page_title: Color in Chinese culture
section_title: Yellow
hierarchical_section_title: Color in Chinese culture / Yellow
caption_attribution_description: English: A Daoguang (1820s) period Peking glass vase in Imperial Yellow with lotus print.
context_page_description: Color in Chinese culture refers to the certain values that Chinese culture attaches to colors, like which colors are considered auspicious or inauspicious. The Chinese word for "color" is yánsè. In Classical Chinese, the character sè more accurately meant "color in the face", or "emotion". It was generally used alone and often implied sexual desire or desirability. During the Tang Dynasty, the word yánsè came to mean all color. A Chinese idiom which is used to describe many colors, Wǔyánliùsè, can also mean colors in general.
context_section_description: Yellow, corresponding with earth, is considered the most beautiful and prestigious color. The Chinese saying Yellow generates Yin and Yang implies that yellow is the center of everything. Associated with but ranked above brown, yellow signifies neutrality and good luck. Yellow is sometimes paired with red in place of gold.
  Yellow was the emperor's color in Imperial China and is held as the symbolic color of the five legendary emperors of ancient China. Yellow often decorates royal palaces, altars and temples, and the color was used in the robes and attire of the emperors.
  Yellow also represents freedom from worldly cares and is thus esteemed in Buddhism. Monks' garments are yellow, as are elements of Buddhist temples.  Yellow is also used as a mourning color for Chinese Buddhists.
  Yellow is also symbolic of heroism, as opposed to the Western association of the color with cowardice.
caption: A Peking glass vase in Imperial Yellow, a shade of yellow so named for the banner of the Qing Dynasty.
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