I've seen three movies now that show something like this:
Soldiers carry large shields, that are nearly the size of the soldier. They appear to be metal. They're two-handed shields, and are shown either stuck in the ground or held up to form a seamless shield wall.
These movies aren't exactly aiming for historical accuracy, and I've never heard of something like this used in reality, but after seeing it three times now I'm wondering if there's anything to it.
(the specific shields shown feel less likely to have been used, so I'm asking more in general)
Well, so I'll preface by saying that China's never taken an official loving to large, cumbersome shields in various incarnations of its imperial armies, but culturally, it's no stranger to what roles shields may play in the military.
I'll point out one particular period - that of the Warring States period - when shields were known to have been used as an important part of the military formation.
Below is a shield unearthed from a tomb in Changsha, currently in exhibition at the Wuhan museum.
This thing was 45x64cm in dimension, and compared to a roman scutum, which is 41x105cm in dimension, we can see the Chinese version is quite a bit shorter but a bit wider. This was typical for a Warring States era shield. Though there have been other similar shields unearthed which reached to 95cm in height, the consensus is that they were either mounted on chariots or used for ceremonial purposes.
The Chu, were, by and large, the representative culture when it comes to shield use in China. (I am oversimplifying this. Even records dating as early as the Zhou dynsaty, as in《周礼·司兵》 , had detailed records of shields and their tactics.)
So straight off, the heavy, cumbersome tower shields you pointed out in the OP seems to be outliers, if they existed at all. At least we have not had any archaeological evidence of their existence or usage.
As for tactics, shields, at least during the Warring States period, had a vital role in battle.
According to 《史记》, when Wu invaded Chu, before a particular battle, it rained heavily. The Chu general advised to push the engagement, even though the Wu army was well fortified. His reasoning was that the Chu's lacquer was of far better quality than the Wu, and Wu's shields, with worse lacquer, would cause the wood to soften when wet. He believed this difference is enough to offset the defensive advantage.
Followup question: Did anyone use large metal shields? From what I've gathered, fully metallic shields were a rarity due to their impractical weight. Most shields instead used wood with some bits of metal attached to it. For example, the Roman scutum was made from sheets of glued wood, with a metal umbo/boss in the centre, and later metal edges to prevent it from being chopped into.
Hi OP, you've omitted the links to the film images.
