Dujeong-gap (Eastern Brigandine)

Origin

The parent of the dujeong-gap lies in the line of riveted armor that the Mongols spread across all of East Asia from the 13th century. Under the Mongol Yuan and the Ming that followed, a cotton armor (mian-jia) with iron plates riveted between two layers of cloth became a mark of foot and horse alike, and the same line grew more splendid in the Qing's Eight Banners and became its best-known face. Joseon had been in touch with this East Asian line from early on, but the great moment that lifted the dujeong-gap to the standard of the army was the shock of the Imjin War (1592-1598). After that war Joseon, rebuilding its lost strength, moved from the heavy and labor-intensive lamellar (chal-gap) to the dujeong-gap, and from the late 17th century the central troops such as the Hullyeon Dogam and the Eoyeong-cheong were set down as men in dujeong-gap. From the 18th to the 19th century, against firearms, the iron plates were laid thicker or set in double, and the armor was improved again and again.

Features

• Structure of small iron plates riveted between two layers of cloth by brass rivets
• Clear dot pattern made on the face by the heads of the brass rivets
• A tough weave in which the loss of one plate leaves the others alive
• Easier to make than lamellar and so fit for mass production
• About 10 to 15 kilograms in weight, balancing mobility and defense
• Different colors by rank, red for the royal guard, blue or black for the common troop

Stories

The dujeong-gap was the core armor of the late Joseon military system, worn alike by foot, horse, and the royal guard at the king's side. The foot put on the army's tunic, the hoeui, under the dujeong-gap, then drew the armor on again over it, and set on his head a helmet or the wide-brimmed jeollip, and so a full kit was complete. The horseman trimmed the same dujeong-gap into a lighter form, covering only shoulder, chest, and back, and so kept the movement of horseback alive. As Joseon worked its way through the age of firearms after the Imjin War, the dujeong-gap was held in good repute, for it would turn aside not only arrows and swords but also, at a certain range, the shot of the matchlock gun, and the armors of the Qing and Japan of the same age followed a like path. As the new Western armies came in through the 19th century the dujeong-gap quietly gave up its place, but it stayed as a mark of the Joseon army nearly until the Gabo Reform of 1894.

Weakness

The greatest weakness of the dujeong-gap grew from its very structure of small iron plates set as points. Each plate being small, where only the cloth between them lay, the cover against a strong thrust or cut was thin, so a straight spear or sword pressed home from close in often pierced the cloth and reached the wadding and flesh within. Against firearms outside, especially the new rifle of the 19th century with its quicker lock and stronger ball, the cloth and the riveted plates no longer made a sufficient wall. Against a plate harness of the same weight its face was thin at any one spot, so its power to take a heavy blow at a single place was weak, and above all the cloth slowly wore at the places where the rivets sat, and an old dujeong-gap often lost its inner plates as the rivets came loose. So the dujeong-gap was an armor that called for regular care, with rivets driven fresh and cloth changed in turn.

Cultural Significance

The dujeong-gap is the clearest visual symbol of the military system that Joseon wove again after the bitterness of the Imjin War, and stands as one branch of the East Asian house of riveted armor. While the cotton armor of the Qing's Eight Banners on the same line grew more lavish, the dujeong-gap of Joseon kept a plainer and better-balanced weave, and so became a relic that shows the military aesthetic of Joseon as it was. In the official records of the reign of King Jeongjo (1776-1800), the Hwaseong Seongyeok Uigwe and the Muye Dobo Tongji, men in dujeong-gap are drawn clearly, and in the National Museum of Korea, the War Memorial of Korea, and the National Palace Museum of Korea many actual dujeong-gap of the 17th to the 19th century are kept. The same dotted pattern of rivets became the most familiar face of the Joseon soldier in Korean period dramas and in museum mannequins, and it took its place as the visual mark that calls up Joseon army at a glance.

In Popular Culture

The dujeong-gap appears without fail in nearly every Korean period drama, film, and game set in the late Joseon. The armor of the Joseon men in the film The Fortress (Namhansanseong, 2017), of the Joseon officer in War of the Arrows (2011), and of the Joseon navy under Yi Sun-sin in The Admiral: Roaring Currents (Myeongnyang, 2014) is the same dujeong-gap. In period dramas such as Jewel in the Palace (Dae Jang Geum), Hur Jun, Chuno, and the recent Kingdom, where a scene of the Joseon army appears, the dujeong-gap is hardly missing, and its dotted pattern has become the mark by which the viewer knows the Joseon army at a glance. In Chinese and Japanese period dramas and games that draw the Ming-Qing cotton armor of the same East Asian line, a like riveted armor appears, and the closeness of the dujeong-gap and the cotton armor is seen at the same place.

Trivia

• The name dujeong-gap comes more from the heads of the brass rivets driven on the outside than from the armor itself. It means simply 'armor of head-nails,' and so the same armor is also called 'the nail-driven armor.'
• The Joseon dujeong-gap is often compared to the Western brigandine, but its parent lies closer to the line of riveted armor that the Mongols spread across East Asia from the 13th century, so it is seen as the result of two separate paths reaching the same weave.
• The dujeong-gap had the weakness that the cloth slowly wore at the places where the rivets sat and the inner plates came loose, so it was an armor that called for regular care, with rivets driven fresh and cloth changed in turn.