Heirloom Seal of the Realm
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Heirloom Seal of the Realm 傳國璽 传国玺 | |
---|---|
Imperial China | |
Adopted | 221 BC |
Motto | 受命於天 既壽永昌 (Shòumìng yú tiān jì shòu yǒngchāng, "Having received the Mandate from Heaven, may (the emperor) lead a long and prosperous life.")
受命 |
Use | Official seal of the state |
Heirloom Seal of the Realm | |
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Tâi-lô | thuân kok suá |
Middle Chinese | |
Middle Chinese | /ɖˠiuᴇn kwək̚ siᴇX/ |
Old Chinese | |
Zhengzhang | /*don kʷɯːɡ smlelʔ/ |
The Heirloom Seal of the Realm (
The Heirloom Seal was lost around the end of the Tang dynasty (618–907) or during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960).
Creation
In 221 BC, the Seal was created when
The Seal was carved from jade because, in ancient China, jade was symbolic of the inner beauty within humans. Many tombs and burials from ancient China contained decorative jade, including a jade burial suit unearthed in 1968 that belonged to a Han prince, Liu Sheng. During the Han dynasty, the Chinese associated jade with immortality to a point where some individuals attempted to drink jade in liquid form to gain eternal life. This association further complements the idea of the Mandate of Heaven and why the Seal was carved in jade, China's most valued material for thousands of years.
The Romance of the Three Kingdoms says that Liu Bang, who became the first Han emperor, saw a fenghuang sitting on a rock and presented the rock to Xiang Yu, the king of Chu, who split the stone in two with his sword and found the jade with which the seal was carved.
Han dynasty and Three Kingdoms period
At the death of the
This Seal passed on even as dynasties rose and fell. It was seen as a legitimizing device, signalling the Mandate of Heaven. During turbulent periods, such as the Three Kingdoms period, the seal became the object of rivalry and armed conflict. Regimes which possessed the seal declared themselves, and are often historically regarded, as legitimate. At the end of the Han dynasty in the 3rd century AD, General Sun Jian found the Imperial Seal when his forces occupied the evacuated Han imperial capital Luoyang, in the course of the campaign against Dong Zhuo, giving it to his chief, warlord Yuan Shu. The Romance of the Three Kingdoms says that one of Sun Jian's men betrayed him and told about the Seal to the coalition leader Yuan Shao who asked him for the seal, but Sun Jian refused. He swore that if he had the Seal, he might die a violent death, and set out for his home. Nevertheless, Yuan Shao told Liu Biao to block his way; Liu Biao did so, though he was unable to defeat Sun Jian. This began a rivalry between them, and Sun Jian, according to his oath, died a violent death in an ambush while fighting Liu Biao later on. Sun Jian's son, Sun Ce inherited the seal and gave it to Yuan Shu so that he might lend him troops to take revenge for his uncle, who had been fighting Warlord Lu Kang.
Yuan Shu then declared himself emperor under the short-lived Zhong dynasty in 197. This act angered the warlords
Loss
The Seal was passed through the
The fate of the seal during and after the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period is not known. Three theories exist as to when, and how, it was lost:
- In 937, at the end of the Later Tang, when its last emperor (Li Congke) died by self-immolation.
- In 946, when the Emperor Taizong of Liao captured the last emperor of the Later Jin state.
- The seal came into the hands of the later Yuanemperors.
When the
In the early 20th century, as the
Several seals have since been claimed as the lost Heirloom Seal, but none have held up under scrutiny. In at least one case, the seal concerned was found to be a personal seal of an emperor, rather than the Heirloom Imperial Seal.[citation needed]
See also
- Imperial Seal of Japan
- Imperial Seal of Korea
- Imperial Seal of Manchukuo
- Imperial Seal of the Mongols
- National seals of the Republic of China
- Nine Tripod Cauldrons
- Seal (East Asia)
- Seal of the People's Government of the People's Republic of China
- Seal script
References
Citations
- ISBN 978-9620753459
Sources
- 三國志[Records of the Three Kingdoms]. Taipei: Dingwen Printing, 1977.
- Morrow, David & Pearlstein, Elinor (1998). "Immortal stone: Jade of the Han dynasty". Calliope, 9(2): 24.