Mandarin square
A
Mandarin square is a large embroidered badge sewn onto the surcoat of an official in
Imperial China. The animal-insignia inside the square indicates the rank of the official that wore it.
During the
Qing Dynasty, the
Chinese Dragon in various poses were reserved for the royalty and nobility. Civil officials'
insignias were birds while military officers' were beasts.
Musicians used the
Oriole.
The handiwork of the embroidery on the squares are very delicate and colourful.
Another piece of wardrobe Qing bureaucrats wore was the
Manchu official headwear.
Mandarin squares (补子), also called Chinese rank badges, were authorized for wear in
1391 by the
Ming Dynasty. 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.
[1] The original court dress regulations of the Ming Dynasty were published in
1368, but did not refer to badges as rank insignia.
[2] The use of these badges continued 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.
[3] The Ming
statutes never refer to the number of birds or animals that should appear on the badges. In the beginning, either 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.
[4,5]The Qing Dynasty (
1644-1912) continued the use of mandarin squares. There was a sharp difference between the Ming and Qing styles of badges. The Qing badges were smaller with a decorative border.
[6] 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. The following tables show this evolution.
Military| 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) |
| 4 | Tiger or Leopard | Leopard | Tiger (after 1664) |
| 5 | Bear | Bear | Bear |
| 6 | Panther | Panther | Panther |
| 7 | Panther | Panther | Rhinoceros (after 1759) |
| 8 | Rhinoceros | Rhinoceros | Rhinoceros |
| 9 | Rhinoceros | Sea Horse | Sea Horse[7] |
|
Civilian| Rank | Ming (1391- 1526) | Ming and Qing (1527-1662) | Late Qing (1662-1911) | | 1 | Crane or Golden Pheasant | Crane | Crane |
| 2 | Crane or Golden Pheasant | Golden Pheasant | Golden Pheasant |
| 3 | Peacock or Wild Goose | Peacock | Peacock |
| 4 | Peacock or Wild Goose | Wild Goose | Wild Goose |
| 5 | Silver Pheasant | Silver Pheasant | Silver Pheasant |
| 6 | Egret or Mandarin Duck | Egret | Egret |
| 7 | Egret or Mandarin Duck | Mandarin Duck | Mandarin Duck |
| 8 | Oriole, Quail or Paradise Flycatcher | Oriole | Quail |
| 9 | Oriole, Quail or Paradise Flycatcher | Quail | Paradise Flycatcher [8] |
|
While the specific birds and animals did not change much throughout their use in the last two Chinese dynasties, the design of the squares underwent an almost continual evolution.
[9]According to rank,
Qing Dynasty nobles had their respective official clothes. Princes, including
Qin Wang and
Jun Wang, usually wear black robes as opposed to the blue robes in court, and have three designs, one on each shoulder, as opposed to the usual one design. All nobility from
Beizi up have a circular design on their official clothing, usually with a type of a dragon.
1. Cammann, Schuyler V. R. "Birds and Animals as Ming and Ch'ing Badges of Rank." Arts of Asia (May-June 1991): pages 89.
2. Cammann, Schuyler. "Development of the Mandarin Square." The Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. Vol VIII, no 2 (1944): pages 75-6.
3. Cammann, Schuyler. "Chinese Mandarin Squares, Brief Catalogue of the Letcher Collection." The University Museum Bulletin Vol 17, No 3 (June 1953): pages 8-9.
4. Cammann, Schuyler. "Chinese Mandarin Squares, Brief Catalogue of the Letcher Collection." The University Museum Bulletin Vol 17, No 3 (June 1953): page 9.
5. Cammann, Schuyler. "Development of the Mandarin Square." The Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. Vol VIII, no 2 (1944): page 95.
6. Cammann, Schuyler V. R. "Birds and Animals as Ming and Ch'ing Badges of Rank." Arts of Asia (May-June 1991): page 90.
7. Jackson, Beverley & Hugus, David, Ladder to the Clouds, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1999, Table 4, page 133.
8. Jackson, Beverley & Hugus, David, Ladder to the Clouds, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1999, Table 3, page 133.
9. Jackson, Beverley & Hugus, David, Ladder to the Clouds, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1999, Chapter 15, pages 215-289.
