Striped Tigers and their Marks

[JapanX]

[JapanX]

Rrrrrrrrr

[JapanX]

Golden Grain

[JapanX]

[drclaw]

Fantastic! I love the embroidered Golden Wheat motif on his dress uniform.

Interestingly, while grain was a traditional symbol of abundance the choice of wheat reflected the Northern bias of the Beiyang warlords.

Rice was the staple grain for the south and for most of the warlord period, the country suffered the traditional division between north and south.

The national emblem of the People's Republic of China also features grain to represent agriculture and peasants / farmers. But unlike the early Republic, both wheat AND rice are depicted.

Edited March 18, 2013 by drclaw

[drclaw]

National emblem of the PRC.

[JapanX]

National emblem of the PRC.

Ugh!

Come on man!

Mustaches and Tigers! :)

[pieter1012]

Nick,

first of all thanks for posting the picture of my maternal grandfather. You will have noticed that he had the neckbadge of the St Stanislaus order. That is from the period that he worked as a diplomat at the Imperial Chinese legation in St. Petersburg.

To answer Dr.Claw's question, unfortunately I don't have his decorations. According to my chinese uncle, the family had them till the cultural revolution. My uncle, who inherited the personal belongings of his father, was working for the Chinese People's Bank, the national bank of the PRC in the sixties. Despite the name of the bank, the red guards considered him a capitalist and his house with all family possesions was ransacked. Fortunately, my mother received just after the war, the official Chinese Dragon robe with the rainbow colours from her father that he used to wear at the Chinese court during the Imperial days. I have this robe now and also a picture of him wearing it. If you want to see this picture of him at younger age, I'll have to ask Nick again, athough he has there a thinner moustache and no Tiger but a Dragon on his chest.

My grandfather joined the Tsungli-Yamen (Bureau for Foreign Affairs during the last dynasty) and was sent to the Chinese legation in Paris to study french and work at the Legation. He was later posted to Berlin and St. Petersburg. After the establishment of the Republic he became Mayor of Tientsin (probably because he spoke good English and French with some German, useful for contacts with the foreign settlements in the city). Later Minister of Communication and Transport, where he was much involved in expanding the railways.

During the war with Japan, he did not flee to Chongqing, but remained in Beijing and where possible, obstructed the Japanese. In appreciation of that, the communists, after the takeover in 1949, gave him a small house and state pension in Beijing, although he belonged to the "wrong" class. He also could keep his personal belongings. However, he never liked the communist system and died in 1963, luckily before the cultural revolution that has done so much damage to China.

Best regards,

Pieter

Edited March 19, 2013 by pieter1012

[JapanX]

Great grandfather Pieter! :beer:

[drclaw]

What an interesting story Pieter! Your grandfather had a fascinating life and served under Qing, the early Republic, the Nationalists and the Communists. I particular liked the part where he did not flee to Chongqing like the rest of the Nationalist government but elected to remain in Beijing to do what he could.

Would you mind sending me a high quality image of your grandfather in Imperial robes and the Double Dragon to gavgoh88(at)yahoo.com.au? Would love to include it in the 2nd edition of my book together with your grandfather's story if and when I ever publish it.

We don't know your grandfather's name. Also, what was the bird embroidered on the chest square of his Qing robe? The different mandarin ranks were distinguished by different birds for civil officials (animals for military officials).

From the First (highest) to the Ninth (lowest) rank, these were: Manchurian crane, golden pheasant, peacock, wild goose, silver pheasant, egret, mandarin duck, quail and paradise flycatcher.

Edited March 19, 2013 by drclaw

[pieter1012]

Hi DrClaw,

I will send you the picture of my grandfather in Dragon robe to the email address you mention, with some pictures of the robe itself. I don't think my grandfather was a manderin, he was a civil official of the Qing dynasty. As you will see in the picture I will send you, the robe has no square on the chest, as the manderin robes did, but the image of a fiveclawed dragon.

A reason my grandfather remained in Beijing could be because, according to my mother, my grandfather admired Dr. Sun Yat-sen, but disliked Chiang Kai-chek. Although I have not been able to verify it, my uncle mentioned that his father joined the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang after it was established in 1948, with the widow of Dr. Sun, Soong-Ling as its honorary chairman. This committee opposed the policies of Chiang Kai-chek.

I forgot to add in my previous post, and perhaps interesting for Nick, my grandfather returned to Russia in 1925, as consul-general of the republic of China in Leningrad, where he stayed for two years.

Best regards,

Pieter

[JapanX]

I forgot to add in my previous post, and perhaps interesting for Nick, my grandfather returned to Russia in 1925, as consul-general of the republic of China in Leningrad, where he stayed for two years.

No wonder he never liked the communist system!

[drclaw]

Thanks for sharing these wonderful images Pieter. I'll post them here.

Your grandfather appears to be wearing the neck badge of a European Order in the shape of a cross in the photograph. I'm not sure which decoration it is.

The colours of the dragon robe are so rich and vibrant it could have been woven yesterday. You wouldn't imagine it is more than a century old.

Your grandfather was definitely a mandarin as a civil servant. He is not wearing his square embroidered cloth rank badge but the round button on his hat certainly denotes mandarin rank as does the five-clawed Imperial dragon.

The colour of the round hat button would have identified your grandfather's rank. These were from First to Ninth Rank: ruby, coral, sapphire, lapis lazuli, rock crystal (quartz), tridacna (white shell), gold, gold with incised inscriptions, gold with relief inscriptions.

Edited March 20, 2013 by drclaw

[drclaw]

Edited March 20, 2013 by drclaw

[JapanX]

Your grandfather appears to be wearing the neck badge of a European Order in the shape of a cross in the photograph. I'm not sure which decoration it is.

Looks like a British one to me ... ;)

[hc8604]

. I particular liked the part where he did not flee to Chongqing like the rest of the Nationalist government but elected to remain in Beijing to do what he could.

You can't really run a government in enemy territory, it does not work well.

[JapanX]

Let`s add this nice (and marked) 3rd class Tiger to our gallery.

Box

[JapanX]

Obverse/reverse

[drclaw]

Ah yes, was watching this piece on Yahoo Japan Auctions. A Lao Tian Li piece and a real beauty. Only thing missing is the lapel rosette.

Did you catch what the final price was?

[JapanX]

Did you catch what the final price was?

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately... consider current prices for tigers ) I didn't.

[hc8604]

Ended at 401,000 Yen

[JapanX]

Ended at 401,000 Yen

Now we know the price ... Unfortunately

[JapanX]

Nice 5th class from Yong Zeng Zi Zao workshop that recently surfaced at one auction

[JapanX]

[JapanX]