New Emporer, New Clothes.

 Emporer Qin and the high officials had fine clothing, but Qin had the finest of our imperial color, yellow.

 For state occasions, you would see Emperor Qin displaying on him a yellow silk robe with nine, five- clawed dragons. He was the only one to wear yellow silk in his time.

 For princes, they could wear any color robe as long as it had nine, four- clawed dragons on the robe.

 Then, the high officials' robes were any color they wanted with nine, three- clawed dragons.

 The dragon was a key figure in Chinese beliefs. The five- clawed dragon represents the male yang (the long positive force in the universe.)