Imperial Patent of Nobility in Manchu and Chinese Scripts

Qing dynasty (1644�1911), Jiaqing period (1796�1820), dated 1799

Presented to the parents of Yulin (jinshi of 1795; d. 1833)

Handscroll, ink, color, and white pigment on 5 contiguous sections of silk brocade; 30.4�30.7 x 181.5 cm (from left to right, beginning with Manchu section: section 1, peach: 30.6�30.7 x 41.4 cm; section 2, cream: 30.7�30.8 x 31.9 cm; section 3, gold: 30.6�30.7 x 32.3 cm; section 4, vermilion: 30.4�30.5 x 32.1 cm; section 5, olive green: 30.4�30.5 x 43.8 cm)

Inventory number: 80319

Documents known as gaoming (variously translated as "patent of nobility" or "patent by ordinance") were used by the emperor to confer a variety of lower nobility ranks and hereditary ranks inheritable in perpetuity upon officials of the fifth rank or above.� During the early Qing period, the texts of patents were artistically woven from pure silk, but later they were made of thick paper covered with a layer of silk threads in five colors�red, blue, black, white, and yellow.� Dragons in blue, red, green, or white were painted on the upper and lower rim as well as on the two ends, but no characters are printed or woven into them.

This patent was presented to ennoble the parents of Yulin, a Manchu Plain Yellow bannerman, scholar, and military leader in recognition of his distinguished service to the Qing state during one of its expansionist phases in the Far West.� During the Daoguang period (1821�50), Yulin was appointed as a general in charge of the strategically important region centered on the city of Ili (Yining; Ghuljia) in northwestern Xinjiang.� The scroll is handwritten, using multiple colors on different bands of colored silk brocade, in vertical columns of Manchu and Chinese.� The Manchu text is read from left to right, while the Chinese is read in the opposite direction.