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    The Grand Order: Its origins, design and recipients


    JapanX

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    Hey Nick,

    What a fantastic thread! Your research skills are amazing!

    That's the first time I've ever seen an actual Grand Order of the Throne. The colours are a lot richer than the faded / washed out colours depicted in the traditional images. I wonder what other goodies are buried in tombs somewhere ...

    It's also the first time I've seen the actual colour of the Warlord dress uniform - albeit in technicolor. All of the movie depictions of the uniform are a darker sky blue, but this is a very light, powdery blue.

    Gavin

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    I stand corrected on this one. According to Chinese references, there is no record of Puyi having received the Republican Grand Order.

    This original photo is dated 1934 (although he appears younger here).

    It is most likely that he is wearing the Imperial Grand Order. Besides, why would he be wearing the decoration of the Republic that evicted him from the Forbidden City and repudiated the Articles of Favourable Treatment, and which in any event was abolished by the new Nationalist Government in 1929?

    Puyi was made Emperor of Manchukuo on 1 March 1934 and the Orders of Manchukuo established on 19 April.

    Edited by drclaw
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    Feng Guozhang with the Grand Order.

    That's five recipients we have photographic evidence for so far: Yuan Shikai, Li Yuanhong, Feng Guozhang and Xu Shichang (the first four Presidents of the Republic) and Premier Duan Qirui

    Sun Yat-sen declined the award, which leaves the Taisho Emperor of Japan, Cao Kun and Zhang Zuolin.

    Interestingly, the large official portrait photo of Cao Kun which has him wearing the White Eagle does NOT have him wearing the Grand Order. That photo was most likely taken when he was President as to my knowledge he is the only recipient of the White Eagle - an Order that could only be awarded for "extraordinary merits in war" but which the President was entitled to wear.

    While China declared war on the Central Powers in WW1, China's contribution were the 140,000 labourers of the Chinese Labour Force. No Chinese soldier actually fought. And no Beiyang government would have impliedly recognised any of its regional rivals in the many warlord conflicts by conferring the White Eagle.

    Edited by drclaw
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    It doesn't show his Grand Order but this younger photo of Zhang Zuolin, the Mukden Tiger, is priceless.

    Here the Old Marshall is with two of his sons, all wearing egret plume kepis! Zhang Xueliang (the Young Marshall) is standing on the right. Both boys are already festooned with decorations.

    After the assassination of his father by the Japanese, Zhang Xueliang overcame his opium addiction and proclaimed for the Guomindang government. In the 1936 Xian Incident, he kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek to force him to agree to a united front with Mao's Communists against the Japanese invaders. He was arrested by Chiang at the earliest opportunity and spent the next 50 years in house arrest.

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