During the Ming and Qing dynasties in China, civil and military officials used artistic images of birds and beasts on clothing to indicate rank. Rank badges — square sections of decorative fabric on the front and back of officials’ surcoats — represented a social order of nine ranks grounded in Confucian ideals of hierarchies, filial piety and transmission of knowledge.
A new exhibition curated by Isabel (Pi-Fen) Chueh, called Birds & Beasts: Wearing Honour and Order in the Qing Dynasty, explores how birds and beasts legitimized a person’s position in the Qing bureaucratic and military systems. Different motifs were regulated by the imperial court, including bird motifs for civil officials and beast motifs for military officials. Nine ranks within these categories were represented by specific birds or beasts, from cranes and ducks to mythical animals like the Qilin, a hybrid of a dragon and a horse.
The exhibition — featuring objects from the Mactaggart Art Collection, the Royal Ontario Museum and the U of A’s — runs in the Telus International Centre’s Gallery A on North Campus until June 28, 2025.