Armor
Tengjia 藤甲
About this item
The Tengjia (rattan armour) is, in the Romance, the rattan armour worn by the soldiers of the Nanman kingdom of Wuge. In Chapter 90 of the Romance, the Dailai Cave Chief describes how this armour is made: rattan that grows coiled on the rock walls beside mountain streams is gathered, soaked in oil for half a year and dried in the sun, more than ten times over; worn on the body, it does not sink when crossing a river nor get wet when passing through water, and neither blades nor arrows can pierce it. The 30,000 Rattan Armour Troops of Wutugu, the king of Wuge, who wear this armour, are all burned to death by Zhuge Liang's fire attack in Panshe Valley. Romance, Ch. 90 §31–33 · 51
Neither the rattan armour nor the kingdom of Wuge appears in Chen Shou's main text or in Pei Songzhi's commentary. The Biography of Zhuge Liang in Records of Shu 5 says only that in the spring of the 3rd year of Jianxing (225) Zhuge Liang led his forces on a southern campaign and had pacified everything by that autumn. The Romance depicts the rattan armour in a single chapter, Chapter 90. Records, Shu 5 §24Romance, Ch. 90 §32 · 58
In the Romance
In Chapter 90 of the Romance, when Meng Huo, released for the sixth time, asks where he can find refuge, the Dailai Cave Chief tells him of the kingdom of Wuge, 700 li to the southeast. Its king, Wutugu, is one zhang two chi (twelve chi) tall and has scales on his body, and his soldiers all wear rattan armour and are therefore called the Rattan Armour Troops. Wutugu has his two chiefs, Tu'an and Xini, raise 30,000 soldiers in rattan armour and makes camp at the Taohuadu crossing. Romance, Ch. 90 §29–34
The next day, when the Rattan Armour Troops cross the river, Wei Yan meets them, but the Shu army's crossbow bolts all fall to the ground on striking the rattan armour, and neither swords nor spears can get through, so the Shu army is defeated. Pursuing them, Wei Yan sees the Man soldiers cross the water still wearing their armour, while those who are tired take it off, float it on the water and sit on it to cross. Lü Kai says that since the rattan armour protects their bodies and they cannot easily be harmed, the army should turn back, but Zhuge Liang says he has a plan of his own and surveys the lie of the land at Panshe Valley. Romance, Ch. 90 §36–40
Zhuge Liang has Wei Yan lose fifteen times in half a month and abandon seven camps, and has Ma Dai set out black-painted chest carts in Panshe Valley. On the sixteenth day Wutugu, chasing Wei Yan into the valley, finds his road blocked and is engulfed by fire bombs bursting from the ground and by flames; the rattan armour catches fire the moment it touches flame, and Wutugu and his 30,000 Rattan Armour Troops die in the valley. Zhuge Liang explains that although the rattan armour stops blades and arrows, it has been soaked in oil and is bound to catch fire when it meets flame, and calls it his great crime that he left the people of Wuge no descendants. Romance, Ch. 90 §40–42 · 47–51 · 57–59
Written by 3KDEX (not yet reviewed) — The tags at the end of each paragraph link to the exact passage in the Records volume or Romance chapter it is based on.