to have been utilized by the Chinese in olden times, 

 especially in saddlery. The imperial ' ' caparisons made of shagreen ' ' (Chavannes, /. c. , 

 p. 214), I believe, are identical with the modern saddles mounted with shagreen. It 

 is used also for mounting the sheaths and handles of knives and swords, even for the 

 decoration of snuff-bottles. A detailed investigation of the subject is contained in 

 H. L. Joly and I. Hogitaro (The Sword Book, pp. 3 et seq. of the appendix). 



6 As attested by Sun-tse (see L. Giles, Sun Tzu on the Art of War, p. 58, London, 

 1 9 10). The case in which the rolled-up cuirass was enclosed was styled kao (No. 5949). 



7 As is evident from a passage of Meng-tse (Legge, Chinese Classics, Vol. II, 

 p. 130). 



8 Legge. Chinese Classics, Vol. V, p. 290. 



