A finely cast of square section surmounted by a four-clawed chi dragon. This brass seal which is believed to be from the Shunzhi period of the early Qing Dynasty,(1648 to 1651 CE). The Chinese inscriptions next to the Manchun script on the base arein the form of Small Seal Script. should be read as ‘征南大将军印’, Zheng nan da jiang jun yin, ‘The Military General of Conquering the South’.

As a result of the honorific title inscribed on the base the piece can be attributed to a Manchurian military general of the early Qing Dynasty, Shu Mu Lu. Tan Tai, 舒穆禄.谭泰. Shu Mu Lu. Tan Tai（1593-1651 CE）was a member of the Plain Yellow Banner which is one of the three upper banner classes of the Eight Banners military hierarchy of Qing dynasty. In the fifth year of The Shunzhi Emperor’s reign (1648 CE), Shu Mu Lu.Tan Tai was honored with the title of ‘The Military General of Conquering the South’, to command the military expedition aimed at annihilating the Ming loyalist regimens of southwestern China. In the eighth year of The Shunzhi emperor reign,1651 CE, Thw Shunzhi Emperor abolished his title as the ‘General of Conquering the South’, confiscated his property and executed Tan Tai because of his political attachment to Dorgon, the ‘Prince-Regent’ of Shunzhi’s period.

This is a rare and exceedingly niché seal of the early Qing Dynasty as Shu Mu Lu.Tan Tai was the only general who had been conferred with the title ‘The Military General of Conquering the South’. The seal decorated with stylised Qi Lin - symbolic of the ultimate masculine power and the imperial power.