Defensive Armor of the Archaic Period 197 



third kind of armor known at that time is termed in that book si lin 

 kia ("armor of thin scales"), and is classified among iron armor. The 

 very name implies that it is a question of scale armor. The fourth 

 variety of armor is styled shan wen kia ("armor with a mountain 

 pattern") ; a zigzag design or a continuous row of triangles being under- 

 stood by the latter name. Also this, likewise made of iron, was 

 perhaps scale armor; 1 as presumably also the fifth, designated "black 

 hammer armor" (wu chui kia), likewise of iron. No descriptions of 

 these pieces are furnished in the book mentioned. 



Leather scale armor was still used by the Mongols, as attested by 

 Friar William of Rubruck (i 2*53) , who states, "I saw two who had come 

 to present themselves before Mangu, armed with jackets of convex pieces 

 of hard leather, which were most unfit and unwieldy." 2 



In the Ming period the technical term for armor-scales is "wil- 

 low-leaf" (liu ye). We read in the Statutes of the Ming Dynasty 

 (Ta Ming hui tien) that in 1393 six thousand sets of "willow-leaf armor " 

 and helmets of chain mail were ordered for the soldiers of the body- 

 guard serving in the Imperial City. 



The great antiquity of hide scale armor is an important fact to us, as 

 there are certain ancient clay figures on which this type of armor is 

 represented. These belong to the earliest that we have, and range in the 

 archaic period ; 3 and it will be seen from the notes devoted to their dis- 



king yiian (Ch. 41, p. 3) and P'ei wen yiin fu (Ch. 106, p. 73) give exactly the same 

 quotation extracted from the T'angleu tien (the "Six Statutes of theT'ang Dynasty"), 

 drawn up by the Emperor Yuan-tsung in the early part of the eighth century (Wy- 

 lie, Notes on Chinese Literature, p. 67; and above, p. 189). The only additional 

 matter prefixed to the latter text is that the thirteen kinds of armor enumerated were 

 ordered to be made by the Imperial Armory (wu k'u). 



1 P'ei wen yiin fu (Ch. 106, p. 74) quotes the T'ang shi lu to the effect that the 

 armors called shan win kia were made by the Emperor T'ai-tsung from iron (black 

 metal) dyed in five colors, so that the "mountain pattern" may have been brought 

 out by the color-work. Five-colored armor (wu ts'ai kia) is mentioned in T'ang shu 

 (Ch. li yo chiy ibid., p. 73). The Pek-tsi, a Korean tribe, brought "varnished armor 

 of metal" (kin hiu k'ai) to the Chinese General Li Tsi (Giles, Biographical Dic- 

 tionary, p. 421), who subjugated Korea between 644 and 658; on these armors, which 

 were used by the Chinese cavalry, five mountain patterns (shan ngu wen) were repre- 

 sented by means of iron, which may be understood in the sense that five iron scales 

 were arranged in such a manner as to suggest the design of a mountain. This passage 

 is contained likewise in T'ang shu (Ch. 220, p. 3 b). 



2 W. W. Rockhill, The Journey of William of Rubruck, p. 261 (London, Hak- 

 luyt Society, 1900). In the Mongol period, designs of a tiger or lion skin, and the 

 design of metal-armor scales, were also painted on hide armor ( Yiian shi, Ch. 78, 

 p. 12, K'ien-lung edition). 



3 The clay figures in our collection come down from different periods. A rigid 

 classification coinciding with dynastic periods cannot be established: two large 

 groups may be distinguished, — archaic and mediaeval. The two merge into each 

 other. The former may be said to comprise roughly the Chou and Han periods, and 

 to go down perhaps with some types into the fourth and fifth centuries; the latter 

 occupy an epoch from the sixth to the eighth century. The term "archaic" is merely 



