[Archive] "Plate" armour of the Ming Dynasty (Patreon)

Note: This is an outdated version of my article about late Ming period Quan Tie Jia armour, kept here for archival purpose. My appreciation of Chinese smiting and metallurgy grew the more I learnt about it, and I feel that "lacking metallurgical expertise" is no longer appropriate as a reason as to why China did not adopt European-style plate armour, so the blog post is in need of an update.

The term "plate armour" is a bit of misnomer here, since this armour cannot be considered a plate armour in its truest sense. Chinese smiths lacked the necessary metallurgical expertise to develop full plate armour , and they did not seem to import plate armour directly from the Europeans like their Japanese and Indian neighbours either (with the possible exceptions of late Ming Guangdong and some Fujianese pirates).

The Quan Tie Jia (全鐵甲, 'Full iron armour') is made of several large lacquered iron or steel plates sewn to a backing made from thick cotton (or calico) fabric. The edges of these metal plates are wrapped with thrice-folded coarse fabric, likely to prevent chafing. In this regard, Quan Tie Jia has more similarities with Russian zertsalo (Зерцало) armour in construction than European full plate.

While Quan Tie Jia is no match for European plate harness, its multiple large rigid plates and thick fabric backing still offer superb protection, a significant improvement over traditional Chinese lamellar and brigandine armour.