Armor has played a major role in Chinese society from the depths of prehistory to the modern era. The topic of Chinese armor is so very large that it is hard to choose one aspect of the subject. Should I show the Chinese god of war Guan Yu, resplendent in his plate mail or the gorgeous silk portraits of warrior emperors from yesteryear? Should I write about the Red Army’s mechanized armor program–which began by producing feeble copies of Soviet tanks and has haltingly evolved in its own direction by adding watered-down copies of NATO tank technologies to Russian designs? I could write about how China’s medieval military leadership adopted and modified the armored mounted archery tactics of the Mongols or about early pre-dynastic armor suits made from turtle shells.
Perhaps the best way to present this topic as a sweeping overview is through pictures. Therefore, here is a series of photos of Chinese helmets from different eras. I have tried to arrange them chronologically, but, due to the eccentricity and exiguousness of internet sources, I may not have fully succeeded. Likewise some of these are priceless museum pieces and others are worthless forgeries (I have my eye on you, peacock helmet).
One thing that is striking (other than the loveliness of the helmets) is the liberal borrowing from other military traditions from the Mongol era onwards: the Yuan cavalry helmet is a literal Mongol cavalry helmet; the 1940’s era helmet is a British doughboy helmet with a Chinese symbol, and the cold war crash helmet is a Russian knock-off. The most recent helmet seems to be quite similar to the Kevlar helmets used by United States forces (which probably owe their shape to “Fritz” Helmets from Germany). It will be interesting to see what comes next on this list as material science meet military necessity in the future…
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
July 29, 2011 at 1:40 AM
Diana
I find it interesting that (with some variation) the helmets become a bit less and less ornate as time goes on. Maybe there were just more soldiers? Maybe the military started putting money into more important things than helmets (like tanks and artillery)?
July 29, 2011 at 2:10 PM
Hieronymo
The helmets at the bottom are stronger, weigh less, and are less likely to get the wearer noticed by a marksman (as well as being cheaper and easier to mass produce). Despite all of which, I would probably take the Yuan helmet if you let me choose one.
July 29, 2011 at 11:58 AM
esmeraldamac
Your blog is full of the most amazing things. I love it!
February 2, 2017 at 1:05 AM
Carlos
The paragraphs don’t even talk about the helmets and there are only 2 paragraphs and there is 16 pictures!