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in the context of belt ornaments in the relevant section of
dress regulations for imperial princes found in the Da Ming
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huidian 大明會典 (Collected Statutes of the Great Ming). The
Prince Zhuang belt conforms to this prescription to a
degree, except that blue gems are substituted for white, and
the black ornaments provided by organic materials such as
wood or rhinoceros horn have all perished due to
immersion in water, leaving one empty collet on each
plaque. Does the prominence of rubies then have a
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cosmological significance? While not ruling this out, it
seems wiser to consider that such prominence may owe as
much to the rarity, and hence value, of rubies in a pan-
Eurasian context of multiple successor states to Mongol
hegemony, all equally aware of what constituted glamorous
and splendid princely accoutrements.
In the Chinese case, the early Ming inheritance from the
Yuan in the realm of elite material culture is certainly
becoming ever more evident. Although the excavators of the
Prince Zhuang of Liang tomb initially assigned all the
gem-encrusted hat buttons (Pls 27.8–11) to the Yuan
period, on the grounds presumably of their similarity to hat
ornaments seen in Yuan imperial portraiture, it seems more
prudent to share the scepticism of Lu Xixing and David
Robinson, preferring to see these rather as a Ming
continuation of a Yuan format, one of many. Even so, there
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is a degree of divergence within this (admittedly small) body
of objects, with the example shown in Plate 27.11
displaying a completely different aesthetic to those shown in Plate 27.12 Detail from Hunting by a Lake (Hupan shelie tu 湖畔射獵
圖), c. 1426–35, Beijing. Ink and colour on silk, image height 107cm,
Plates 27.8–10, where the solid settings contrast with the width 123.5cm, with mount height 208cm, width 142cm. The Palace
elaborate filigree of the former piece. And the variety does Museum, Beijing
not stop there: Plate 27.8 is dominated by an elaborate
openwork jade carving of a dragon, while Plates 27.9–10 that individual objects have been variously identified as
culminate in a single large vertical gem. A hat button of this both Indian and Chinese in manufacture. While there can
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latter type, topped by a red gem, is visible atop the central be no suggestion that the Prince Zhuang of Liang belt is
figure in the anonymous but certainly early Ming-period actually of Indian manufacture, it is reasonable to posit that
scroll, Hunting by a Lake, now in the Palace Museum, Beijing it partakes of an internationally understood language of
(Pl. 27.12), and they appear in several 15th-century imperial esteem and kingly exchange. At the very least, it recalls the
portraits as well. As we have seen, such hat buttons were also ‘golden waist belts’ which the ruler of Bengal gave to the
very much a Timurid fashion; indeed the Ming envoy Chen Chinese ambassador Hou Xian 侯顯 (like Zheng He, a
Cheng 陳誠 (d. after 1457), who was in the Timurid capital of eunuch) in 1415, or the ‘two gold belts inlaid with jewels’
Herat in 1414–15, observed how the dandies of the city ‘have which the ruler of the Arab state of Aden presented to the
gems and jewels on their heads to manifest their Ming envoy who turned up on his shores. Thus from
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extravagance’. One other object type with a similarly wide Hubei to Bengal to Aden, and arguably further to the west
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range might be the kind of jewel-encrusted belt now under as well, a gold belt studded with gems (and perhaps
discussion, which along with jewelled robes played a particularly with red gems) was a meaningful shared
prominent part in diplomatic exchange across Eurasia. A symbol of sovereign esteem, along with the fierce and exotic
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Yuan ambassador gave the Delhi sultan Muhammad b. animals and fine horses and weapons which similarly had
Tughluq an example of the latter (along with slave girls, passed as gifts between princes throughout the 14th and
textiles, aromatics and weapons) in 1340. In Ma Huan we into the 15th century. These astonishing objects help us to
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read how the King of Calicut, in South India: think outside the framework of nationally bounded cultures
wished to send tribute; [so] he took fifty liang of fine red gold and and artistic traditions and to see the ways in which courts of
ordered the foreign craftsmen to draw it out into gold threads as many kinds mediated contact and exchange in a world
fine as a hair; these were strung together to form a ribbon, where the cosmopolitan allure of the Great Khans
which was made into a jewelled girdle with incrustations of all continued to gleam and glitter.
kinds of precious stones and large pearls … 51
At this high end of precious metal working, shared Notes
technical traditions could cover large areas of the Particular thanks go to Peter Ditmanson, Jérôme
premodern world. There are for example very close Kerlouegan and David Robinson for readings of this
similarities of technique and decoration between Indian chapter, which helped to sharpen the argument and
and Chinese silver filigree work of the 18th century, such provided several key references.

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