Mandarin (bureaucrat)
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A mandarin was a bureaucrat scholar in the history of China, Korea, and Vietnam.
Three Ming Dynasty mandarins of varying ranks.
A 15th-century portrait of the Ming official Jiang Shunfu. The cranes on his mandarin square indicate that he was a civil official of the sixth rank.
A Qing photograph of a government official with mandarin square embroidered in front
Nguyễn Văn Tường, 1824–1886) was a mandarin of the Nguyễn dynasty in Vietnam.
Scholar-official
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The scholar-officials, also known as literati, scholar-gentlemen or scholar-bureaucrats, were government officials and prestigious scholars in Chinese society, forming a distinct social class.
Mandarin (bureaucrat)
…A mandarin (Chinese: 官; pinyin: guān) was a bureaucrat scholar in the history of China, Korea, and Vietnam. The term is generally applied to the officials appointed through the imperial examination system…
Painting that depicts the career of a civil servant. The career path starts with passing the civil service examinations (left side) and progresses to a high position in the government (right side).
Government officials in Changfu during the Wanli era, Ming dynasty
A Western Han fresco depicting Confucius (and Laozi), and his students