In their external form the two are very similar, both comprising a string of 108 beads, "but court beads were more complicated, with the addition of 'Buddha's heads' and pendants," explains Chen Hsia-sheng, another writer at the Palace Museum's Department of Antiquities.
在外型上，兩者雖極為相似，都由一百零八粒珠子貫串而成，「但朝珠比較複雜，多了佛頭、記捻和背雲」，國立故宮博物院器物處編纂陳夏生解釋。