首饰发展到明代，镶嵌珠宝已成潮流。珠宝对于明代皇室意义重大，在国家财政支出中占据相当规模的比重，因此对于它的设计问题，便值得细致考察。近年学界对明代首饰的研究，多围绕着“释名”和“举样”展开。本文欲从时代需求出发，将其分为礼制与时尚两项，关注设计的应对措施，并梳理出珠宝首饰风貌的前后差异和演进趋势。 材料是设计的基础和前提。为尽可能占有珠宝原料，明廷采用域外朝贡、地方采取和召商购买三种渠道，在优势互补中源源不断获得美材。设计还需认识材料，明人对珍珠和宝石各有一套认知和品级体系，材料价值决定了设计方式。在生产层面，明代造作格局大体分为宫廷内府、地方王府和市井民间，前两者是为皇室服务，其中内府的规模最大，分工更细。民间作坊虽然零散，但明中期以后更为活跃，以时尚的作品冲击着礼制的秩序。 珠宝首饰是礼制冠服的重要部分，制式稳定与明辨等级是对设计的要求。形制上，太祖与文臣参酌损益，以回效宋制、规避蒙元，细分尊卑、强化等威为出发点，从装饰、数量、材质三方面设计改制；构图上，冠饰和头面都采用了“对偶中正”的设计模式，形式上与礼制契合，和尊仪相符；色彩上，在五色观念与吉祥文化的共同作用下，珠宝镶嵌习用间次排布和撞色搭配，视觉上突显华贵；生产上，为适应繁重的造办任务，内府会采用模件化设计和分工式制作的方式，既提高了效率，也保证风格趋于统一，达到制式稳定的要求。 珠宝首饰也是时尚潮流的前沿。明成化以来，帝后崇奢，上行下效，奢僭珠宝的现象在全社会弥漫。由于禁令难行，皇室只能另寻他法拉开与臣庶的饰用差距。嘉靖、万历间宫廷大肆索买原料，繁密镶嵌珠宝，创造了堆盈的时尚。珠宝成为设计主体后，其赋彩优势高于塑形能力，于是首饰的似画追求渐渐退却，象生的方法也在更迭。同时在世俗大潮下，时样也在更新，自然、宗教、吉庆、戏曲各式题材层出不穷，成为浮华时代的连绵鸣响。

By the Ming dynasty, inlaying ornaments with jewels had developed into a trend. Jewelry was of great significance to the royal family in the Ming dynasty, accounting for a considerable proportion of the fiscal expenditure of the state, so jewelry design at that time is worth studying meticulously. In recent years, the academic circle mostly focused the studies of jewelry ornaments in the Ming dynasty on “denominate” and “appreciation”. This paper starts by dividing demands in that era into the two categories of ritual system and fashion, focuses on countermeasures of design, and analyzes the differences in jewelry ornaments in different times and their development trend. Materials are the foundation and prerequisite for design. To occupy as many raw materials of jewelry as possible, the royal court of the Ming dynasty obtained a continuous influx of beautiful materials through three channels with complementary advantages, namely extraterritorial tribute, local mining, and procurement from merchants. The design was not possible without the recognition of materials. The Ming dynasty produced a system for the recognition and grading of both pearls and gems, and the value of materials determined ways of design. In the aspect of manufacturing, the manufacturing system was generally a three-tier hierarchy of internal royal departments, local palaces of the nobility, and folk workshops, of which the first two served the royal family, and internal royal departments were the largest in scale with a more detailed division of labor. Though scattered, folk workshops were apparently more active after the mid-Ming period and impacted old etiquette with new fashionable products. Jewelry ornaments were an important part of the ritual dressing, the design of which was required to follow consistent standards and clearly identify ranks. In terms of form, Emperor ZhuYuanzhang and his civilian officials, after deliberating on advantages and disadvantages, planned the change of design in the three aspects of decoration, quantity, and texture to resume the etiquette of the Song dynasty while avoiding those of the Yuan dynasty and classifying people in detail according to social status while strengthening hierarchical and prestige. As for composition, the design pattern of symmetry was adopted for headdresses, ideally conforming to etiquette and visually reflecting wearers’ ranks. In terms of colors, under the joint effect of the concept of five colors and auspicious culture, jewels in five colors were used to be inlaid and matched in contrasting colors to highlight magnificence and prestige visually. In manufacturing, to adapt to burdensome tasks, internal royal departments generally adopted modular design and division of labor, which not only improved efficiency but also ensured uniformity of styles, to meet the requirement for consistent standards. Jewelry ornaments are also at the forefront of fashion trends. Since the reign of Emperor Chenghua, as the empress pursued extravagance and inferiors followed suit, the phenomenon of wearing luxurious jewelry had spread nationwide. Given the difficulty in curbing civilians’ liking for extravagancy, the royal family had to find other ways to distinguish themselves in the use of ornaments. During the period of JiaJing to Wanli, the royal court sought and bought raw materials in a brazen manner, and made ornaments densely inlaid with jewels, to create the fashion of piling up jewels. After becoming a main part of the design, jewelry showed its greater advantage in coloring than shaping, so the pursuit of ornaments resembling paintings gradually declined while the method of lifelike imitation was also changed. Meanwhile, under the worldly trend, fashionable patterns were also updated with the constant emergence of various themes on nature, religion, celebration, and opera, among others, and became continuous echoes of that extravagant era.