"Chinese Chariots and Brollies" Topic

Finishing up some Chariot, and older Essex, and a Viking Forge Han Chariots.

These all come with umbrellas to be mounted in the middle of the body.

However in looking at some pictures of museum displays of Han chariots I see the umbrellas mounted at the front of the chariot attached to the front of the body. On the other hand I see some illustrations of Chinese drawings with the umbrellas mounted at the rear of the body.

From photos of the display at the First Emperor's tomb it appears that the Ch'in mounted them on the side of the body.

Personally I think that mounting the umbrellas at the front where they can be tacked to the wall to be a sturdier method, but thought I'd see what others might have found in researching the topic as to what is most historically correct.

"The squareness of the chariot is to represent Earth,
The roundness of the canopy is to represent Heaven."

The important thing seems to be that the umbrella should be centred over the chariot so that the circumference of the canopy passes over the corners of the chariot body. How it's mounted does seem to vary.

That said, most of the "chariots" with umbrellas in Han art are civilian officials' carriages; personally if doing a Han army I would only add umbrellas to senior officers' chariots, not to "ordinary" war-chariots.

One of the sites discussing the chariots stated that the umbrellas served a functional purpose of deflecting arrows.

Which might very well be speculation from someone attempting to find additional reasons to explain the umbrellas.

With the goal of having a set of three Han armies for BBDBA, then three chariots with brollies should do.

As Essex no longer provides a brolly with their chariots (hum…) perhaps I can use the extras for some of the Ch'in command chariots I have.

Or maybe I'll just include some patio tables in the camps…

Appreciate the response, rather hoping you'd reply Gurkhan.