Nine bestowments

The nine decorations (九锡) were the rewards which were bestowed by the Chinese Emperors particularly outstanding officers as a reward for their deeds.

The sign锡( Xi Mandarin pronounced) is therefore to be expected instead of the赐(Ci ) is used because the signs at the time of establishment of this custom in the Book of Rites were interchangeable. It is therefore unclear whether the modern Mandarin九锡is pronounce as jiǔxí or as jiǔcì.

The nine decorations were probably introduced in the Zhou Dynasty, but there is before the time of Wang Mang is no record of their ceremony. From there came the nine decorations become a symbol of total power of officials about the Emperor and his ambition to usurp the throne. In the wider Chinese history it was seldom that a usurpation without the previous ceremony of the nine decorations was completed. There was hardly any analog case in which the ceremony of the nine Honour had no usurpation result. However, for example, gave Cao Pi, the first emperor of the Wei Dynasty, the nine decorations 221 the warlord Sun Quan, who then was for a short time vassal of Wei.

The nine decorations

• Chinese History