There is an idiom called "clothed beast", and now when we say that a person is morally corrupt, we say that he is a clothed beast.
In fact, "clothed beasts" were not cursed at the beginning, but praised people, which was a positive word, and not everyone deserved to be called "clothed beasts", only those who could be called officials. In the Ming Dynasty, "clothed animals and beasts" were synonymous with civil and military officials.
Mainly derived from the costumes of Ming Dynasty officials, the emperor called himself the True Dragon Tianzi, in order to save "this dragon", so he stipulated that the official clothes of civilian officials were embroidered with birds, and the official clothes of military generals were painted with animals.
We also know when we watch film and television dramas, especially in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and there is a patch on the official uniform of Ming and Qing officials.
A patch is a piece of cloth sewn on the official's clothing, on which different animals are painted to represent the size of a person's official position, so the robe worn by ancient officials can also be called "supplementary clothing".
What birds and beasts are on the complement?
Generally speaking, the civilian officials mainly "birds": cranes, golden pheasants, peacocks, cloud geese, white plovers, herons, partridges, yellow orioles, quails and so on. The warrior complement is mainly "walking beasts": lions, tigers, leopards, bears, biao, rhinos, seahorses and so on.
Therefore, the "cloaked beast" actually represents the rank and status of an official. We can also identify the size of an official by these "birds and beasts". Of course, by the time of the Qing Dynasty, there were more methods of identification, such as top beads and plumes.
Top beads
We can often see in film and television dramas that when the emperor is angry, he says to the official: "Take off his black hat", which is the hat worn by the official, which originated from the crown ceremony in the Spring and Autumn Period. During the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, when a person became an adult, a crown ceremony was held, and it has continued since then.
Officials during the Han Dynasty used to wear long crowns, which were woven from bamboo skin. Wei Jin popular "lupine scarf". The official hat of the Song Dynasty is the most distinctive, that is, the two-headed long hat we see, which is called the long wing hat, which was invented by Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty.
It is said that Zhao Kuangyin invented this long-winged hat in order to prevent the ministers of culture and military affairs from turning heads and talking about each other during the imperial meeting. And when officials put on long-winged hats, it's really hard to whisper. Zhao Kuangyin was an inventor.
The official hat of the Ming and Qing dynasties was the black yarn hat, which was a kind of hat made of black yarn, and the Qing Dynasty was also called "wearing a flower plume on top". There is a bead at the top of its hat, and this bead is the top bead.
The material of the top beads is mostly red, blue, white, gold and other gemstones. According to the regulations of the Qing Dynasty: one product is ruby, two products are coral, three products are sapphire, four products are lapis lazuli, five products are made of crystal, six products are made of bricks, seven products are plain gold, eight products are made of yinhua flower gold, and nine products are yangwen skeletonized flower gold.
Although these gemstones are not as exquisite as modern craftsmanship, the price is still not cheap. It is said that the market price of a pint of ruby is now 7,000 yuan a gram, the weight is about ten grams, and a ruby is also worth hundreds of thousands.
If there is no top bead, there is no official product. If an official breaks the law, he must remove his hat, and the top beads on the hat must also be removed, indicating that he has no official position.
In addition to the top beads, some officials' official hats also have plumes, made of white jade or jadeite, which are used to put plumes, which are also a way to identify the size of officials, and they have a lot to offer.
Flowers
The branches are divided into blue plumes and flower feathers. Blue plumes are dyed blue with feathers from a bird with no eyes on them. This was generally worn by Qing Dynasty guards, or some low-grade military attaches.
But the flower plume is different, not everyone can wear it. The flower feathers are made of peacock feathers, and there are eye-shaped circles called eyes on them, which are usually divided into one eye, two eyes and three eyes. Among them, with the increase of the eye-like circles on the feathers, it means that the flower plumes are more noble.
In fact, "Hua Ling" did not start in the Qing Dynasty, in fact, in the Warring States Period, there was already a similar habit of decorating the crown with ornaments.
The Book of the Later Han Dynasty: "Wu Guan, a great crown of Wu Ben, the crown of all military attaches." Shizhong and Zhongchang are often served with gold, with cicadas as texts and mink tails as ornaments, which is called 'Zhao Huiwen Crown'. Hu Guang said: "King Wuling of Zhao followed Hu Fu, with a golden head and a mink tail inserted in front of him, as your noble office." Qin destroyed Zhao and gave his vassals the crown of his king. ’”
It can be seen that people in the Warring States period already knew how to decorate hats with mink cicadas.
When Emperor Hui of the Western Han Dynasty was in power, the attendants who could enter the forbidden period were wearing the "jun yi( crown).
The Book of Han and the Preface to the Biography of Yu Xing: "When filial piety was held, Lang and Shizhong were crowned with partridges and shell belts. ”
Tang Dynasty Yanshi ancient note: Partridge, partridge also, like a pheasant and small crown, back hair yellow, abdomen red, neck green, its tail hair red, bright, now commonly known as pheasant, in fact, not also.
In short, it is a kind of god, which can fly in the sky. The coat color of the partridge is bright and dazzling, so it is suitable as a decoration on the crown of the hat.
After the Qin and Han dynasties, all the dynasties had the habit of decorating the crown with bird feathers, the difference is only that there are not many materials used, such as mink, partridge or partridge tail.
There is such a passage in the "Listening to the Rain Cong": "Ming Yu Fu Zhi" records that the Gonghou Bo Dynasty Dress, all add caged scarves mink cicadas, and insert pheasant tails (Gong yu cicada, Hou Jin cicada, Bo tortoiseshell cicada). He also took governor Jiang Bin and other Chengri red kasa on top, embellished with indigo-dyed swan feathers, thinking that they were expensive ornaments. The noble one Piao Sanying, the second two Ying, the Bingbu Shangshu Wang Qiong, gave yiying, crowned the following teaching field, and claimed to be a special encounter. It seems to be the same as the system of three eyes, two eyes, and one-eyed flower plumes today, but the pheasant tail and goose feathers are not as spectacular as the Kong Cui of this dynasty.
This probably means that during the Ming Dynasty, the imperial dress of the duke was already decorated with "pheasant tail", and if you can get the feather plume, it is a very worthy thing to show off. The Ming Dynasty Shangshu King Qiong was complacent.
Therefore, during the Ming Dynasty, there was already a custom of inserting feathers into the crown of the hat, or dyeing swan feathers or pheasant tails, and divided into three eyes, two eyes, and one eye.
The Flower Plume of the Qing Dynasty came from the Ming Dynasty, the only difference is that the Ming Dynasty Flower Plume used pheasant tail or goose feather, the Qing Dynasty used peacock feathers, it is estimated that the Qing people think that peacock feathers are rarer and more advanced than pheasant goose feathers.
In the Qing Dynasty's Hualing system, it was possible to wear a "one-eyed flower plume", in addition to serving as a royal bodyguard, a leading guard, a minister of internal affairs, a minister of the provincial general's interior, a minister of scattered ranks, or a military officer of more than five products, such as the forward battalion, the firearms battalion, and the guard battalion, he must also be born in Manchuria "three flags" (with yellow flags, yellow flags, and white flags) in order to "wear flower plumes".
The main people who can wear the "Twinkle Plumes" are zhenguo gong, fuguo gong, and heshuo frontal donkey (the husband of the princess born to the other concubines).
There are only two cases that are eligible to wear the Three-Eyed Plume: one is a clan with a knighthood, such as a prince, a county king, and a belle. The second type is that there is military merit, and it is a very high military merit.
For more than two hundred years in the Qing Dynasty, the total number of people who wore the Three-Eyed Flower Plume and the Two-Eyed Flower Plume should not exceed more than 30 people, while the highest level of three-eyed Flower Plume was only 7 people.
Which 7 people in the Qing Dynasty wore the Three-Eyed Flower Plume?
The seven people who wore the Three-Eyed Flower Plume in the Qing Dynasty were: Fu Heng, Fu Kang'an, He Lin, Chang Ling, Xi En, Li Hongzhang, and Xu Tong.
Fu Heng, a Manchurian yellow flag bearer, was the younger brother of Empress Fucha of the Qianlong Emperor and the brother-in-law of the Qianlong Emperor. In the fight to quell the Jinchuan Rebellion and resist the Dzungars, Fu Heng made great achievements and made great achievements.
Therefore, in his lifetime, he has obtained two double eyes and one three-eyed flower. The Three-Eyed Flower Plume was obtained by him in the thirty-fourth year of Qianlong, when he won the first battle during the conquest of Burma, and was blessed.
Fu Heng knew very well that Hua Ling represented honor, and although he had won it many times, he did not dare to wear it easily, because it was too honorable.
Fu Kang'an, a Manchurian yellow flag bearer, was fu Heng's son. In the sixtieth year of Qianlong (1795), as the governor of Yungui, he made a military contribution to quelling the rebellion of the Miao shiliu Deng and was awarded the Three-Eyed Flower Plume, and Fu Heng and Fu Kang'an were the only father and son in the Qing Dynasty who were awarded the Honor of Three-Eyed Flower Plume in the two hundred years.
He Lin, a Manchurian Red Banner man, is he is he Yan's younger brother. The most powerful of the Qianlong Dynasty, He Yan, did not get the Three-Eyed Flower Plume, but his younger brother did. Like Lin and Fu Kang'an, they were also obtained in the Pingding Miao Rebellion, but he was given the Three-Eyed Flower In the first year of Jiaqing (1796).
Changling, a Mongolian Zhengbaiqi man, of the Saltuk clan, was a Ili general during the reign of the Daoguang Emperor. In the sixth year of Daoguang, he pacified the Huibu Zhang Ge rebellion, not only was he enthroned as a Taibao and rewarded with three eyes, but the Daoguang Emperor also gave a banquet at the Zhengda Guangming Hall of the Qianqing Palace to celebrate his triumphant return.
Xi'en, the second son of Chunying the Prince of Ruigong, was also Fu Heng's son-in-law, and belonged to the Manchurian Zhenglan Banner. In the twelfth year of Daoguang, he attacked Lianshan Yao (present-day Lianshan Zhuang Yao Autonomous County, Qingyuan, Guangdong) and gave him three eyes.
Li Hongzhang, this person we are all too familiar with, he was given three eyes on the day of Empress Dowager Cixi's sixtieth birthday. However, Li Hongzhang was pursued because of his disastrous defeat in the Sino-Japanese War.
Xu Tong, this person we probably know less, belongs to the Han Army Zhenglan Banner. The reason why this person was able to obtain the Three-Eyed Flower Plume was because he advocated the Boxer Rebellion to "help the Qing Dynasty destroy the Yang" and was good at rhetoric, so he was appreciated by Empress Dowager Cixi and was given the Three-Eyed Flower Plume.
In fact, when Xu Tong obtained the Three-Eyed Flower Plume, it already marked the demise of the Qing Dynasty's Flower Plume system. Because compared with the previous six, Xu Tong neither led the army to resist the enemy, nor did he have the merit of making a plan, and he only achieved it by rhetoric. It's hard to convince the public.
"Listening to the Rain Cong Talk" records: According to the previous example of no donation of flowers, Guangdong foreign merchants Wu Chongyao and Pan Shicheng donated hundreds of thousands of gold, and there was no prize, and they were rewarded with wearing flowers and plumes, and they were temporarily honored. Since the rise of the Haijiang Army, there have been examples of donations of plumes, with 10,000 taels of silver and 5,000 taels of blue plumes. Later, they also helped to donate to the officials, and the number of them was very small, and the number of donors was large. Since the ninth year of Xianfeng, another piece of donation has been changed to real silver, and no discount is allowed, 7,000 flowers and 4,000 taels of blue plumes.
This means that in the late Qing Dynasty, there has been a phenomenon of "donating plumes" with money. For example, Guangdong foreign merchants Wu Chongyan and Pan Shicheng have achieved that they can directly spend hundreds of thousands of gold to wear flower plumes.
This shows that as the Qing Dynasty became more and more decayed, the value of Hua Ling became lower and lower, and eventually lost its former glory and became a donation example. At the beginning, the price of Hualing was 10,000 taels of silver, and by the time of the Xianfeng Emperor, it was directly reduced to 7,000 taels of silver, and when the Qing Dynasty fell, the price of Hualing was already less than 200 taels.
Hua Ling, who used to show outstanding merit and represent honor, eventually became a tool for the Qing court to collect wealth, and eventually became worthless, and at this time the Qing Dynasty also declined. The little flower plume witnessed the whole process of the Qing Dynasty from strength to decline.
【Reprinted for reflection only!】 Copyright belongs to the original author, such as copyright issues, please leave a message in the background, delete it immediately】