Historical Background
The court hat of a fuguo gong was prescribed for the formal appearances of a Qing imperial-clan duke. The grade of fuguo gong belonged to the aristocratic hierarchy below princes, beile, and beise. It was not a regular civil-service post. A court hat was different from an auspicious-dress hat or an ordinary cap, even where some materials or ornaments overlapped.
Forms and Practices
The Qianlong-era Illustrated Regulations for Imperial Ritual Paraphernalia, volume 4, describes a winter court hat with a two-tier gold-dragon finial, four eastern pearls, a ruby at the top, and a double-eyed peacock feather. The summer version follows separate rules for front and back ornaments, while the finial and feather conform to the winter specifications. Eastern pearls, gems, and feather ornaments were marks of regulated ceremonial distinction rather than freely chosen luxury decoration.
Interpretation and Evidence
The code records official prescriptions, not the authentication of a specific surviving hat or the biography of its wearer. Its treatment of ceremonial costumes belongs to the broader state ritual system. An apparent “66” following the original entry in a source index may represent a page number inadvertently attached to the headword; the normalized historical title requires checking against that edition's printed layout.
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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