The belt as part of traveling dress
The emperor's traveling belt (*xingdai*) accompanied Qing imperial traveling dress and secured clothing at the waist. It also provided attachment points for objects useful on journeys, including pouches and a sheathed knife. It belonged to a different functional and ceremonial category from the court belt worn at major state rituals and the auspicious-dress belt used on other prescribed occasions. The shared designation “belt” should not obscure these distinctions.
The Palace Museum preserves a traveling belt associated with the Kangxi reign that offers unusually specific material evidence. The object measures 224 centimeters in length and has a bright-yellow belt body embellished with coral and turquoise knots. Four pouches and a knife in its sheath accompany it. These details show how a regulated imperial accessory could serve both practical and decorative purposes.
Regulation and individual objects
The recorded length, attachments, and materials describe one surviving belt, not necessarily a universal specification for every Qing emperor's traveling belt. The official prescriptions of the *Illustrated Regulations for the Ceremonial Paraphernalia of the Imperial Court* must be considered separately from museum-object descriptions. Sound cataloguing distinguishes the design required by court regulation from the actual configuration, date, and history of an individual artifact. A belt's ceremonial category must also be identified before its color or decorations are interpreted as evidence of rank.
Related encyclopedia entry: The Emperor's Traveling Dress.
Sources and further reading
- Original source resource · www.dpm.org.cn ↗ · Source-manuscript link; not verified as a claim-level citation
- Original source resource · www.dpm.org.cn ↗ · Source-manuscript link; not verified as a claim-level citation
- Original source resource · zh.wikisource.org ↗ · Source-manuscript link; not verified as a claim-level citation
The bibliographic links above are preserved from the source manuscript. They must not be interpreted as verified page-level references for every statement in this English editorial version.
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