Mandarin square
A cloth or Mandarin Mandarin Square (Chinese补 子/补 子, pinyin Buzi, W.-G. PUTZU ) was a large embroidered cloth that has been sewn as badges of rank on the robe of Chinese civil officials and military generals. The embroidery consisted of color pictures of animals, which indicated the respective rank of the wearer. The Mandarin cloth was used in the period between the Ming Dynasty (13th century) and the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911.
Ming Dynasty
Mandarin towels were first approved in 1391 by the Ming Dynasty to bear. The use of cloth squares with pictures of birds for civil servants and other animals for military officials apparently went out of the use of similar cloths for decorative purposes in the Yuan Dynasty forth.
Ming nobles and officials wore their rank insignia on tailored red robes, in each of which on the chest and the back of the detailed cloths were sewn on. In the front robes Mandarin cloth was divided in the middle and the halves each sewn right and left, so that they were back together the complete badge. The Ming statutes never could be made about the number of birds or animals that should be seen on the badge. In most cases two or three animals were imaged. Typical examples were pairs of birds in flight.
Qing Dynasty
Between the Ming and Qing style of the badge, there was a drastic difference: the Qing badges were provided narrower and with decorative border. Regarding the rank the Chinese nobles of the Qing dynasty had their respective official robes.
The prince at the court usually wore black robes and had four circular images, one on each shoulder and the front and back. These were decorated with dragons, which were shown to vary according to rank. So the princes of the blood used four dragons with five claws on each paw, which were directed to the front. The sons imperial princes, however, identified two side -looking dragon with four claws. These dragons were called drakes or " Mighty Giant snakes " (Chinese巨蟒, Pinyin jù - mǎng ). National leader, generals, dukes, marquises and counts had two and forward-looking dragon with four claws on square designs. Meanwhile contributed Viscount and Baron cranes and pheasants collar, like the mandarin 1st and 2nd class.
The Chairman of the Zensorats (Chinese都 御史, Pinyin dūyùshǐ ) used the Chinese mythical beast Xiezhi (Chinese獬 豸, Pinyin Xiezhi; Korean 해태, haetae ) as rank insignia on his Mandarin cloth. Musicians used the oriole.
The initially selected animals hardly deviate from those that were used at the end of the Qing Dynasty. The tables show the development.
Military generals
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Civilian officials
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