Mandarin square
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A mandarin square (Template:Lang-zh), also known as a rank badge, was a large embroidered badge sewn onto the surcoat of officials in Imperial China (decorating Template:Transliteration and Template:Transliteration), Korea (decorating the Template:Transliteration of the Joseon dynasty), in Vietnam, and the Ryukyu Kingdom. It was embroidered with detailed, colourful animal or bird insignia indicating the rank of the official wearing it. Despite its name, the mandarin square (Template:Transliteration) falls into two categories: round Template:Transliteration and square Template:Transliteration.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp Clothing decorated with Template:Transliteration is known as Template:Transliteration (Template:Lang-zh) in China.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the 21st century, the use of Template:Transliteration on Template:Transliteration was revived following the Hanfu movement.
ChinaEdit
The history of the square-shaped Template:Transliteration is unclear. However, in the Yuan dynasty encyclopaedia Shilin Guangji (Template:Lang-zh), as well as contemporary Persian paintings of the Mongol court, there are pictures showing officials wearing clothing with squares on the back, decorated with flora, animals and birds.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> By the Yuan dynasty, the square-shaped Template:Transliteration was already worn as clothing ornaments.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp
Ming dynastyEdit
Mandarin squares were first authorized for the wear of officials in the sumptuary laws of 1391 of the Ming dynasty.<ref name=":0" />Template:Rp The use of squares depicting birds for civil officials and animals for military officials was an outgrowth of the use of similar squares, apparently for decorative use, in the Yuan dynasty.<ref>Cammann, Schuyler: "Birds and Animals as Ming and Ch'ing Badges of Rank", Arts of Asia (May to June 1991), page 89.</ref> The original court dress regulations of the Ming dynasty were published in 1368, but did not refer to badges as rank insignia.<ref>Template:Cite Q</ref> These badges continued to be used through the remainder of the Ming and the subsequent Qing dynasty until the imperial system fell in 1912.
Ming nobles and officials wore their rank badges on full-cut red robes with the design stretching from side to side, completely covering the chest and back. This caused the badges to be slightly trapezoidal with the tops narrower than the bottom.<ref>Cammann, Schuyler: "Chinese Mandarin Squares, Brief Catalogue of the Letcher Collection", University Museum Bulletin Vol 17, No 3 (June 1953), pages 8–9.</ref> The Ming statutes never refer to the number of birds or animals that should appear on the badges. In the beginning, two or three were used. In a typical example of paired birds, they were shown in flight on a background of bright cloud streamers on a gold background. Others showed one bird on the ground with the second in flight. The addition of flowers produced an idealized naturalism.<ref>Cammann, Schuyler: "Chinese Mandarin Squares, Brief Catalogue of the Letcher Collection", University Museum Bulletin Vol 17, No 3 (June 1953), page 9.</ref><ref>Template:Cite Q</ref>
Qing dynastyEdit
There was a sharp difference between the Ming and Qing styles of badges: the Qing badges were smaller with a decorative border.<ref>Cammann, Schuyler, "Birds and Animals as Ming and Ch’ing Badges of Rank", Arts of Asia (May–June 1991), page 90.</ref> And, while the specific birds and animals did not change much throughout their use, the design of the squares underwent an almost continual evolution.<ref>Jackson, Beverley & Hugus, David, Ladder to the Clouds, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1999, Chapter 15, pages 215–289.</ref> According to rank, Qing-dynasty nobles had their respective official clothes. Princes, including Qin Wang and Jun Wang, usually wore black robes as opposed to the blue robes in court, and had four circular designs, one on each shoulder, front, and back, as opposed to the usual front-and-back design. Specifically, princes of the blood used four front-facing dragons, Qin Wang had two front-facing and two side-facing dragons, and Jun Wang had four side-facing ones; all had five claws on each foot. Beile and Beizi had a circular design on their official clothing, the former having two front-facing dragons, the latter two side-facing ones; these dragons had only four claws on each foot, and are referred to as "drakes" or "great serpents" (巨蟒 jù-mǎng). National duke, general, efu, "commoner" duke, marquis and count had two front-facing, four-clawed dragons on square designs, whereas viscount and baron had cranes and golden pheasants, as for mandarins of the first and second class.
- Rank Badge (China), mid- 19th century (CH 18563223).jpg
3rd civil rank (peacock). Mid 19th century. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
- MandarinsRankBadges ArtGalleryNSW-20171107-2.jpg
2nd military rank (lion). Late 18th cent. Art Gallery of New South Wales
- Military rank badge with leopard (CBL C 3312).jpg
3rd military rank (leopard). 19th or early 20th century. Chester Beatty Library
- Chinese painting Ancestors gallery 19th century.jpg
Members of three generations of a lineage are shown in Qing mandarin attire, complete with mandarin squares
Comparative table across dynastiesEdit
The specific birds and animals used to represent rank varied only slightly from the inception of mandarin squares until the end of the Qing dynasty. Officials who held a lower position or did odd jobs used the magpie during the Ming dynasty. Supervising officials used xiezhi. Musicians used the oriole. The following tables<ref>Template:Cite Q</ref> show this evolution:
MilitaryEdit
Rank | Ming (1391–1526) | Ming and Qing (1527–1662) | Late Qing (1662–1911) | Image |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lion | Lion | Qilin (after 1662) | File:Zha La Feng A.jpg |
2 | Lion | Lion | Lion | |
3 | Tiger or leopard | Tiger | Leopard (after 1664) | |
4 | Tiger or leopard | Leopard | Tiger (after 1664) | |
5 | Bear | Bear | Bear | |
6 | Panther | Panther | Panther | |
7 | Panther | Panther | Rhinoceros (after 1759)<ref>Note that the rhinoceros is depicted as a buffalo, rather than as a rhinoceros.</ref> | |
8 | Rhinoceros | Rhinoceros | Rhinoceros | |
9 | Rhinoceros | Sea horse<ref>Note that the sea horse is depicted as a horse living under water, rather than as a seahorse.</ref> | Sea horse<ref>Jackson, Beverley & Hugus, David, Ladder to the Clouds, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1999, Table 4, page 133;</ref> |
CivilEdit
Rank | Ming (1391–1526) | Ming and Qing (1527–1662) | Late Qing (1662–1911) | Image |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Crane or golden pheasant | Crane | Crane | File:顧璘.jpg |
2 | Crane or golden pheasant | Golden pheasant | Golden pheasant | File:Zhao Bingzhong.jpg |
3 | Peacock or wild goose | Peacock | Peacock | File:徐如珂.jpg |
4 | Peacock or wild goose | Wild goose | Wild goose | File:Li Kaixian.jpg |
5 | Silver pheasant | Silver pheasant | Silver pheasant | File:Ni Yuanlu.jpg |
6 | Egret or mandarin duck | Egret | Egret | File:江韶宗.jpg |
7 | Egret or mandarin duck | Mandarin duck | Mandarin duck<ref name=artinpl/> | File:Weng Pu Portrait of a young official.jpg |
8 | Oriole, quail or paradise flycatcher | Oriole | Quail | File:忠靖冠服容像.jpg |
9 | Oriole, quail or paradise flycatcher | Quail | Paradise flycatcher<ref>Jackson, Beverley & Hugus, David, Ladder to the clouds, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1999, Table 3, page 133.</ref> |
21st centuryEdit
The use of the round-shaped and square-shaped Template:Transliteration has been revived in China following the Hanfu movement.
KoreaEdit
Korean rank badge (흉배 in Korean) is a small panel of embroidery that would have served to indicate the status of a government official in the Choson dynasty Korea (1392–1910). Made in the nineteenth century, it shows a pair of black and white leopards, one above the other in opposing stance, surrounded by stylised cloud patterns in pink, purple and pale green upon a blue background. It would have been worn by a military official from the first to third ranks. Leopards and tigers, respected for their strength and courage in Korea, were used for the dress of military officials while civil officials wore crane motifs. This badge shows the distinctively spotted animals among rocks, waves and clouds in a pattern which remained virtually unchanged for 300 years.
- Rank badge.jpg
Korean rank badge, 1850-1900, Victoria & Albert Museum (no. FE.272-1995)
VietnamEdit
- Annam MandarinRankBadge ArtGalleryNSW-20171107.jpg
Annamite (Vietnamese) badge, Nguyễn dynasty (19th century), civilian 8th rank.
- Quan phuc nha Nguyen.gif
Mandarins of the Nguyen dynasty (circa 1820). The Mandarin on the left is a "man of letters", with a stork on his chest and the one on the right is a military Mandarin, signified by a boar.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Quan phuc Nguyen Tri Phuong.jpg
Sixth ranked mandarin uniform.
- Huang Qing Zhigong Tu - 013.jpg
A Vietnamese envoy with a mandarin square depicted in the Huang Qing Zhigong Tu (皇清職貢圖)
- Phùng Khắc Khoan2.jpg
Phùng Khắc Khoan, his uniform can be seen with a mandarin square.
- 328. TONKIN - Moncay - Le Tri-Chau. Sous-Préfet en costume de cérémonie.jpg
A Vietnamese mandarin wearing his ceremonial uniform.
See alsoEdit
- Tablion
- Chinese hat knob
- Hanfu, Gwanbok, Qizhuang
- Nine-rank system, for an earlier system for ranking officials in China
- Chinese auspicious ornaments in textile and clothing
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- "Rank insignia for military officers of the imperial court", in: Template:Citation
- Helena Heroldova, "Rank badges from the Chinese Collection of the Naprstek Museum", Annals of the Naprstek Museum 32 (2011), pp. 87-138.
- Template:Citation