Treatise on Military Armament, Volume 101

The General’s Banner of the Three Armies

The General’s Three Armies Banner has a flagpole nineteen feet high. The flag itself is three feet long and one and a half feet wide. The streamers at the tail utilize five colors; there are twenty-five of these strips, each measuring two and a half feet in length.

Five-color signal streamers

General of the Three Armiesoriginal: 上將三軍 (shàngjiàng sānjūn). A high-ranking military officer. The "Three Armies" is a classical term referring to the traditional divisions of a complete military force (traditionally the Left, Right, and Center), implying this general holds supreme command over a large-scale expedition.

Three Armiesoriginal: 三軍 (sānjūn). A term originating in the Zhou Dynasty to describe the full military strength of a state. In the context of the Ming military, it refers to the coordinated body of various combat divisions.

Supreme Commanderoriginal: 司令 (sīlìng). A term for the officer in charge of directing operations. In this period, it denotes the authority to issue orders to the entire assembly of troops.

Flagpoleoriginal: 旗桿 (qígān). The pole for this banner is nineteen feet tall, one foot taller than the Battalion Commander’s pole described previously, visually asserting the General's higher status on the field.

Five-color Signal Streamersoriginal: 五色號帶 (wǔsè hàodài). These are multi-colored ribbons used for signaling. The five colors usually correspond to the Five Elements (fire, water, wood, metal, earth), which were used to represent different directions and units in Chinese military cosmology.