Mandarin cloth

Photo of a government official wearing a mandarin cloth on his chest ( Qing Dynasty ).

A mandarin cloth or mandarin square ( Chinese 補子 / 补子 , Pinyin bŭzi , W.-G. putzŭ ) was a large embroidered cloth that was sewn onto the garments of Chinese civil servants and military generals as a badge of rank. The embroidery consisted of colored images of animals that indicated the respective rank of the wearer. The mandarin cloth was used between the Ming Dynasty (13th century) and the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911.

Ming Dynasty

Mandarin cloths were first approved for wearing in 1391 by the Ming Dynasty . The use of cloth squares with images of birds for civil servants and other animals for military officials evidently emerged from the use of similar cloths for decorative purposes in the Yuan Dynasty .

Ming nobles and officials wore their insignia on tailored red robes, each of which had detailed scarves sewn onto the chest and back. In robes, the front mandarin cloth was divided in the middle and the halves were sewn on on the right and left so that together they made the complete badge again. The Ming bylaws never discussed the number of birds or animals that should appear on the badges. Usually two or three animals were depicted. Typical examples were pairs of birds in flight.

Qing Dynasty

2nd military rank (lion representation), late 18th century.

There was a decisive difference between the Ming and Qing styles of badges: the Qing badges were narrower and had a decorative border. As for rank, the Chinese nobles of the Qing Dynasty wore their respective official robes.

The princes at court usually wore black robes and had four circular images, one on each shoulder and the front and back. These were adorned with dragons, which were depicted differently depending on their rank. For example, the Princes of the Blood used four dragons with five claws on each paw pointing forward. The sons of imperial princes, on the other hand, featured two sideways-looking dragons with four claws. These dragons were called lindworms or "mighty giant snakes" ( Chinese 巨蟒 , pinyin jù-mǎng ). National leaders, generals , dukes , margraves, and earls had two forward-facing dragons with four claws on square designs. Meanwhile, viscounts and barons wore cranes and ruffled pheasants , like the mandarins 1st and 2nd class.

The chairman of the censor board ( Chinese 都御史 , Pinyin dūyùshǐ ) used the Chinese mythical animal Xiezhi ( Chinese 獬豸 , Pinyin Xièzhì ; Korean 해태 , haetae ) as a badge of rank on his mandarin cloth . Musicians used the oriole .

Ranks

The animals chosen initially hardly differ from those used at the end of the Qing Dynasty. The tables show the development.

Military generals

rank	Ming (1391-1526)	Ming and Qing (1527–1662)	Late Qing (1662-1911)
1	lion	lion	Qilin (after 1662)
2	lion	lion	lion
3	Tiger or leopard	tiger	Leopard (after 1664)
4th	Tiger or leopard	leopard	Tiger (after 1664)
5	bear	bear	bear
6th	Panther	Panther	Panther
7th	Panther	Panther	Rhinoceros (after 1759)
8th	rhino	rhino	rhino
9	rhino	Seahorse	Seahorse

Source:

Civil servants

3rd civil rank ( peacock ). Late 19th / early 20th century

rank	Ming (1391-1526)	Ming and Qing (1527–1662)	Late Qing (1662-1911)
1	Common crane or frilled pheasant	crane	crane
2	Common crane or frilled pheasant	Frilled pheasant	Frilled pheasant
3	Peacock or gray goose	peacock	peacock
4th	Peacock or gray goose	Greylag goose	Greylag goose
5	Silver pheasant	Silver pheasant	Silver pheasant
6th	Heron or mandarin duck	heron	heron
7th	Heron or mandarin duck	Mandarin duck	Mandarin duck
8th	Golden oriole , quail or Asiatic paradise flycatcher	oriole	quail
9	Golden oriole, quail or Asiatic paradise flycatcher	quail	Asian paradise flycatcher

Source:

literature

Patricia Bjaaland Welch: Rank insignia for military officers of the imperial court . In: Tuttle (Ed.): Chinese Art . 2008, ISBN 0-8048-3864-X , pp. 110-111 ( online ).

Web links

Commons : Mandarin square - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Schuyler Cammann: Birds and Animals as Ming and Ch'ing Badges of Rank . In: Arts of Asia . 1991, p. 89 .
↑ ^a ^b Schuyler Cammann: Chinese Mandarin Squares, Brief Catalog of the Letcher Collection . In: University Museum Bulletin . tape 17 , no. 3 , 1953, pp. 8-9 .
^ Schuyler Cammann: Development of the Mandarin Square . In: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies . tape VIII , no. 2 , 1944, pp. 95 .
↑ Schuyler Cammann: Birds and Animals as Ming and Ch'ing Badges of Rank . In: Arts of Asia . 1991, p. 90 .
↑ The rhinoceros is represented as a buffalo rather than a rhinoceros.
↑ The sea horse is represented more as a horse that lives under water than as a sea horse .
↑ ^a ^b Jackson, Beverley, David Hugus: Ladder to the Clouds . In: Berkeley: Ten Speed Press . 1999, p. 133 (Table 4).

[Cammann_1-1] Schuyler Cammann: Birds and Animals as Ming and Ch'ing Badges of Rank . In: Arts of Asia . 1991, p. 89 .

[Cammann_3-2] Schuyler Cammann: Chinese Mandarin Squares, Brief Catalog of the Letcher Collection . In: University Museum Bulletin . tape 17 , no. 3 , 1953, pp. 8-9 .

[Cammann_4-3] Schuyler Cammann: Development of the Mandarin Square . In: Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies . tape VIII , no. 2 , 1944, pp. 95 .

[Cammann_5-4] Schuyler Cammann: Birds and Animals as Ming and Ch'ing Badges of Rank . In: Arts of Asia . 1991, p. 90 .

[5] The rhinoceros is represented as a buffalo rather than a rhinoceros.

[6] The sea horse is represented more as a horse that lives under water than as a sea horse .

[Jackson_1-7] Jackson, Beverley, David Hugus: Ladder to the Clouds . In: Berkeley: Ten Speed Press . 1999, p. 133 (Table 4).