What is Baize?

Across nearly a thousand years, six classical sources point to the same thing: Baize’s ability is to <b>know</b>, not to predict.

《云笈七签》引《轩辕本纪》	「能言，达于万物之情」	The most-cited definition
《宋书·符瑞志》（南朝梁）	「能言，达知万物之精，以戒于民，为时除害」	Its function made explicit: to warn the people, to remove harm
《符瑞图》（明《明集礼》卷四三引）	「王者明照幽远则至」	The condition of its appearance: it comes to those who see far
《瑞应图》（唐《开元占经》卷一一六引）	「贤君德及幽遐则出」	A second record of the same condition
《抱朴子·登涉》（晋·葛洪）	「知天下鬼之名字……则众鬼自却」	The doctrine: to know the name is to know the answer
《明会典》《明史·舆服志》	「公、侯、驸马、伯服，绣麒麟、白泽」	The Ming rank-badge regulations

Ge Hong’s <i>Baopuzi</i> states the principle plainly — “know the names of all spirits… and the spirits retreat of themselves.” Knowing the name is already knowing how to respond.

Something strange happens that you cannot name → Open the chart → Find its name → Know what to do

In medieval China nearly every household kept one, hung on a wall or pasted by the door, ready to consult. The later uses are on record: the <i>Old History of the Tang</i>, in its treatise on the Five Elements, notes that “the baize pillow wards off spectres” — a pillow shaped as the beast, kept for protection; and <i>Dongjing Meng Hua Lu</i> records that the New Year peach-wood charms were “painted with images of suanni, baize and the like,” the baize sharing the door with other guardian figures. Both descend from the Baize Chart.

「家有白泽图，妖怪自消除。」 — a line preserved in Chan Buddhist recorded sayings: “With a Baize chart at home, anomalies dissolve on their own.”

Japan kept this usage alive even longer. The <i>Hakutaku Hikai Zu</i> hung in Edo-period homes listed eighteen household anomalies with a name for each — the method was to speak the name.

The baize banner was on the imperial establishment from the Tang. The <i>Old History of the Tang</i>, in its treatise on officialdom, records that when the emperor travelled the imperial guard led with the vanguard squad, and the banners that squad carried were the baize; the <i>New History of the Tang</i> is blunter — “the vanguard squad bears two baize banners, each carried by one man, wearing a horizontal sword.” The vanguard squad is the unit that clears the way for the emperor, and the baize banner rode at its head. This was the emperor’s own banner, not one a subject could raise.

When it appeared was settled too. The Ming entered it in the Grand Procession, as chapter 182 of the <i>Collected Statutes</i> sets out; the Qing kept it, and the <i>Draft History of the Qing</i> lists the baize banner among the banners of the emperor’s Grand Procession. That was the most solemn grade of the imperial escort, “used for the three great sacrifices — the Round Mound, the Prayer for Grain, and the regular Rain Sacrifice.” The emperor’s own, only on the heaviest occasions, and at the very front — those three things together are where the baize banner stands.

In 1977, the tomb of Xu Fu — sixth Duke of Wei of the Ming — yielded a silk robe bearing a woven baize insignia. It is a Grade-One national artefact, held by the Nanjing Museum Administration.

Among formally published archaeological finds, this is the only known surviving baize rank badge; qilin badges, by contrast, survive in several examples. What is rare is not the auspicious beast — it is the eye that recognises it.

Xu Fu held his title for fifty-two years. His great-great-grandfather was Xu Da, the founding general of the dynasty. The Dukedom of Wei ran from Xu Da in 1370 to Xu Wenjue, eleven generations, ending only with the dynasty in 1644. Of the founding generals, almost none passed a house intact across two and a half centuries. This one did.

Under Ming regulations the baize insignia was not ranked among the garments of civil or military officials — it belonged to dukes, marquises, imperial kin and earls. A very small circle.

The badge grid: qilin and baize at the very top

Badge and rank correspond one to one. Below is the received scheme, from the <i>Collected Statutes of the Ming</i> and the <i>History of the Ming</i>; assignments were adjusted at points during the dynasty. At the very top, “qilin and baize” are listed side by side — how are they told apart? In the illustrations to the <i>Collected Statutes</i> the baize is tiger-headed, scaled, horned, maned and clawed; scholars mostly follow one rule: the qilin has hooves, the baize has claws.

Rank	Badge
Dukes · Marquises · Imperial sons-in-law · Earls	Qilin · Baize
Civil officials	1st crane · 2nd golden pheasant · 3rd peacock · 4th wild goose · 5th silver pheasant · 6th egret · 7th mandarin duck · 8th oriole · 9th quail
Military officers	1st–2nd lion · 3rd–4th tiger, leopard · 5th bear · 6th–7th tiger cub · 8th rhinoceros · 9th seahorse
Censors and investigating officials	Xiezhi

· Excavation report: the tomb of Xu Fu and his wife, <i>Wenwu</i> (Cultural Relics), No. 2, 1982

· He Lingxia, “A Study of ‘Baize’”, <i>Yunmeng Journal</i>, No. 6, 2013

· Zhou Xibo, “Research on the Baize Chart”, 2003

· A Dunhuang fragment of the Baize Chart (P.2682), held split between the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the British Library

· <i>Old History of the Tang</i>, “Treatise on the Five Elements”: “the baize pillow wards off spectres”; <i>Dongjing Meng Hua Lu</i>, ch. 10, “peach charms”: “on them are painted images of suanni, baize and the like”

· <i>Yunji Qiqian</i>, quoting the <i>Chronicle of Xuanyuan</i>: the Yellow Emperor obtained the baize by the sea and had its likeness drawn to show the realm

· <i>Old History of the Tang</i> and <i>New History of the Tang</i>, ceremonial-guard treatises: the vanguard bears two baize banners, clearing the way for the emperor; <i>Collected Statutes of the Ming</i>, ch. 182: the baize banner in the Grand Procession; <i>Draft History of the Qing</i>, treatise on carriages and insignia: the baize banner in the emperor’s Grand Procession

· Illustrations to the <i>Collected Statutes of the Ming</i>: the baize as tiger-headed, scaled, horned, maned and clawed