Flag China: Imperial Navy

Chinese Imperial Naval Jack.
From 1872 to 1890, the Qing Empire banner used by China as a national flag was a blue five-toed dragon reaching for the red sun on a yellow triangular field. Like many flags made by hand before standardisation, proportions and designs sometimes varied - the representation from the ‘Flags of the World' site is based on a hand embroidered example.

This dragon flag in fact had its origin in an earlier proposal made by Mr. H N Lay, the fi rst Inspector General of the China Customs, when on leave in England in 1861. He was at that time engaged in purchasing a fleet of cruisers for the use of the Chinese Government. As China had no national flag at the time, and as it was necessary that these vessels, after being purchased by China, should on their voyage fly a distinctive ensign in order to avoid risk of capture or detention, Mr Lay made the suggestion that that ensign should be a yellow diagonal cross on a green background (there are also suggestions that the saltire design element of the flag reflects the Scottish origin of the fleet commander Charles Gordon - green and yellow were his tartan colours). The British Naval authorities, however, declined to recognise this ensign until its adoption had been approved by the Chinese authorities at Peking, and to secure this approval the British inquired of Prince Kung, the Emperor's brother, whether the Chinese Government would sanction the adoption of the flag in question.

This in turn led the Imperial authorities at Peking to decide that the national flag of China should be a triangular one, the background to be yellow and the design to be a dragon with its head towards the upper part of the flag. In October 1862 an Imperial Edict was issued to this effect, and Mr Lay was instructed that the flag to be flown on the cruisers was to be a green ground with a yellow diagonal cross, bearing in the centre a yellow triangle with an Imperial blue dragon.

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