A mandarin square (t=補子), also known as a rank badge, was a large embroidered badge sewn onto the surcoat of officials in Imperial China (decorating and ), Korea (decorating the 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 () falls into two categories: round and square .
China
The history of the square-shaped is unclear. However, in the
Yuan dynasty encyclopaedia
Shilin Guangji (labels=no), 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.
By the
Yuan dynasty, the square-shaped was already worn as clothing ornaments.
Ming dynasty
Mandarin squares were first authorized for the wear of officials in the
Sumptuary law of 1391 of 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.
[Cammann, Schuyler: "Birds and Animals as Ming and Ch'ing Badges of Rank", Arts of Asia (May to June 1991), page 89.] The original court dress regulations of the Ming dynasty were published in 1368, but did not refer to badges as rank insignia.
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.[Cammann, Schuyler: "Chinese Mandarin Squares, Brief Catalogue of the Letcher Collection", University Museum Bulletin Vol 17, No 3 (June 1953), pages 8–9.] The Ming 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.[Cammann, Schuyler: "Chinese Mandarin Squares, Brief Catalogue of the Letcher Collection", University Museum Bulletin Vol 17, No 3 (June 1953), page 9.]
Qing dynasty
There was a sharp difference between the Ming and Qing styles of badges: the Qing badges were smaller with a decorative border.
[Cammann, Schuyler, "Birds and Animals as Ming and Ch’ing Badges of Rank", Arts of Asia (May–June 1991), page 90.] And, while the specific birds and animals did not change much throughout their use, the design of the squares underwent an almost continual evolution.
[Jackson, Beverley & Hugus, David, Ladder to the Clouds, Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1999, Chapter 15, pages 215–289.] According to rank,
Chinese nobility 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.
Comparative table across dynasties
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
show this evolution:
Military
Civil
21st century
The use of the round-shaped and square-shaped has been revived in China following the
Hanfu Movement.
Korea
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
, 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.
== Vietnam ==
See also
Further reading
External links
