Is the armor of Liao generals and Xixia warriors similar to that of Song generals?

Influenced by film and television dramas such as "Woman at the Sheep Gate" and "Loyalty and Yuefei", we always thought that the generals of the three dynasties in Saibei were barbarians, wearing felt hats, leather clothes or bare backs, eating their hair and drinking their blood, or using some very surreal military weapons, which could beat the pacified Song Jun out of the water. But is this true history?

Painted Sculptures of Liao Dynasty Kings in Datong, Shanxi and Kannonji.

History in cultural relics: Chinese armor of Liao and Xia countries. In fact, judging from the unearthed cultural relics, the armor of the Khitan military commander is similar to or even different from that of the Song Dynasty at the same time. The armor of the Khitan people is basically a copy of the style of the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties. In fact, the general parts of armor are also divided into pockets, body armor, shoulder straps, leg skirts, animal swallows, and even embroidered clothes worn outside. For example, in Kannonji, Datong, Shanxi, there are some common elements of armor in the Central Plains, such as phoenix wings and Qinglong. The only difference is that the leg skirt is shorter than that of the Song Dynasty, and the instep has armor. The tail armor in the middle of the stork is also shorter than that in the Central Plains style. It can be seen that this kind of equipment is improved to adapt to cavalry operations. Some people may have fur lining under their armor to resist the cold climate in the north.

The eagle army of Liao country is equipped with cavalry on the woodcarving.

In contrast, the Liao Dynasty's own characteristics are mainly that the circular armor of the abdomen is hung in front of the abdomen with a belt, and then fixed with a belt, which is the difference between the Liao Dynasty and the Song Dynasty. In addition, the helmet of Liao Dynasty has a phoenix wing closer to the Central Asian style, and the phoenix wing is more warped and more obvious; On the mural on the south wall of the stupa underground palace in Shenyang, there is a Liao warrior wearing a rolled helmet, a bit like Tang Jia.

The Possible Imagination of Liao General Jia

General Liao's armor may be like this: the lines are rough, the animal face is round, the lining is fur, the back of the combat boots has iron feet, and the top of the head is similar to the phoenix wing of the Song Dynasty. If there were no flags with their own words written on them and no attendants wearing Qidan clothes, people today might not be able to distinguish the Song and Liao generals wearing the armor of the Five Dynasties-the Song Dynasty.

The murals of the stupa underground palace in Shenyang suddenly appeared as warriors of the Liao Dynasty.

Tang dynasty armor

Circular protection on Liao warrior's armor

In addition to Liao, the military equipment of Xixia army was also influenced by the Central Plains: from the painted woodcuts unearthed in Wuwei, Gansu, the armor of Xixia army also has typical Central Plains style: phoenix wing, shoulder pad, waist protection, which is close to the Central Plains style. Since the origin of Xixia regime is to make it difficult for the army to save our time, and Xixia will also transfer elite soldiers from the captured Song and Liao armies for their own use, it is not surprising that Xixia will have Tang and Song style armor.

Woodcut Xixia samurai

Woodblock prints of Xixia samurai in Heishui

1909 The statue of King Wu 'an found in Heishui City, Inner Mongolia depicts Guan Yu, but it reflects the military equipment of Xixia era from the side. Guan Yu himself is basically an image of a military commander in the Tang and Song Dynasties. Except for the heads of the last three people in the painting and the Xixia Propaganda Group in military uniform, the equipment of Xia Jun military commanders is not much different from that of the Song Dynasty.

Yelusha and Yang Ye in Tang Yuming's Biography of Yang Jiajiang in the Northern Song Dynasty were Song Jia, but Yelusha dressed up as A Qing Dynasty.

Reasons for later generations' misrepresentation

So why are the current film and television works and the common images of military commanders in Liao and Xixia in the public's mind all wearing leather armor and a felt hat with several leather coats hanging on it? In fact, the images of ancient military figures in people's minds were formed in the Song and Ming Dynasties. Whether in the Three Kingdoms or the Song Dynasty, the armor and weapons used by characters mainly reflect the style characteristics of the times. Yang Jiajiang's story spread widely after the death of the Song Dynasty, and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, resulting in a large number of works. It is also the illustrators of various romantic novels who project the images of northern foreigners of their own time on the Khitans or Jurchen, so this is the image of soldiers in the northern dynasties in modern memory; Modern film and television works have also spread this iconology practice, with a clear distinction between the enemy and ourselves and a clear distinction between black and white.

Illustrations of Xiong s Comments on Biography of Popular Romance in Song Dynasty in Ming Dynasty;

Illustrations in Xiu Xiang and Yang Jiajiang Biography;

Above, there are illustrations of military commanders and soldiers in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which are basically distorted. Aside from the general armor, how did people at that time distinguish soldiers from soldiers on both sides?

Xuanlan in Xixia costumes

First of all, according to the custom, senior officials in Qidan will wear felt hats or gauze crowns; In fact, ordinary Qidan people wear Qidan military uniforms, and taking off their felt hats is a tall hairstyle; The situation of the Tangut people is similar. In addition, their costumes are influenced by tang style and Uyghur, and they have a group pattern. In terms of the colors of military uniforms and armor, the colors of Song Jia are blue, white, red, black and yellow because of the different levels of service and preparation. Tangut people like to paint their armor with gold and silver, but they like white as a whole, which may be related to Xixia's worship of white and Buddhist belief. The heavy armor of the Khitans is also purple and black first, followed by cyan.

In addition, the characters, flags and tokens of the three parties are also an important distinguishing indicator, as are passwords in different languages. So at that time, there were still many ways to distinguish the generals and armies of both sides. Have you learned?