Reforming Military Clothing - King Willing of Zhao

During the Warring States Period King Wuling of Zhao, Zhao State, was an excellent military commander. While fighting a neighboring country in the northwest he found that, despite his army's superior weapons, his officers and soldiers were impeded by their long robes. Their lower garments were split pants, their armor was heavy, and getting into it was complex - by contrast his enemy's cavalrymen could charge and attack quickly. So King Wuling ignored all dissenting views and boldly introduced short robes and trousers with crosspieces to replace the long deep clothes of the central plains that wrapped the body very tightly and made movement inconvenient. As a result, the Zhao State won one victory after another and quickly became powerful.

The basic style of clothes introduced by King Wuling of Zhao is called the "short coat with trousers." The Handy Primer written by Shi You during the Western Han Dynasty notes that the short coat with trousers was a suit, the upper garment being a knee-length robe with a short body and broad sleeves, and that it was a casual garment worn by northwestern nomadic ethnic groups. Robes originally had narrow sleeves. After spreading to the central plains, some robes had broad sleeves and some had narrow sleeves. The Handy Primer says that the upper garment of the short coat with trousers was a "robe with buttons to the left on the forepart." Northwestern ethnic groups wrapped the forepart to the left, unlike the Han people of the central plains, who wrapped to the right. Therefore, people of the central plains were also called "wearers of robes with buttons to the left on the forepart." Robes of this period were equivalent to long coats, but with specific differences. We can see from records that the upper garments of short coats with trousers in the Wei Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties had buttons either to the left or to the right on the front. Many upper garments had buttons down the front, and some even had overlapping fronts. Two end-ridges in front of the lower hem were staggered like a swallowtail. This demonstrates the continuous change clothing styles underwent.

Below short coats, trousers with crosspieces were worn. These trousers were originally close-fitting but, after they spread to the central plains, especially when certain civil officials went to court in short coats and trousers, the trousers received negative reactions from some conservatives - who thought that the thin trouser legs looked improper. Given these views, a compromise was reached of making the trouser legs broader. Thus, when standing in court the trousers appeared to be no different from wearing skirts. However, another problem emerged. The trouser legs became too broad - so people had trouble when walking across muddy ground. The solution to this problem was, when people needed to go out, they lifted the trouser legs up and tied them under their knees with two silk bands. Images of "tied trousers" can be seen on brick reliefs and pottery figurines from the tombs of the Southern Dynasties. In the early 1980s, many young people wore bell-bottomed pants. Some Chinese people identified the tied trousers of the Wei and Jin dynasties as the origin of modern bell-bottomed trousers - they are not, of course, although trousers tied with silk bands have a similar profile to bell-bottomed trousers.

The liangdang waistcoat is also representative of a style of clothing that was introduced from the nomadic peoples of the northwest to the people of the central plains. The Explanation of Names, a work probing the origins of names, written in the late Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), states "The liangdang waistcoat protects the chest and the back." This shows that the liangdang waistcoat was actually a sleeveless overcoat, also called a vest or sleeveless garment. "Sleeveless overcoat" means clothes with the parts below the shoulders cut; "vest" means protecting the heart and back only; "sleeveless garment" is more interesting because the armor on a warhorse only shielded the horse's body, it did not protect the four legs. Images of liangdang waistcoats on pottery figurines buried in tombs, on tomb murals and in brick reliefs, show that these waistcoats had both fronts and backs. Apart from liangdang waistcoat armor and other outer garments, further clothing could also be worn inside. These items of clothing could be made of fur or cotton and could be formed out of single or multiple layers. The word "liangdang" has disappeared from daily vocabulary, but the sleeveless overcoat, vest, and sleeveless garment are all still in use today in China.

Although King Wuling of Zhao's move to dress his men in the more practical clothing of the northwestern nomadic ethnic groups is a well-known aspect of Chinese military clothing history, there were many other important adaptations over time.

Rhinoceros armor (made of rhinoceros or buffalo skin) was used in ancient China. The "armor" referred to the animal skin. Early armor only covered people's most vital body parts. Excavated bronze helmets have been found dating from the Yin and Shang dynasties, and breast-plate armor emerged during the Zhou Dynasty. An ancient helmet woven with 89 iron sheets was discovered in a tomb in the lower capital of Yan, which dates from the Warring States Period. Not many armor coats have been preserved because they were mainly made of leather with a little copper, but records showed that the Zhou Dynasty put special officials in charge of armor. During the Zhou Dynasty, armor coats were mostly round sheets of bronze that were painted white, red, and black. Armor was covered with an exquisite embroidered robe, which was only taken off when it was time to do battle.

The terracotta warriors and horses found in the tomb of the First Emperor of Qin provide us with visual information about ancient armor. A total of seven styles of armor coats can be seen on the Qin terracotta warriors, which belong to two basic types. The first type is made of one complete piece of leather (or other materials) inlaid with sheets of metal or rhinoceros skin, with broad edges. These armor coats seem to have been worn by senior military commanders. The other type of armor was woven with square or rectangular sheets from top to bottom, fastened with a hook, and then covered with a campaign gown.

In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, weapons became sharper, and armor and helmets became suited to warfare. The Book of Wei states, "There were 120,000 armored soldiers and 8,000 armored horses." Records from the Region of Ye says, "There are 10,000 people around Shi Jilong, all wearing shiny white light armor." The Book of Song says, "5,000 armored horses form a group of iron." These historical records paint pictures of how spectacular a battlefield filled with militarily attired people and horses would have looked. The Book of Southern Qi says, "When the empress went out, women in coats of armor rode horses around the man-drawn carriage." This shows that women also wore armor and appeared in guards of honor.

The style of military clothing of the Tang Dynasty was already quite mature. For example, The Six Statutes of the Tang Dynasty says, "There are 13 styles of armor." In other words, there were 13 types of official military clothes. Their specific names show that the materials used in these items of clothing included copper, wood, leather and cloth. The helmets, armor coats, and leather boots of the Tang Dynasty were exquisitely shaped and carved with animal heads, clouds, and flowers. Some armor coats had two round shields protecting both breasts and one round shield protecting the belly Square sheets of armor were symmetrically overlaid to facilitate movement, in contrast to the round shapes of the armor. Soldiers usually wore a campaign gown with protectors on the shoulders, arms, on both sides of the lower body, and between the legs. The fit of armor coats conformed to the requirements of actual combat, and their colors reflected the bold spirit of the army. According to records in historical books such as The Prime Tortoise of the Record Bureau, The New Book of Tang - Biography of Li Ji and The Book of Tang - Records of Rites and Music, golden lacquer or gold and silver plating sometimes covered the surface of bronze and iron armor. The inner campaign gown was also embellished, with embroidered images of ferocious birds and beasts to demonstrate military prowess, boost morale, and look impressive.

There were two kinds of military clothing during the Song Dynasty - one for actual combat, and one reserved for ceremonial purposes. According to The History of Song - Records on Soldiers, a complete set of armor consisted of 1,825 metal sheets connected with leather threads, usually weighing about 25 kilograms. There was also lighter armor, made of paper. Thick paper was pounded to make it very flexible and soft. Then it was folded into ten-centimeter squares, and fixed nails, so that the armor could not be penetrated by arrows or blunderbuss bullets. Knee-length clothes worn by honor guards mostly had yellow silk surfaces and were lined with green cloth in armored sheet patterns, with red silk edges, green cloth skirts, and red leather bands. The front was painted with a human face, silk bands were wrapped from the back to the chest, and further clothes were in five-colors.

Military clothing of the Ming Dynasty was diverse and known by different names, such as the lock helmet, the gold phoenix wing helmet, the six-petal Ming iron helmet, the Ming iron helmet with eight bronze petals, the iron helmet with a pointed tin top, the watermill-ground iron hat and helmet, the red painted iron helmet with red tassels, breast-high armor, willow leaf armor, long body armor, scale armor and the round collar.

The Qing Dynasty was the period of the greatest development and change in Chinese military attire. Firstly, the Manchu rulers improved Han military clothing. Secondly, technology such as guns and canons began to be used and this inevitably led to changes in uniforms. In particular, during the late Qing Dynasty, a new style of infantry clothes was established in the 31st year of the Guangxu Period (1905). Thus, the clothes of marines, ground troops and patrolmen acquired characteristics obviously derived from Western European military uniforms.