Revision 27191242 of "Paper Armour" on enwiki

''Zhijia'' (纸甲), or '''paper armour''' originated during the [[Tang dynasty]]. 

It was said that this form of [[armour]] was first used during the reign of [[Tang Yizong]] (859 – 873 CE). During the [[Song-Hsia Wars]], thirty thousand of this form of armour was made and worn by the besieged archers of the [[Song dynasty]] in the fortress in [[Shanxi]]. It was made from a form of processed paper being one to three inches thick. Under wet conditions such as rain the material would turn even tougher making it a valuable form of defence against arrows and fire. This was an important tactical advantage of paper armour as metal armour, despite providing a much better protection, would rust under these conditions. Other advantages of this form of armour includes its lightness allowing perhaps the greatest form of mobility among all armour styles. Lightness was essential and hence the paper armour being one of the more preferred form of armour in areas of the south where there are a large amount of rivers and forests. During the campaign by General [[Qi Jiguang]] against the [[Wokou|Japanese pirates]], a large number of his troops wore this form of armour as it was effective against the firearms of the time. In addition, it was cheap to produce.

The Koreans used to wear such armour in the 14th century (Korean "jigab"). According to the "Sejong Daewang Shillok" the armour was done as usual Korean armour in the shape of "[[Turumagi]]" - the traditional Korean robe. It does not differ from usual "Soo Un Gab" or "P'eegab" by the style so they were represented in the original text by the same picture. The scales were made of Korean high density paper folded several times and were painted with red, black or green laquer and joint together by smoked thongs of deer skin.

According to the ballistic experiments of US Army Ballistic Center even iron and bronze plates were pierced by arrows of good Asian [[composite bow]]s. Only the felt lining allowed the soldier to avoid the serious wound as the arrowheads were stopped only by thick felt plate after being penetrated for 2-5 mm through the iron/bronze scale, while paper armour were able to absorb these shots better than plate armour.
There is a common belief that paper [[Phones Book]]s are able to stop pistol rounds.
[[Category:Personal armor]]
[[Category:Paper]]