Chinese Shields

[Vuk]

Or lack thereof.
I was wondering if there were any posters here who are knowledgeable about Ancient and Medieval Chinese militaries. It always struck me as odd that they did not use shields, and I never understood why. Then, I happened to see some videos online of a Shoalin demonstration using round shields! My question is this, did they use shields? If so, was it common? Was it only certain dynasties, kingdoms, etc.? If not, why?

[Kagemusha]

if you use mostly two handed weapons, there is no point in using a shield, it is just a hindrance.

[Fisherking]

In all likelihood, the shield is the oldest piece of armor used by mankind.

It provably came about the day after the first guy was throwing rocks at someone else.

I don’t know of any society or culture that has not made and used the shield.

If they know of war, they know shields.

Pai is shield in some Chinese languages.

The Tengpai was ancient rattan shield used up until the 20th century.

I know there must be someone here that knows much more about Chinese weapons than me that can tell you more.

[Vuk]

In all likelihood, the shield is the oldest piece of armor used by mankind.

It provably came about the day after the first guy was throwing rocks at someone else.

I don’t know of any society or culture that has not made and used the shield.

If they know of war, they know shields.

Pai is shield in some Chinese languages.

The Tengpai was ancient rattan shield used up until the 20th century.

I know there must be someone here that knows much more about Chinese weapons than me that can tell you more.

Oldest, yes, and probably the most effective as well. From what I know reading about melee combat, if one person has a shield and the other doesn't (assuming that all other factors are equal), the guy without the shield does not stand a chance. That is why I cannot understand why the Chinese would not use them more (esp considering their love for massed missile weapons...). Was it because they simply made up for their lack of shields with incredibly heavy armour, or did they perhaps use them more than is often represented?

[Fisherking]

From the little I know, armor was mostly used by the nobles.

There were important manuals written for the use of the shield and the wolf brush.

It is always more exciting to talk about the attack than it is the defense but you can be assured that shields were there and in use.

It could be that they were so ubiquitous that writers saw little need to mention them. From that we draw the conclusion that they were not in use at all.

There were shields found with the terracotta army. The infantry shields were more rectangular and cavalry more round. There were some found with the chariots too.


Here is a link on a weapons forum where they talk about Chinese shields:

http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=8060

[xploring]

Chinese armies were very large in numbers so I imagine it would cost too much to equip many with them. Major battles usually had at least 100,000 men each side. Rations and supplies were already a huge burden for the government usually, they could hardly afford anything else. A lot of the soldiers were farmers during peace time, if they were not peasants/slaves forced into armies. Lives of the ordinary soldiers were cheap and huge numbers died from starvation, plague, commanders' stupidity, etc.

Shields were heavy too so if they carried one each they probably couldn't carry much else. And wars were usually at the border meaning long distances so I imagine they wouldn't want any extra load to add to the fatigue and impede the speed of the army. If some of them die in battle, it's not a big deal because there are so many of them, or they would just force the peasants and the poor into the army.

[Cute Wolf]

the standing army of the imperial guards did use them, either the steel coated shields or rattan ones, and most of the peasant levies are actually use simple bamboo shields, if they are equipped with swords or simple spears, but most of them use halberds for melee, and that was impossible to be used with shields in largely untrained hands. Misslie troops (archers/ crossbowmen), use large shields strapped at the back in siege operations, but in field battle, they rarely carries them, prefer hiding behind obstacles than shields

[Marshall Louis-Nicolas Davout]

Think of the Japanese.Samurai armies never used them.