Historical Background
Auspicious costume (jifu) for a fuguo gong, a hereditary duke of the imperial clan, designated a category of clothing used on specified ceremonial occasions rather than a single garment of immutable design. Within the Qing system, zhenguo gong and fuguo gong stood below the higher grades of prince, beile, and beise. Such titles signified aristocratic status and were distinct from appointments to offices of government.
Forms and Practices
Qing regulations differentiated court costume, auspicious costume, ordinary wear, travelling wear, and rainwear. These categories should not be treated as interchangeable. The Qianlong-period Illustrated Regulations for Imperial Ritual Paraphernalia, particularly volume 4, prescribed official dress as part of a wider compendium of ceremonial objects and equipment. Its provisions establish normative designs but do not guarantee that every surviving item follows them exactly.
Interpretation and Evidence
Volume 4 places the fuguo gong within the graded dress rules linked to the zhenguo gong. Both winter and summer auspicious hats extend the latter's specifications to the fuguo gong, with distinctions in finial materials for ducal ranks of different privileges. The source headword does not establish whether the original index intended a hat, robe, belt, or the entire costume. Those individual details should not be supplied without further evidence. The suffix “66” in the source index may be a page number inadvertently joined to the title and requires verification.
Sources and Bibliography
References reproduce links supplied with the Chinese research manuscript. Individual historical claims have not all been independently verified against the primary sources.
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