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Qing Dynasty Army Flags (China)

Wuchang Army
- Seven star variant
Qing Army pennant of Regiment Command

See also:

Wuchang Army

image by Jaume Ollé, 01 March 2014 and Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 05 May 2014

Qing Wuchang Army in September 1855 used vertical long five color of black, yellow, red, white and blue flag.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 01 March 2014

A 5:4 flag of five horizontal stripes, black, yellow, red, white, and blue. These are the same colours as on the later Chinese Republic flag of 1912, but the order of the colours differs between the two flags.
I wonder what the meaning of these five stripes was in this earlier flag, as in the later flag each colour is supposed to represent an ethnic group.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 05 May 2014

This case does not represent ethnic group. The five colors derives from famous Chinese Wu Xing philosophy. (五行思想） and represent　five elements for life = water (black) earth (yellow) fire (red) metal(white) and wood (blue). Please see further information from Wikipedia article on Wu Xing and Wikipedia article on Color in Chinese culture
Jaume drew the image with accurate colors from the source Chinese paintings of battle field Qing Army 1855.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 05 May 2014

recoloured flag according to Chinese Republic flag of 1912
image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 05 May 2014

While the colours are the same on both flags, the two flags do not use the same shades of these colours. I assume the shades Jaume used are those from his source, but I don't know whether the actual flag had these shades. If this flag used the same shade as we currently have for the later flag, it would look like this.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 05 May 2014

Seven star variant

image by Jaume Ollé, 01 March 2014 and Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 05 May 2014

They also used 7 star blue flag with three side white borders.
Source: Atlas of Flags in China 2003.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 01 March 2014

I wonder if the source did depict the flag with stars well - in China, the stars were originally drawn as discs, and connected with wide lines if representing a constellation (there are a few examples). The Western way of depicting them ("mullets") must have caught on only after the Communist victory in 1949 and the cited source, if based only on written description of the flag, probably used the stars from national flag as the model.
In this case, the stars might actually represent the Big Dipper.
Tomislav Todorović, 01 March 2014

I carefully checked the stars in the book however they are not big dippers nor 7 discs connected with wide lines but 7 mullets.
Incidentally Japan also used disc to represent star traditionally like Sengoku Samurai Mouri family banner used in 16th century which depicts three black stars by discs however in 1869 Hokkaido Development Commissioner already started using a mullet flag inspired by US flag.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 01 March 2014

I did not doubt that. Still the pattern suggests that they did represent the Big Dipper constellation, regardless of the particular way of depicting the stars. I did not know that so far. It allows for the stars to have been represented as mullets in this case, too. The discs were used to represent stars in Vietnam as well, like here.
Tomislav Todorović, 01 March 2014

A square blue flag with a white border along the free sides, the flag charged with 7 white five-pointed stars in a reversed S-swirl.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 05 May 2014

Qing Army pennant of Regiment Command

image by Jaume Ollé, 01 March 2014

image by Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 05 May 2014

Qing Army used yellow flag with red two short bars/ one long bar/two short bars. The flag is pennant of Regiment Command of New Land Forces.
Source: Chinese Military Museum in Beijing.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 01 March 2014

Looks like the trigram for water. I drew what this one would look like if it were symmetrical. I assume Jaume didn't draw it like this exactly because the original isn't that regular.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 05 May 2014