Brigandine armours of the Ming Dynasty (Revised 2024)

Introduction of brigandine to China

It is generally accepted that Chinese armies adopted brigandine armour due to Mongol influence, although curiously this seems to have only happened after the fall of Mongol-ruled Yuan Dynasty. To elaborate, there are scant few records that suggest Yuan army made use of brigandine armour at all, and most "evidences" seem to come from Qing and Joseon brigandines in Japan's Mongolian Invasion Historical Museum being erroneously attributed to Yuan period. Moreover, written records and a few armour finds from early Ming period also indicate that early Ming army was still predominantly equipped with lamellar armours.

The earliest written record that explicitly mentions brigandine armour comes from an armour regulation found in Collected Statutes of the Ming Dynasty (《大明會典》), dated to the ninth year of the reign of Hongzi Emperor (1496 A.D.), although the wordings of the statute suggest that brigandine armour was already known in China for some time already, albeit probably only in the not-too-distant past.

Ming soldiers wearing brigandines, from 'Zhen Wu Ling Ying Tu Ce (《真武靈應圖冊》)'.

Another possible evidence of early Ming brigandine comes from its depictions in Zhen Wu Ling Ying Tu Ce (《真武靈應圖冊》), a collection of daoist painted scrolls. Historians are still undecided on whether this scroll collection should be dated to the reign of Yongle Emperor (i.e. early 15th century) or to the twilight years of the Ming Dynasty (i.e. 17th century). Nevertheless, since it is known that Ming brigandine underwent significant style changes during Ming-Qing transition period, and yet the armours depicted here don't reflect the change, earlier date is more likely to be the correct one.

Thus, given the available evidence, at best an informed guess can be made that brigandine armour was introduced to China some time in the fifteenth century.

Styles and designs of Ming brigandines

1. Brigandine coat

Many variations in designs found on Ming brigandines (click to enlarge).

A Ming brigandine was a suit of armour with iron (or low carbon steel) plates fixed to a cloth cover from the inside using copper rivets. All Ming brigandines came in the form of a loose-fitting, single-breasted coat that somewhat resembles a modern gilet, albeit with huge variations in collar designs, sleeve designs, coat lengths, rivet patterns, and of course, colours.

Ming infantry kitted in various types of brigandines.

Ming cavalry kitted in various types of brigandines.

Nearly all variations of Ming brigandines were used by infantry and cavalry alike, although naturally foot soldiers would have different preferences and requirements from their mounted counterparts, causing some styles of brigandines to be more prevalent than others among certain troop types. Broadly speaking, for much of the Ming period foot soldiers preferred to wear short sleeved, hip length to knee length armours alone, whereas mounted troops preferred sleeveless or cap-sleeved brigandines of either waist length or ankle length, often combined with additional armour items such as Bi Fu (臂縛) and armorued skirts.

1.5. Auxiliary armour

Common Ming period auxiliary armours of brigandine construction (click to enlarge).

Brigandine also replaced lamellar in the construction of various auxiliary armours during Ming period. The most common brigandine auxiliary armour was the aventail of a helmet, which came in two main varieties: with or without separate cheek pieces. By the twilight years of Ming Dynasty, brigandine throat guard, underarm protector and front armour attachment also came into widespread use due to the introduction of a new style of brigandine armour (see below).

There's also some pictorial evidences that suggest that rectangular brigandine throat guard, of the type commonly associated with Qing armour, was actually already in use during Ming period.

2. Composite armour

Ming cavalry kitted in composite brigandine armours.

A rarer form of Ming brigandine seemingly reserved for mounted elite troops and guards, the so-called "composite armour" appeared to be a sleeveless, ankle-length brigandine coat reinforced with a different type of armour at the upper torso, which may be of scale, lamellar, brigandine, and possibly mail construction. It's yet unknown whether the upper torso armour was directly integrated into the brigandine coat, or simply a separate partial armour worn on top of a common brigandine coat.

Various forms of armours in use during late Ming period, from 'Bing Lu (《兵錄》)'. Third and fourth armour from the left are composite brigandines.

Late Ming period military treatise Bing Lu (《兵錄》) also contains two illustrations of ankle-length composite brigandines, one is a brigandine with lamellar skirt, another is a lamellar coat with brigandine skirt.

3. Late Ming period two-piece brigandine

Several Ming cavalry in two-piece brigandines, image cropped from 'Xing Jun Tu (《行軍圖》)', a late Ming copy of an earlier painting.

A new style of Ming brigandine largely supplanted (but likely did not completely phase out) older styles of armours during the twilight years of the Ming Dynasty. The new style consisted of a helmet with assorted brigandine aventail and a curved triangular throat guard, a sleeveless hip-length coat and an enlarged armoured skirt (often in mismatched colours), a pair of large underarm protectors, a square-shaped front armour attachment, as well as a pair of segmented Bi Fu armguards to make a whole set.

After the downfall of Ming Dynasty, the ascendant Qing Dynasty inherited the armour design, and the style eventually evolved into the iconic Qing brigandine upon further modifications.