During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there were a variety of armor styles in China, one of which was quite special, and this article will talk about it.
▲Shaanxi Bo Western Wei
There is no standard name for this helmet, but since you write an article, you always have to have a name for it, because the shape of this helmet is more similar to a Japanese helmet called "Punch angle fu gizzard", so netizens are often accustomed to calling it a punch angle helmet, and this article also uses this title. The shape of this helmet resembles a bowl buckled to the head, with a helmet beam in the middle, which extends and upturns at the end of the forehead to form a sharp corner, and the helmet is attached with a hanging ear and neck guard, possibly made of textile or leather.
▲Guobo Northern Wei
The angle helmet is not unearthed at present, and everyone's understanding of it comes entirely from the clay figurines. In the tombs between the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Tang Dynasty, a large number of pottery figurines wearing horn helmets have been unearthed, of which the Northern Dynasty pottery figurines are the most numerous. Among the Northern Dynasty pottery figurines unearthed in China, a large number of pottery figurines wear this kind of punching horn helmet. Generally speaking, pottery figurines wearing angle helmets are hand-pressed with large shields, wearing a kind of armor with two plate-like circular protections on the chest (folk commonly known as Mingguang armor).
As we all know, archaeological research this thing is to talk about the real thing, there is no physical object, then the authenticity will be discounted, so the punching horn helmet this thing, is more embarrassing, you want to say that he exists, he has no actual evidence, you want to say that he does not exist, so many sculptures are also a proof. In addition to the lack of physical objects, there is another problem that seriously affects everyone's judgment on the authenticity of the punching horn helmet, that is, a large part of the excavated punching angle helmet pottery figurines are town tomb figurines, and the authenticity of the town tomb figurines is itself not high.
▲Hebei Museum
The so-called town tomb figurines are pottery figurines placed at the entrance of the tomb to ward off evil spirits. In superstitious thinking, people in the tomb, there may be a variety of evil gas intrusion, the existence of the town tomb figurines can suppress the evil gas, to avoid having bad things to interfere with the sleeping tomb owner. Town tomb figurines are usually set in pairs, one on the left and one on the right, and the two brothers guard the tranquility of the tomb together. Because it is originally a religious article, the authenticity of this kind of pottery figurine is innately unreleased, because its purpose of existence is to ward off evil, the so-called exorcism of evil, the popular meaning is to scare away the evil, you want to ward off evil, then you can't be with the truth, because the so-called truth, that is, the same as ordinary people, the same as ordinary people, that even people can't be frightened, can they still scare ghosts?
Generally speaking, the things used to ward off evil spirits are either more powerful and tall, or more vicious, or more special, in short, it is different from others. There have been many town tomb figurines unearthed in China, from the Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, all kinds of things are available, although these town tomb figurines are not the same as each other, but they have a similar feature, that is, the general shape is exaggerated, and a large number of religious factors and imaginary elements are integrated into the artistic style. Relatively speaking, the punching angle helmet figurine is not too exaggerated, but even so, how much of this thing refers to the actual armor, this is really difficult to say.
Therefore, whether the angle helmet is a helmet for actual combat or not, this matter still needs to be examined. Maybe one day, where a punching horn helmet was really unearthed, the question can be determined. Before this, out of strict considerations, we can only say that this helmet is likely to be a kind of combat helmet during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but remember that words cannot be said to be dead.
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