Research On The Forms And Systems Of BuFu

The system of BuFu is an important custom system during Ming and Qing dynasties.Mandarin squaries, also called as Buzi,are stitched on front and back side of official robes, meanwhile patterns of birds and beasts on squares are used to distinguish civil and military official positions which are further divided into 9 ranks. There are strict regulations for dressing BuFu, and those officers who use in wrong way would be punished. The system of BuFu originated during Ming dynasty. The BuFu dressed during Qing dynasty used the system of Ming dynasty for reference and incorporated ideologies of customs from the Manchu and the Han nationality. Qing dynasty was founded by the Manchu nationality, which emphasized reserving traditions of nomadic custom. While the BuFu system of Qing dynasty based on inheriting and modifying the system of Ming dynasty, there are many great differences both in the systems and the form of custom. The variances gradually developed in long term because of integrated effects of political and economical issues. Based on globally summarizing the literatures relevant with evolution of BuFu system, the dissertation presents the essential and systematical descriptions and evaluations on the content and cultural meaning of evolution of the BuFu systems during Ming and Qing dynasties.The paper is completed in the 2 ways of both integration and classification. The formation and evolution of BuFu system are surveyed in the way of global integration, meanwhile the important components of BuFu and features of patterns are classified and analyzed and compared further.Based on summarizing literatures, the paper incorporates images and practicality as mutual proofs, recovers lots of paints of pattern, and extracts the symbolic features by comparisons. The paper is depicted mainly in way of induction, and the results are summarized mainly in figures and tables.The main contents and conclusions of the papers include:The patterns on official robe indicating the ranks were originally named after "HuanYang(花样)" and "XiongBei(胸背)", and then the name of Buzi occurred in later Ming dynasty. The term of Buzi specifies the location on customs, stitching form and pattern rank.The establishment of BuFu system involved continual modification and improvement. No later than Hongwu 26th in Ming dynasty(1393), the Buzi. has occurred as a symbol of official rank and definition of pattern for official rank has been completed. But at that time, the phenomenon that officers in different levels used same patterns still occurred. The BuFu system has been supplemented and improved at JingTai 4th(1453), TianShun 2nd(1458), ChenHua 2nd(1466), HongHhi 13th(1500), JiaJing 6th(1527), JiaJing 16th(1537) and JiaJing 30th(1551). The greatest subdivision was carried out at JiaJing 16th (1537) when certain patterns were specified for every civil official ranks. Till the term of Buzi occurred at later Ming dynasty, the BuFu system of Ming dynasty in integration sense has been established.The establishment of BuFu system of Qing dynasty can be basically divided into 3 phases. In the 1st phase HouJin initially established the system; In the 2nd phase can be subdivided into 2 sub-phases with ShunZhi 9th (1652) when the whole system was established. The early sub-phase includes ChongDe's time and ShunZhi early time when development of Costume system provided the foundation for BuFu system. The later sub-phase began from ShunZhi 9th(1652), during which the BuFu system has been formally established and been continually modified and improved. The 3rd phase involves the succeeding ShunZhi's time, KangXi's time, YongZheng's time and Qianlong's time. During the phase, the BuFu system has been continually modified. After Qianlong 24th (1759) when edition of《Huang Chao Li Qi Tu Shi》(皇朝礼器图式)has been accomplished, there has been no significant adjustment in BuFu system. During Ming dynasty, officers were required to use Buzi, i.e. Mandarin Squares, according with their status on the costumes. The costumes include:Chang Fu,Zhong Jing Fu,Bao He Fu,Tie Guo,Zhi Shen,Da Zhe,Shun Zhe. All these costumes in different styles and diverse colors were dressed by officers with different status. During the especial period of Qing dynasty when the Qing's army entered Shanhai Pass, the styles of Ming's BuFu have been taken advantaged of. After the Qing's BuFu system has been established, jacket with button down the front was uniformly determined to be the style of BuFu while the color tone for the color. After《Huang Chao Li Qi Tu Shi》(皇朝礼器图式)has been edited, cyan has been specified as the color for BuFu which has been used until the end of Qing dynasty.The patterns for Buzi, i.e. Mandarin squares, of Ming and Qing dynasty differed in picturing composition, subjects and numbers. From all patterns and subjects in Buzi indicating the officers status, a symbolization trend appeared. Some shape features of animals were attenuated which brought many confusions for recognizing patterns. The paper recovers the pattern of subjects of Buzi for diverse ranks and from diverse period, compares and sums up the symbolized features for all subject pattern of Buzi for all ranks. Further, the paper proposes that not color but shape are the most significant feature for recognizing subject patterns of Buzi, i.e. Mandarin Squares. It is also important for recognition of patterns to base on commonness and analyze the characteristics of individual pattern and comprehensively make the final decision.BuFu is the commonly necessary costume in the 4 ceremonies regulated in Qing dynasty. Although there were concrete and detail regulations on dressing BuFu in laws of Qing dynasty, the violation could be observed for many times such as over-rank usages of patterns, usage of circular Buzi by ordinary officers, et al. The reasons consisted in 3 aspects:1. imitation between higher and lower level officers; 2. the promotion system; 3. largess from empires for some especial reasons.BuFu can be categorized into 4 classes, i.e. tissue,single,lined,fur. At summer when it's very hot, officers were allowed to meet without BuFu on。The BuFu in Qing dynasty has dual functions including JiFu and canonicals. BuFu was regarded as JiFu when BuFu was dressed with Mang Robe together. Although the regulation relevant with Mang Robe and BuFu was added into《Huang Chao Li Qi Tu Shi》(皇朝礼器图式)at Qianlong 24th, Mang Robe was dressed with BuFu earlier than Qianlong's time, and in detail, the officers were recorded to dress Mang Robe with BuFu during KangXi's time, YongZhen's time and Qianlong 16th (1751). When BuFu was used as JiFu, JiFu belts and JiFu pearls are also required to dress, and collars were also required to dress if it's not hot. BuFu would be regarded as canonicals if BuFu were dressed with Court Dress together, at this time, Court Dress belts, Court Dress pearls and PiLing are also required to dress.