For additional information:
Karen Fjelstad and Nguyen Thi Hien Spirits Without Borders: Vietnamese Spirit Mediums in a Transnational Age. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2011
The Fifth Mandarin in Blue (Quan Ðệ Ngũ, also called Quan Tranh)
Mandarins are scholar officials in the Confucian hierarchy who carry out imperial rituals and move petitions through the celestial bureaucracy. The mandarins are usually sober and dignified when they are incarnated by spirit mediums, dancing with a rather stern demeanor. They represent the Confucian values of loyalty, discipline and scholarship that have long been important in Vietnamese culture. The fifth mandarin is associated with the Water Palace (among the Four Palaces —Sky, Water, Earth and Mountains/Forests), and can help with paper work and official permissions. His connection to travel across water and administrative tasks means it is believed that he can assist refugees who want to become nationalized. In this ritual, he blesses a series of elaborately decorated paper offerings (vàng mã) representing the brightly colored horses, elephants, dragon boats and soldiers who serve him, and after his blessings the offerings are burnt so that they will go off to the land of the spirits.