Nine bestowments

The nine bestowments (Chinese: 九錫; pinyin: jǐu xī; literally: "nine tin") were awards given by Chinese emperors to extraordinary officials, ostensibly to reward them for their accomplishments. (The reason why the character 錫 (pronounced xī in modern Mandarin and meaning "tin") is used, rather than the expected 賜 (cì, meaning "bestowment"), is because the two characters were interchangeable during times when the ceremonies were first established in the Classic of Rites, and it is not clear whether in modern Mandarin 九錫 should be pronounced jiǔxī or jiǔcì.) While the nature of the bestowments was probably established during the Zhou Dynasty, there was no record of anyone receiving them until Wang Mang. Thereafter, the nine bestowments became typically a sign of a powerful official showing off his complete control of the emperor and establishing his intent to usurp the throne. For the rest of Chinese history, it became rare for an usurpation to happen without the nine bestowments having been given sometime before, and just as rare for the nine bestowments to be given without an usurpation happening. (However, an example of the latter was Cao Pi giving Sun Quan the nine bestowments in 221 when Sun was briefly a Cao Wei vassal.)

The nine bestowments and their meanings, according to the Classic of Rites:

...
Wikipedia