(1) A formal court robe, o- chaofu, with a silk gauze field and design embroidered with silk thread and gold wrapped silk thread. 141 x 170 cm.

(2) Portrait of Yu Chenglong (1617-1684), painted in the 18th or 19th century. Yu Chenglong wears a pufu with a crane rank badge representing the first civil rank to which he was elevated posthumously in 1706. The red knob on this hat is appropriate to a first rank official.

(3) This huge portrait is of Daisan (1583-1648), painted in the 18th-19th century. Daisan was a military hero and a prince.

(4) Jifu (dragon robe) of an empress, perhaps Cixi, in kesi (split-weave tapestry) Showing seven of the twelve symbols. The other five symbols are on the back of the robe. The two symbols on the shoulder are partially visible. 19th century.

Chart 1
Qing Officials Rank Badges

Chart 2
Qing Officials Principal Hat Knobs
Between 1730 and 1911

This list gives the largest stone at the apex of the hat ornament" Some hat finials had smaller jewels on t'ne side. The type and number of stones were regulated by the sumptuary laws. Colored glass was sometimes substituted for a jewel.

Court hats were worn with the chaofu and informal hats with the jifu.

Source: Adapted from Dickinion, G. and Wrigglesworth, L. Imperial Wardrobe, pp.104,106,108 (1990). Revsed edition (2000)

Chinese Ancestors Portraits

The majority of the portraits are classified as ancestor, or memorial portraits, defined as likenesses painted for the purpose of ritual worship. These portraits follow a standard compositional formula, including presentation of the figure full length and seated with a frontal orientation. Much of the visual impact in a Chinese ancestor portrait is textiles: the garments of the sitter, the cover for the chair, and in some portraits a carpet. The following description focuses on portraye1 textiles.

Background
Chinese ancestor portraits most often were commissioned by a direct descendant, usually the oldest son, and the portraits were frequently painted posthumously. Often, the deceased's facial features were modelled by an artist who asked the relatives to study a book of sketches of faces. The painter copied a nose from one face, eyes from another and so forth based on instructions from the family. In the end, faces compiled this way are indistinguishable from those painted from life. Occasionally, the artist visited the subject on his or her death bed and rarely the subject sat for the portrait near the end of life.
The Chinese believed that they could communicate with the spirit of the ancestor by hanging his or her portrait, by performing a kowtow (kneeling and knocking one's head on the floor) before it, and by burning incense and placing candles, flowers, food and wine on an altar in front of the portrait. Family members thought that they would be granted happiness, health and many sons in their own lives by honouring and caring for their ancestors' spirits.
Arguably, a portrait is not an "ancestor" portrait unless it was actually made for, and used in, ritual worship. However, seldom will purpose and usage be known, so a painting is classified as an ancestor portrait if it includes certain elements. The identifying features in ancestor portraits of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) are a person facing directly forward with a solemn expression on his or her face and, typically, in the case of upper class portraits, the subject clasps one of the beads of a court necklace. The person is usually seated on a chair with a rounded back (a shape of chair that indicates status or honour) and the furniture is often covered by a patterned silk cloth or a tiger's skin. The sitter is wearing a costume that identifies his or her rank. Sometimes there is a carpet on the floor. The painted subjects mostly wear their highest ranking costume, either a chaofu or court robe, which is the most formal and highest rank of court dress, or a fiufu (which translates as "surcoat with a patch") with a rank badge (the patch) usually worn over a jifu ("festive dress", commonly known as a dragon robe). Sometimes the pufu is worn over a chaofu. For example, see (2).

Chaofu or Court Dres

Men’s

A chaofu generally was worn by the subject of the portrait if he was entitled to wear one; it was the most prestigious robe which only the highest ranking officials and certain imperial nobles were entitled to wear. Relatively few chaofu ever existed because of the limited number of persons permitted to wear them, and because few were needed since their use was limited to important ceremonial occasions such as the four annual sacrificial ceremonies conducted by the emperor or his delegate. In theory, a person would own only two chaofu: one for winter and one for summer, both made of different fabrics. Not many chaofu remain today because persons were frequently buried in them; most of those that survive are in poor condition.
18th and 19th century chaofu have a number of identifying features. They have four dragons on the upper half of the robe: one on the chest, one on the back of the robe and one on each shoulder, identical placement to those found on dragon robes or jifu, discussed below. The robe usually has two bands of dragons chasing a flaming pearl on the skirt. In most extant 19th century chaofu there is a row of dragons in circles on the skirt in lieu of one of the bands of dragons. See (1) showing an actual chaofu.

The iconography at the bottom of the waist and on the band of the skirt on (1) symbolizes the cosmos. At the bottom of each field of decoration is the ocean, depicted as diagonal straight lines, crested by billowing surf. At the center and near the side seams of the main area above the waist are rock-like formations that symbolize mountains rising from the water. Clouds that represent the firmament fill the remaining ground, floating around multiple images of dragons that represent imperial power over the universe.
The summer chaofu was made of gauze or a light weft woven silk (kesz, also known as split-weave tapestry) and had a black and gold brocade border (1). The winter robe was made of heavy silk and often was lined with fur, such as sable. Most portraits show winter robes, perhaps because these were the most expensive garments a person could own and descendants wanted their forebears to appear their most majestic.
Imperial edicts, adopted in 1759, required that persons wear chaofu appropriate to their rank. Various ranks were distinguished by color, front-facing or profile dragons, five or four-clawed dragons and, in the robes that have them, the number of dragon medallions on the second band above the hem. The highest ranks had front-facing, five-clawed dragons above the waist.
The colour of the field of the robe also determined rank. For example, only the emperor and some of his sons could wear a chaofu colored any shade of yellow. The robes worn by the emperor had a yellow field, the heir apparent wore apricot yellow (orange), and the emperor other sons wore "tawny-yellow" (brown). Other official had dark blue robes. Special ceremonies required certain other colors, such as a red imperial chaofu for sacrifices at the altar of the sun.
Sometimes ancestors where painted in higher rank clothing than they had earned, in life. seems that the higher a persons rank, the less likely the family was to risk censure by stretching the rules. But no doubt some exceptions occurred.

Women’s

The court dress of women, which corresponds to the chaofu worn by men, commonly consisted of a vest worn over a robe with projecting shoulder epaulettes and a large flapping collar that was detachable. Virtually no women's court garments exist outside of the imperial collection in Beijing. Perhaps it is because there were fewer of them since women outside the imperial family were seldom involved in court ceremonies.

Pufu or Surcoats with Rank badges

In their ancestor portraits, person, with rank are sometimes dressed in a coat worn on top of a dragon robe or occasionally on top of a chaofu. As noted above, the top coat, or surcoat, pufu in Chinese, is a garment with a rank badge.
Pufu and jifu were worn more frequently than chaofu and on less formal occasions. Persons of high rank such as the emperor, his sons and top officials would own all three of the robes of rank discussed in this document, but generally would be shown wearing the chaofu in their ancestor portraits.
As with the chaofu, the pufu is made of silk gauze or kesi for the summer and a heavier satin-silk, sometimes lined with fur, for the winter.

There are three categories of rank: imperial, civil, military. Dragons in roundels appear on imperial robes, birds on civil badges, and animals on military badges. Chart 1 shows civil and military ranks. Civil and military badges are square and were worn on the, chest on the front and back of the robe. Imperial insignia is round and likewise was worn on the upper front and back of the pufu; high-ranking persons also had a roundel on each shoulder. See (3). Front-facing dragons with five claws represent the highest rank. See (3). Profile dragons and those with four claws were a step down.

Persons who served in the civil service wore a square badge on the front and back of the pufu with a bird symbol. There were nine civil ranks and a particular bird on a badge signified which rank the person held.
There were also nine ranks for military officials; a different animal represented each rank. A pufu with a lion badge signifies the second rank; a leopard badge, the third rank. See chart 1.

Jifu or Dragon Robe

In contrast to the rare chaofu, there were many thousands of dragon robes, also known as jifu ("festive dress"). These robes were worn at court functions, but at those less formal than where the chaofu was worn.
Only a portion of the dragon robe is visible in ancestor portraits, peeking out from under the pufu. Visible are the cuffs of the robe and a portion of the skirt. The cuffs are shaped like a horse’s foot and are commonly referred to as "horse-hoof" cuff's.
The jifu,like the chaofu, has a. composition based on cosmology. Both the skirt and cuffs show the ocean, waves and mountains. Nine dragons appear on the highest rank imperial robes; three each on the front and back, one on each shoulder and one inside the front flap of the robe.

Authenticity of Props

Because the Chinese were anxious that their prayers reach their particular ancestor and not someone else's relative, the face of the ancestor is painted with great care by the studio's top artist. The props-chair, costume and rugs were of secondary importance, so they were often painted by less skilled artists.
Sometimes the entire portrait, except for the face, was painted and kept in stock; the face was simply added later. Further, all but the face could be painted from stencils. The rank shown by the costume does not always accurately reflect the person's status. Based on a review of 200 ancestor portraits in private and museum collections in China, Canada, the United States and Europe, Jan Stuart reports that 90 per cent of the portraits show noble or government officials (those with rank badges) and 70 per cent show a ruby finial, which was reserved for the first rank. Since persons at all levels of society had ancestor portraits painted, it is impossible that all possessed the rank shown. A certain amount of elevation of status was forgiven and commoners often adopted lower official ranks. As noted previously, portraits of imperial personages were more likely to authentically portray the rank because assumption of a higher rank by such prominent persons may have been politically dangerous.

Other Textiles: Hats, Rugs and Chair Coverings

Hats
Virtually all portrait subjects wear hats. In the highly regulated Chinese society, there were numerous rules relating to hats. A court hat (chaoguan) was worn with a chaofu and a "festive hat" ( jiguan) was worn with a jifu. Each had a winter hat (fur or velvet) and a summer one (bamboo covered with silk cords).
High ranking persons wore hats with an elaborate gold finial decorated with a large jewel on top and smaller jewels on the sides.
The type of large jewel or colour of a glass bead, used in place of a jewel, on the top of the finial signified the person's rank. See Chart 2.

Rugs
For the most part, only the better quality ancestor portraits show carpets because of the time and, consequently, expense in painting them. Rugs were luxury goods in China typically displayed in front of an honoured person or brought out for special occasions. Thus, their presence in paintings enhances the status of the subject.
The rugs usually are painted with dots, like the 19th century European painting technique of pointillism, to represent the knots in the rug; that is, they are pile rugs and not flat woven ones. Most Chinese rugs in the portraits appear to be made of wool.

Chair Coverings
The vast majority of the chairs are partially hidden by a silk cloth, usually brocade, or by a tiger's skin. This reflects a custom in China by which honour is shown to persons by presenting them seated on handsomely adorned chairs. The chair (if covered) in the portraits of women is almost always draped with a silk fabric and not an animal pelt. Men are about as often seated on chairs with a silk covering as they are on a chair with an animal skin.
The tiger pelts often show the head of the tiger between or under the ancestor's feet, with two paws on either side and two others at the level of the hem. Tiger pelts were usually lined with silk brocade.

Glossary

· Chaofu-"court robe"; formal robe worn on special occasions,
..such as major sacrificial ceremonies and imperial audiences.
· Jifu-"festive robe", worn at court
· Pufu-surcoat with a rank badge
· Chaoguan-hat worn with a chaofu
· Jiguan-hat worn with a jifu
· Kesi-weft-woven or split-weave tapestry

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