• Gaoming = G’aoming (Letter of enfeoffment)
    誥命

Publisher:
  • Qing Shunzhi 8 nian [1651]-Guangxu 22 nian [1895]
  • 清順治8年 [1651]-光緖22年[1895]
Extent:
  • 17 scrolls ; in box 41 x 33 x 26.5 cm.
Format:
Description:
  • Title supplied by cataloger.
  • Original Gest Oriental Library collection.
  • In 2 boxes. Box 1 includes 16 scrolls, box size 41 x 33 x 26.5 cm.; box 2, wooden, with 1 blank content scroll, size 10 x 44 x 10 cm.
Edm rights:
  • Copyright Not Evaluated
View in catalog:
Curator's notes:

  • Classical Chinese, Manchu
    Beijing?, 1819, silk on paper

    In China a finely graded system of “letters patent” once existed that conferred honorary ranks or titles. Gaoming, the term used for the granting of lower nobility titles, were scrolls made of paper covered with silk in five colors, written upon with multicolored text. They confer ranks to the parents or spouse of the actual official being honored. Manchu and Chinese are both vertically written, but their columns go in different directions, thus their texts meet in the middle.

    Gest Collection, DS753.8 . G36 scroll 15

    For further reading

    Franke, Wolfgang. “Patents for hereditary ranks and honorary titles during the Ch’ing dynasty.” Monumenta Serica 7, no. 1-2 (1942): 38-67.

Exhibit category: