Defensive Armor of the Han Period 



203 



In the "Battle on the Bridge," * a picture executed with a great deal 

 of life and motion, the manner of handling the buckler in close combat 



is vividly illustrated. 

 The commander of the 

 force, passing the bridge 

 in his chariot, defends 

 himself with his sword 



Fig. 27. 



Han Soldier with Rectangular Buckler (Sketch after 



Chavannes, Mission, No. 190). 



Fig. 28. 



Soldier with Circular Buckler 



(Sketch from Rubbing of Han 



Bas-relief representing the 



Battle on the Bridge). 



against an arbalist whose crossbow he has adroitly overturned with a 

 thrust of his shield, while a footman is attacking his rearing horse 



rattan plaiting. It is much more likely to be of wood covered with hide, on which 

 the design is painted. The rattan shields have often been described and illustrated 

 (Amiot, Art militaire, Memoires concernant les Chinois, Vol. VII, p. 371, and Plate 

 XXX, figs. 10 and 11 ; de Guignes, Voyages a Peking, Vol. Ill, p. 20; Atlas of 

 Staunton's Embassy, Plates XVII and XIX, No. 5, etc.). In Peking I had occasion 

 in 1901 to see these shields used by fencers, and procured two specimens painted 

 with tiger-heads for the American Museum, New York. The general opinion of the 

 Chinese is that rattan shields are a matter of recent development, and that originally 

 shields were made from a combination of wood and hide (see Huang ch'ao li k'i t'u 

 shi, Ch. 15, p. 21, where the earliest relevant text quoted is the Ki siao sin shu of 

 1566 by Tsi Ki-kuang, followed by the Wu pei chi of 1621 by Mao Yuan-i). The 

 earliest illustration of the rattan shield I am able to trace is in the Lien ping shi ki 

 (Ch. 5, p. 5, ed. of Shou shan ko ts'ung shu, Vol. 52), written in 1568 (Wylie, Notes, 

 p. 91). Merely judging from its circular shape, the round shield above referred to, 

 in the hand of the soldier at the foot of the bridge, might be a rattan shield; but I 

 venture to doubt that the latter was in existence during the Han period. The shield 

 in question may as well be of wood or hide (compare Figs. 28, 30). The rattan shield 

 painted with a tiger's head was officially introduced into the army under the Manchu. 

 This troop was uniformed with a short jacket of yellow cotton stuff on which tiger 

 stripes were represented in black, a pair of leggings and boots with the same design, 

 and a hood in the shape of a tiger- head (see Huang ch'ao li k'i t'u shi, Ch. 13, 

 pp. 49-50; the shield is figured and described in Ch. 15, p. 21). 

 1 Chavannes, Mission, No. 136. 



