A mandarin square (Chinese: 補子), also known as a rank badge, was a large embroidered badge sewn onto the surcoat of officials in Imperial China (decorating hanfu and qizhuang), Korea (decorating the gwanbok 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, chinese traditional men’s clothing the mandarin square (buzi) falls into two categories: round buzi and square buzi. In the 21st century, the use of buzi on hanfu was revived following the Hanfu movement. 396 Clothing decorated with buzi is known as bufu (simplified Chinese: 补服; traditional Chinese: 補服) in China. The history of the square-shaped buzi is unclear. However, in the Yuan dynasty encyclopaedia Shilin Guangji (事林廣記), 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. Mandarin squares were first authorized for the wear of officials in the sumptuary laws of 1391 of the Ming dynasty. 235 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. By the Yuan dynasty, the square-shaped buzi was already worn as clothing ornaments. 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. The Ming statutes never refer to the number of birds or animals that should appear on the badges. The original court dress regulations of the Ming dynasty were published in 1368, but did not refer to badges as rank insignia. In a typical example of paired birds, they were shown in flight on a background of bright cloud streamers on a gold background. In the beginning, two or three were used. Others showed one bird on the ground with the second in flight. There was a sharp difference between the Ming and Qing styles of badges: the Qing badges were smaller with a decorative border. The addition of flowers produced an idealized naturalism. According to rank, Qing-dynasty nobles had their respective official clothes. And, while the specific birds and animals did not change much throughout their use, the design of the squares underwent an almost continual evolution. 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. 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. 3rd civil rank (peacock). 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). 3rd military rank (leopard). 19th or early 20th century. 2nd military rank (lion). 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. Musicians used the oriole. The use of the round-shaped and square-shaped buzi has been revived in China following the Hanfu movement. Supervising officials used xiezhi. 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 leopards, 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. This badge shows the distinctively spotted animals among rocks, waves and clouds in a pattern which remained virtually unchanged for 300 years. 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. Annamite (Vietnamese) badge, Nguyễn dynasty (19th century), civilian 8th rank. Mandarins of the Nguyen dynasty (circa 1820). The Mandarin on the left is a “man of letters”, with a stork on his chest and the one on the right is a military Mandarin, signified by a boar. Volume 2. Yongxiang Lu, Chuijun Qian, Hui He. Cammann, Schuyler (1944). “University College London”. A history of Chinese science and technology. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. 8 (2): 71-130. doi:10.2307/2717953. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. Schuyler Cammann (August 1944). “The Development of the Mandarin Square”. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. Sullivan, Michael (1999). The arts of China (4th expanded and rev ed.). Schuyler Cammann (August 1944). “The Development of the Mandarin Square”. 8 (2): 75-76. doi:10.2307/2717953. Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies. Katarzyna Zapolska (2014). “Mandarin squares as a form of rank badge and decoration of Chinese robes”. 8 (2): 95. doi:10.2307/2717953. Art of the Orient. Note that the rhinoceros is depicted as a buffalo, rather than as a rhinoceros. Note that the sea horse is depicted as a horse living under water, rather than as a seahorse. Marcin Latka. “Portrait of a young official”. Crawfurd, John (1828). Journal of an embassy from the Governor-General of India to the courts of Siam and Cochin-China : exhibiting a view of the actual state of those kingdoms. Welch, Patricia Bjaaland (2008), Chinese Art, Tuttle, pp. London: H. Colburn. pp. This page was last edited on 8 March 2024, at 20:44 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 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