Defensive Armor of the Han Period 231 



presented by Huai-nan-tse to the Han Emperor Wu, there were then 

 four officially recognized main bodies of troops, — war-chariots, cavalry, 

 archers, and arbalists. 1 



The new order of military affairs is especially expressed by the new 

 military offices instituted by the same Emperor. The high signi- 

 ficance which the tactics of cavalry must have reached in his time 

 is very conspicuous in these functions. He established a commander 

 of cavalry (tun ki hiao wet), a commander of the squadrons of foreign 

 cavalry (yiie ki hiao wei) formed by the men of the country of Yiie 

 subjected to China, a commander of the squadrons of foreign cavalry 

 (ch'ang shui hiao wei) formed by the Turks or Huns (Hu) of Ch'ang- 

 shui and Siian-ho, and a commander of the Turkish or Hunnic cavalry 

 (hu ki hiao wei) stationed at Ch'i-yang. 2 In this institution of Turkish 

 cavalry 3 incorporated with the Chinese army we may recognize a positive 

 sign of the fact that the Chinese had borrowed the whole affair from 

 their Turkish neighbors, and utilized against them their own tactical 

 stratagems. Also in the military colonies founded by the Emperor 

 Wu in Turkistan to break the power of the Turks, detachments of 

 cavalry were established. 4 



The perpetual wars with the turbulent nomads required an immense 

 number of horses. "In view of his campaigns against the barbarians 

 of the north, the Son of Heaven maintained a large number of horses, 

 several myriads of which were reared in the capital Ch'ang-ngan," 

 relates Se-ma Ts'ien. 5 "In B.C. 119, the commander-in-chief and the 

 general of the chevaulegers made a great incursion to attack the barba- 

 rians of the north; they took from eighty to ninety thousand captives. 

 Five hundred thousand pounds of gold were distributed as reward. 

 The Chinese army had lost over a hundred thousand horses. We do 

 not here render an account of the expenses incurred by the land and 

 water transportation, the chariots and cuirasses." 6 Here, accordingly, 

 is the question of cavaliers wearing cuirasses. 



The generals of the Han dynasty were all clad with armor and 

 mounted on horseback. When in 48 a.d. General Liu Shang was badly 

 defeated by the Man barbarians, General Ma Yuan, who had formerly 



1 L. Wieger, Textes historiques, p. 506. 



2 Compare Chavannes, Les M£moires historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien, Vol. II, 

 PP- 525. 526. 



3 The Tibetans (K'iang) also were recruited by the Chinese to form regiments of 

 cavalry (Chavannes, T'oung Pao, 1906, p. 256). 



4 See E. Biot, Memoire sur les colonies militaires et agricoles des Chinois (Journal 

 asiatique, 1850, pp. 342, 344, 345). 



6 Chavannes, Les M6moires historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien, Vol. Ill, p. 561. 

 8 Ibid., p. 569- 



