Records from the
Sui dynasty show a system of military banners using the five colors to represent the
Five Elements: red for
fire, yellow for
earth, blue for
wood, white for
metal, and black for
water. The
Tang dynasty inherited this system, and has arranged the colors in a united flag according to the above order of the elements, for military use. During the
Liao and
Song periods, paintings depict the
Khitan people using the same flag design. During the reign of the Mongol
Yuan dynasty the five colors began to symbolize ethnicities () in a multi-ethnic state. In later historical periods, this "flag of the five united elements" was altered and re-adapted for military and official uses. A Qing-era painting depicting the victory of the
Banners over the Muslim
Du Wenxiu rebellion in
Yunnan, includes a Qing military flag with the five elements arranged in the order of yellow, white, black, green and red. Among the rhetorical strategies of the
Xinhai revolutionaries was to characterize the Qing dynasty as complicit in foreign domination of the Chinese nation because the Qing were ethnic Manchus. After the
Wuchang uprising, the Qing dynasty was replaced by the
Republic of China. On 1 January 1912, during the Republic of China presidential inauguration, Sun Yat-sen mentioned the idea "Five Race Under One Union." He claims that the people are the core of a nation, and that uniting Han, Manchus, Mongols, Hui, and Tibetans as a country is to unite them all as one people. Prior to the adoption of the five-colored flag by the Republic, several different flags were promoted by the revolutionaries. For example, the military units of Wuchang wanted a 9-star flag featuring a taijitu, while
Sun Yat-sen preferred the
Blue Sky and White Sun flag to honor
Lu Haodong. They promoted a view of the non-Han ethnicities as also being Chinese, despite their being a relatively small percentage of the population. However, while Sun Yat-sen advocated for racial integration, he believes that the five-color flag, despite claiming the five race as equal, arranges the color from top to bottom, suggesting hierarchy. The "five ethnic groups under one union" flag was no longer used after the
Northern Expedition ended in 1928, which saw the
Kuomintang-led
Nationalist government overthrow the
Beiyang government. A variation of this flag was adopted by
Yuan Shikai's empire and the Japanese puppet state of
Manchukuo. In Manchukuo, a
similar slogan was used, but the five races it represented were the
Yamato (red),
Han (blue),
Mongols (white),
Koreans (black) and
Manchus (yellow). Some of its own variations also made the yellow more prominent, rather than display each color equally. During the
Second Sino-Japanese War, the flag was used by several Japanese puppet governments, including the
Provisional Government of the Republic of China in the northern part of the country and the
Reformed Government of the Republic of China in
Central China. ==Gallery==