VIETNAM
Pair of rank badges for a 3rd rank civil official,
early 1900s.
Gift of Judith and Ken Rutherford 2006
298.2006.a-b

The rock formations in these pieces have details of peacock feather work. A sheet of gold foil that had been placed behind the gauze can be glimpsed through gaps in the embroidery. The background area has been couched in gold thread giving a column effect. Not unusual is the fact the border is made of Chinese embroidery, perhaps done later than badge itself.

Rank Badges

Identifying the status and rank of bureaucrats and members of the imperial court has always been important to the Chinese. In 1391 they adopted the use of specially designed textile squares to be worn on the front and back of garments to indicate the rank of the wearer. Termed rank badges (buzi), these insignia of power and authority continued to be worn until the fall of the imperial system in 1911.  There were nine ranks each for civil and military officials with rank indicated by birds for the civil administrators and animals for their military counterparts.   Principal wives of officials were permitted to wear the rank insignia of their husband.
 
Each Chinese badge is a miniature representation of the universe with the earth, sea and sky depicted.  The bird or animal insignia is centrally located, usually facing towards a red sun disc which symbolised a pure and just administration overseen by the Emperor.  The direction the bird or animal faces is critical in determining whether the badge was for a male of female. On the badges of civil officials the bird faced the right shoulder while on their wives’ badges it faced the left; thus when the official sat with his wife on his right, the birds faced each other.  Badges for military officials had the reverse configuration.  

Vietnam adopted the Chinese system in 1744, with civil rank badges called quanbo and military badges quanvo.  The iconography and colour of the Vietnamese badges is quite distinctive: with few exceptions the background colour of the badges is red and semi circular forms are used to represent waves.  The sky background of the badges often has the sun on the front badge and the moon on the back one, sometimes with the single character for ‘sun’ and ‘moon’ inscribed in the centre of each.   

Korea also adopted rank badges (hyungbae in Korean) in 1454 and they continued to be used until 1894, apart from a period during the 16th and 17th centuries. Korean iconography is distinctive with single or pairs of birds and animals against a sky background, stylized rocks amongst waves, and unusual forms of column rocks at the side of the badges.