Guanpu 冠譜

Guanpu 冠譜 is a book on traditional caps written during the Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by Gu Mengrong 顧孟容 from Qiantang 錢塘 (today's Hangzhou 杭州, Zhejiang).

The book of 1 juan length is a kind of picture book of fictitious caps allegedly created by the masters of antiquity for use in certain rituals. Such is the cap of the Minister of Justice (sikou guan 司寇冠), the almond-altar cap (xingtan guan 杏壇冠) and the banquet cap (yanju guan 燕居冠), allegedly invented and created by Confucius. The author did not rely on any sources concerning these parts of official robes but just invented them out of his phantasy, perhaps inspired by similar, but genuine, books like Sanlitu jizhu 三禮圖集注. Quite surprising is that even the preface (dated 1424), written by You Fang 尤芳, vice director in the Ministry of Justice (xingbu yuanwailang 刑部員外郎), holds that Gu's creations were based on models of antiquity.

Figure 1. Imaginary caps in the Guanpu 冠譜

Siku cunmu congshu 四庫存目叢書 edition.