| Background |
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| The Meaning
and Significance of the University's Coat of Arms |
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| A. |
The University's Coat of Arms-A
Unique Distinction |
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1. |
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The
University of Hong Kong is the only university in Hong
Kong to possess a coat of arms. This is a distinction
that resonates outside Hong Kong, particularly in the
United Kingdom, other Commonwealth jurisdictions, and
the United States. It is also a splendid reminder of
the University's antiquity, and a most dignified and
effective corporate identity. |
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2. |
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The grant of the coat of arms
to the University occurred in two stages. On 14 May
1913, shortly after its foundation, the University was
granted a shield and a motto by the College of Arms.
In 1981, the year of the seventieth anniversary of its
foundation, the University applied for the other components
of a full coat of arms, a crest and supporters. These
were granted in 1984 (the grant also included a banner
and a badge). |
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| B. |
The Significance of the
University's Coat of Arms |
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3. |
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The
science of heraldry has a history of nearly 800 years
in Europe. Originally it served a practical need. During
the thirteenth century, as a result of the introduction
of the closed helmet in warfare, knights took to wearing
distinctive designs on their shields so that they could
be easily recognized on the battlefield. The original
designs were very simple, but during the next two centuries
shield designs gradually evolved into badges of noble
status, and became increasingly complex. The science
of heraldry developed out of the need to determine who
was a noble (and thus entitled to bear a coat of arms).
As nobility was in the gift of the king, the kings of
England began in the fourteenth century to rely on professional
heralds to adjudicate noble status, to design distinctive
coats of arms, and to award them to suitable candidates.
Their role was later formalized by the creation of a
College of Arms. |
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4. |
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Coats
of arms in Europe have long since ceased to be solely
a mark of noble status, though many ancient families
continue to display them with pride. They are now granted
not only to worthy individuals, but also to reputable
institutions. In modern Europe a coat of arms is displayed
by a successful company, a city council, or a university
in much the same way as a logo: as a corporate identity.
Nevertheless coats of arms remain much loved and coveted.
They still confer status, and have the charm of being
designed according to the arcane rules of a science
whose elements crystallized in the fourteenth century.
Many of the terms used in heraldry are archaic French
words, recalling a long-gone period when French was
the language of the English aristocracy. Intricate rules
govern the juxtaposition of colours. The animals, birds
and other features used in heraldry have gradually acquired
symbolic meanings. |
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| C. |
The Founders' Vision |
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In
designing a coat of arms, heralds can draw upon a rich
vocabulary of allusion and symbolism, sanctified by
eight hundred years of tradition. A coat of arms often
says a great deal about the individual or institution
that owns it. The shield and motto of the University
of Hong Kong were granted in 1913, two years after the
University's foundation. If 'read' correctly, they can
tell us a lot about what its founders wanted to say
about the new university. This is important, as the
original records did not survive the Japanese occupation
of Hong Kong during the Second World War, and the founders'
intentions must be inferred from the evidence of the
shield and motto themselves. |
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6. |
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The
design of the shield was proposed by the University
in a letter of October 1912 to the College of Arms.
Sadly, it is not known who designed it: presumably a
European with some knowledge of heraldry, in consultation
with a Chinese scholar who suggested the Chinese quotations.
In its letter the Council suggested that if more and
distinctive elements were needed, it would like 'some
bamboos to be introduced into the design'. The College
of Arms did not take up this suggestion. |
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7. |
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An
informed 'reading' of the shield and motto makes it
clear that the University's founders wanted them to
contain allusions to both European and Chinese culture;
that they wished to express their aspirations for the
new university in both a European and a Chinese idiom;
and that they sought for a harmonious balance between
Western and Chinese traditions-'a happy mixture of East
and West' (zhongxi hebi 中西合璧). Indeed, it would
be fair to say that balance is the dominating principle
in the design of the shield. |
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| D. |
The Meaning of the
Coat of Arms |
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8. |
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In
developed heraldry, a coat of arms normally contains
four separate elements: |
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(iii)
the helmet and crest; and |
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The
shield is obviously the most prominent and important
feature, and it is customary to display either the entire
coat of arms or the shield and motto alone. Besides
these four traditional elements, the coat of arms of
the University of Hong Kong has an additional, highly
unusual feature-a Chinese motto on the shield. The significance
of these five distinct elements is discussed below. |
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9. |
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The
shield contains a mixture of elements drawn from both
European and Chinese traditions. The gold lion on a
red background occupying its top third is a clear allusion
to the coat of arms of England (three gold lions on
a red background). In the lower part of the shield there
is an open book, set against a divided background of
blue and green. A book is an obvious symbol of learning,
and frequently appears in the coats of arms of European
universities.. |
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10. |
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The
use of the colours blue (azure) and green (vert)
for the background is an interesting feature of the
shield, as the collocation of these two colours flouts
the normal rules of heraldry. It appears that the University
asked for a reference to be made on the shield to its
location on Hong Kong Island, and that the College of
Arms designed this exceptional background as a deliberate
allusion to the island and the surrounding sea. |
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*The
Shield: depicting a golden lion on a crimson background
above an open book bearing the University's motto in
Chinese and accompanied by the Latin motto 'Sapientia
et Virtus' |
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The
Chinese Motto |
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11. |
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The
open pages of the book are inscribed with two Chinese
phrases, mingde 明德 ('to manifest virtue') and
gewu 格物 ("to investigate things").
Both phrases are taken from the Confucian classic The
Great Learning. |
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12. |
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The
first phrase, mingde 明德 ('to manifest virtue'),
occurs in the opening sentence: 'The Great Learning
teaches the display of illustrious virtue, the renewal
of the people, and repose in the highest good.' (大學之道，在明明德，在親民，在止於至善。)
In a gloss on this sentence, the Song Dynasty philosopher
Zhu Xi (朱熹) explained that these were the three great
duties of a ruler. Scholars of the Confucian school
have traditionally believed that "virtue"
is the perfect nature that man is born with. This nature
becomes perverted by the various temptations of life,
and the great task of education is to restore it to
its original purity. The display of the characters mingde
on the University's shield therefore alludes to the
noble function of education in 'manifesting
virtue.'
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13. |
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The
second phrase, gewu 格物 ('to investigate things'), occurs in a description of how wise rulers
set about cultivating wisdom and virtue: 'Wishing to
rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere
in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts,
they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such
extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things.'
(欲正其心者，先誠其意。欲誠其意者，先致其知。) Zhu Xi glossed this phrase
as 'exhausting by examination the principles of things
and affairs.' (致知在格物) |
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14. |
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Both
phrases are extremely appropriate for an institution
of higher learning. Both in Chinese and European tradition,
the function of a university is not simply to inculcate
knowledge, but to train young people to become responsible
members of society; or to use an older idiom, 'to manifest virtue'. Similarly, empirical investigation
('to investigate things') is the main principle
of scientific enquiry. Indeed, the phrase gewu
was used for a while in nineteenth-century China to
translate the Western concept of 'natural science',
before it gave way to the modern Chinese term for science,
kexue (科學). In a word, mingde 明德 and
gewu 格物 express the respective ideals of the
Arts and the Sciences, the two great branches of academic
knowledge. |
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15. |
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The
choice of the classic The Great Learning
for these texts was not fortuitous. The Chinese characters
for 'Great Learning', daxue (大學), also mean
'university' in Chinese. |
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16. |
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The
Chinese character ming (明) contains an extra
stroke, and the character de (德) one stroke
fewer than usual. This is deliberate. The characters
are written in the lishu calligraphic style
in vogue during the Han Dynasty, which is still used
for formal inscriptions. |
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17. |
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Many
coats of arms feature a motto below the shield, often
in Latin or French instead of English. The motto is
often a form of 'mission statement', summarising an
institution's values or aspirations. Sapientia et
Virtus, the Latin motto of the University of Hong
Kong, is best translated 'Wisdom and Virtue'. Both Latin
words have a long history of usage in philosophical
literature. They were popularised by the Roman statesman
and philosopher Cicero in the first century BC as suitable
Latin renderings of the Greek words sophia
(wisdom) and aretē (virtue), and are key terms
in later Latin philosophical discourse. For the educated
European reader, the two Latin terms recall more than
two millennia of classical scholarship and (like the
Chinese quotations from The Great Learning)
confer upon the motto the prestige of antiquity. More
importantly, they precisely echo the meaning of the
Chinese phrases mingde 明德 and gewu 格物.
Sapientia is equivalent to gewu 格物,
and virtus to mingde 明德. The motto
therefore has similar associations for an educated European
as the quotations from The Great Learning have
for an educated Chinese. |
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18. |
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Most
coats of arms feature a knight's helmet above the
shield. The helmet is normally encircled by a wreath
which secures the mantling (originally a cloth covering
worn over the helmet to protect its wearer from the
heat), and is surmounted by a crest (originally a
simple fan of tall feathers worn on top of the helmet
to make a knight appear taller and more imposing). |
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19. |
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Heraldic
artists have conventionally shown the mantling hacked
to ribbons and flowing upwards in defiance of gravity.
The tattered ribbons imply that the owner of the coat
of arms was a brave knight, accustomed to fight in the
thick of the battle. The upward flow was adopted purely
for aesthetic reasons, as it enables the artist to fill
what would otherwise be an inelegant void above the
supporters. The depiction of the helmet crest has also
undergone considerable artistic development. The original
fantail has disappeared and the crest has become an
extravagant fantasy, which often echoes the design elements
of the shield. |
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20. |
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In
the University's coat of arms the helmet, the wreath
and the mantling are conventionally rendered. The red
and gold of the wreath and the blue, green and gold
of the mantle echo the colours used on the shield, in
accordance with the principle of balance. The crest
features two of the elements that already appear in
the shield--the lion and the open book. The College
of Arms depicted the lion of England wearing a traditional
Chinese jade collar around its neck. Several coats of
arms with Chinese associations exist, but this particular
feature does not seem to be paralleled elsewhere. |
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21. |
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In
most coats of arms the 'supporters' (so-called because
they are depicted as though they are supporting the
shield in an upright position) are either animals or
birds. In the University's coat of arms the East-West
balance is again made explicit. One of the supporters
is a Chinese dragon, the other an English lion. To differentiate
these supporters from those in the colonial arms of
Hong Kong, the College of Arms reversed their relative
positions and gave both animals a Chinese jade collar.
The supporters stand on separate 'steep mounts' (normally
they would stand on a connected piece of land). The
steep mount is an allusion to Hong Kong Island, where
the University's main campus is located. |
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| E. |
Vniversity of Hong Kong |
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22. |
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Carved on the lintel of the stone entrance gate to the TangChiNgongBuilding on Bonham Road is the English inscription:
TANG CHI NGONG SCHOOL OF CHINESE
VNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
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| 23. |
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From time to time the University receives comments on this inscription, normally to the effect that the spelling 'Vniversity' for 'University' is an embarrassing mistake which should be corrected as soon as possible, and that it should have been spotted in 1931, when the Tang Chi Ngong Building was completed. |
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In fact the spelling 'VNIVERSITY' was quite deliberate, and was intended to add a touch of academic dignity to the inscription by imitating the style in which Latin words were carved in capital letters.Latin, like English, distinguishes between the vowel 'u' and the consonant 'v', and these letters were normally written just as they are in modern English.The exception was when they appeared as capital letters in carved inscriptions on stone.Roman inscriptions always used capital letters, and the letter U was often represented by V because it was much quicker and easier for a stonemason to make two straight strokes than to reproduce the round base of the letterU.Thus, for example, the name of the first Roman emperor Augustus is usually spelled AVGVSTVS in carved inscriptions.The Romans seem to have found no difficulty in reading V as U in such cases. |
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Although the spelling 'VNIVERSITY' seems rather odd today, the use of V for U in stone inscriptions in English would not have looked out of place in the 1930s.This was a period when the study of Latin enjoyed great prestige, and when appeals to classical dignity and decorum were much more common than they are nowadays.
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Prepared
by Dr David Wilmshurst, Technical Writer, The Registry
January 24, 2007
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