Defensive Armor of the T'ang Period 



293 



was the famed Korean paper highly prized in China and Japan for its 

 toughness and durability, and forming part of the annual tribute sent 

 from Korea to Peking. In the treaty of 1637, concluded after the 

 Manchu invasion, the figure was stipulated at five thousand rolls of 

 large and small paper. 1 A good deal of Korean paper was utilized by 



•I.. '...' '. •• I "I.,.".,,, . '«,,[ *l 



'■v '"•* '"M 9 



.■ill!** f, ii\»* *»nj % 



(..4 >.';-;.'"" i'-i" A -;""^\ 



J. .,.• .„..» K,. ,,.'.,„r •.,,.. '•.»» 



i'y: y.:"r"- rv v v\ 



< » « * ...... ••„..- >i 



I: 



.- '1 ». \ ' 'lull'" " • 'I 



'»„•»'••>.•; 



/ •. '"Ill" '.. . 

 A.."' .. »■ 1 "•■» 



;■. ■-. *x; "> 



/ 'Mm.' ', '<*;• 

 ■ • .'•' '%.. 



Fig. 45. 

 Paper Armor (from Wu pei chi). 



the tailors of the Chinese metropolis as lining for the coats of officials 

 and gentlemen. It served also for the covering of window-frames. A 

 sewed wad of from ten to fifteen thicknesses of it made a protective 

 armor for the troops. It is said to have resisted a musket-ball, but not 

 a rifle-bullet. 2 



1 W. W. Rockhill, China's Intercourse with Korea, p. 25 (London, 1905). A 

 notice on Korean paper is contained in the Wei lio (Ch. 12, p. 1 b). 



2 W. E. Griffis, Corea, the Hermit Nation, p. 153 (New York, 1904). Paper 

 and cotton armor still exist in southern China. Consul Bedloe (quoted above, 

 p. 1 80) offers the following remarks on this subject: "Parallel to this alternating of 

 leather and wool in the north was that of paper and cotton cloth in the south of 

 China. It seems ridiculous to call such combinations armor, and yet they make an 

 armor superior in many instances to steel. Thirty thicknesses of alternate calico 

 and paper will resist a pistol bullet or one from a rifle at a distance of a hundred 

 yards. A spearman who thrusts his weapon into a man clad in this kind of garment 



