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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.
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