From the First Emperor Qin Shi Huang to Puyi, over more than 2,000 years, if we define the orthodox emperors narrowly as those who truly reigned and whose era names entered the official histories, and broadly as those including all orthodox dynasties, then by rough count there were about 350 narrowly defined orthodox emperors and more than 500 broadly defined ones. Among these 500-plus, nearly half favored yellow, or wore dragon robes that were yellow. Why did ancient emperors favor yellow?
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Yellow Was Not Noble at First
Yellow was not a noble color at first. In the pre-Qin period (from the Xia and Shang dynasties to the Qin unification), yellow dyes were generally made from cheap materials such as pagoda tree flowers, smoke tree, and Amur cork tree, so they were widely used by commoners; among the common people at that time, a pale light yellow was very popular.
Another reason was the system of rites. What is the system of rites? It uses a set of visible things (objects, positions, gestures, dances, and colors among them) to define and divide all social resources, renewable resources, and even the cosmos. In the Zhou dynasty, the "heaven-and-earth color scheme" of ceremonial robes was black above and crimson below: black was the sky before dawn, dark with a hint of red; crimson was the afterglow of sunset, red tinged with yellow. Wearing clothes of such colors was like wearing both dawn and dusk. In addition, the court dress of that time was mainly blue, red, white, and black. Because yellow dye was easy to obtain, it became a common color for the clothes of both commoners and nobles. Clearly, in the pre-Qin period, yellow did not stand for nobility.
Besides the constraints of the rites, there was another idea—the "theory of the five virtues" proposed by Zou Yan. This theory used the five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth) to explain the succession of dynasties. To explain it, Zou Yan held that the Yellow Emperor was of the virtue of earth; because wood overcomes fire, the Xia dynasty was of the virtue of wood; because metal overcomes wood, the Shang dynasty was of the virtue of metal; and because fire overcomes metal, the Zhou dynasty was of the virtue of fire. When Qin Shi Huang unified the six states, he needed his unification to feel as though it matched the mandate of heaven, so he declared: Qin is a dynasty of the virtue of water. The color view of the time was five-elements color matching, in which the five elements metal, wood, water, fire, and earth corresponded respectively to the five colors white, blue, black, red, and yellow. So the emperors of the Qin dynasty favored black.
So according to the "theory of the five virtues," we can guess what virtue the dynasty after Qin should have. You guessed it: it should be the virtue of earth. But would it succeed?
Emperor Wen of Han Fixes on Yellow
Emperor Wen of Han was the fourth son of Liu Bang, and by then the Western Han had been established for 20 years. During those first 20 years the Western Han was busy with internal strife; by the time of Liu Heng, the Western Han had a certain economic base and began to think about the superstructure.
So some people began to use the "theory of the five virtues" to explain the founding of the Western Han, arguing that the Han dynasty should abandon the virtue of water for the virtue of earth and should revere yellow. Changing the color was only one of many reforms. Through reform they hoped to strengthen the Han dynasty’s orthodox status rather than see it as a "second Qin." Because some people objected, the proposal was not adopted.
Fifteen years later, someone raised the change of virtue again, this time arguing that a yellow dragon would appear that year, and that the emergence of a yellow dragon would prove the Han dynasty should be of the virtue of earth. Again there was opposition. In June of that year, someone in Tianshui, Gansu saw a yellow dragon, but Emperor Wen of Han ultimately did not settle on the virtue of earth.
Emperor Wen of Sui Wears Yellow
More than 700 years after Emperor Wen of Han, the Sui dynasty was founded, and Emperor Wen of Sui issued the first edict designating the yellow robe as exclusively for the emperor. Yellow thus became the imperial color and remained so until the end of the Qing dynasty.
Why did the Sui emperor choose yellow? This time the Sui emperor did not use the "theory of the five virtues," but instead the "five elements matching the five directions and five colors". This view links the five elements, the five colors, and the five directions together, as shown in the table below:
| Element | Direction | Season | Color | Memory aid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wood | East | Spring | Blue-green | In spring, plants grow toward the east |
| Fire | South | Summer | Red | In summer, the south is hottest under the sun |
| Earth | Center | Late summer | Yellow | Central loess and harvest |
| Metal | West | Autumn | White | In autumn, the west settles and frost forms |
| Water | North | Winter | Black | In the north, the night is longest and the water is cold |
So yellow represents the center, and the center is supreme. That is why, from the Sui dynasty, emperors began to wear yellow robes. The yellow robe of the Sui dynasty was apricot yellow (pale, with a slight reddish tint, also called "reddish yellow"). The yellow robe of the Tang dynasty was reddish yellow / ochre yellow, and at this time commoners could wear light yellow. Later, the Five Dynasties, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing all followed the Tang. Among them, the Five Dynasties used ochre yellow, and the Song also used ochre yellow. The Yuan used apricot yellow / golden yellow (a cool-toned bright yellow), the Ming used bright yellow, and the Qing also used bright yellow.