Court Robe for Emperor Qianlong
3 min readThis court robe for the emperor of the Qing Dynasty represents the highest level of the Chinese embroidery technology. It consists of mantle collar and gown skirt. The embroidery pattern mainly sees 43 dragon patterns and patterns of 12 etiquette marks. Pattern of Golden Dragon is also dotted with pattern of cloud, bat and miscellaneous treasure. Water wave patterns and Shoushan Stone patterns are embroidered around every major decoration, with embroidered eight treasures (gold, silver, pearl, rhinoceros horn, ruyi, fangsheng , coral and coin) Court Robe for Emperor Qianlong is mainly in yellow, supplemented by red, pink, blue, light blue, aqua blue (a pale blue), dark green, light green, grape-like gray, snow-like gray, white, etc. In addition, it adds twisted gold-wire crochet so that more gorgeous color combination is achieved.
The front part of court robe
Under the upright dragons in the front part of court robe, oblique rows of lots of curved lines are seen, which is known as “Shui Jiao”. On “Shui Jiao”, there are many tumbling water waves. On water waves, mountain and treasures stand, which are commonly known as “Hai Shui Jiang Ya”. It not only means “being auspicious and everlasting”, but also implies “unififi cation of country” and “eternal peace”.
Patterns of 12 etiquette marks
Patterns of 12 etiquette marks refer to 12 kind of patterns embroidered on the emperor’s costume, with symbolic meaning as follows “sun”, “moon” and “star” represent that the light shines on the earth”; “mountain” calls on cloud and rain; “dragon” presents change; “Hua Chong” symbolizes colorful grass; “Zong Yi” expresses to “never forget ancestors”, “algae” implies literary attainment; “water” symbolizes prosperity; “rice flour” means “supporting person; “Fu” is a symbol of power; “Fu” means harmony of emperor and ministers and incompatible goodness and evil. Since the Western Zhou Dynasty, patterns of 12 etiquette marks were exclusive for the emperors, and became the symbol of the supreme authority of the emperors.
Robes for the emperors of the Qing Dynasty
The emperors of the Qing Dynasty wore court robes, auspice costumes, common costumes, outgoing costumes, etc. There are two styles of court robe in winter and summer, and the difference between the two kinds of court robe mainly lies that satin served as edge decoration in spring and summer robes, while precious fur served as edge decoration in autumn and winter. Yellow was the main color of court robe, and bright yellow represented the supremacy. Blue was used only in heaven sacrifice ceremony, red was used only in sun sacrififi ce ceremony, and white was used only in moon sacrififi ce ceremony. The robe patterns mainly cover dragon patterns and patterns of 12 etiquette marks. In general, one upright dragon is embroidered at the places before the chest, behind the arms and on both arms, five running dragons are embroidered at waist curtain, nine coiled dragons are embroidered before and after Biji (between the below skirt and upper jacket), two upright dragons and four running dragons are embroidered at lower garment, running dragons are embroidered at shawl and two upright dragons are embroidered at sleeve ends.
