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Plate 14.6 Shen Du 沈度 (1357–1434), Album of Admonitions by Jingzhai (Jingzhai zhen 敬齋箴), dated 1418. Album, ink on paper, height
23.8cm, width 49.4cm. The Palace Museum, Beijing

Plate 14.7 Zeng Qi 曾棨, Preface to Pictures of Auspicious Responses (Mingren ruiying tu 明人瑞應圖), dated 1414. Handscroll, ink and
colours on paper, height 30cm, width 686.3cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei

calligraphy (Pl. 14.6). By comparison, the writing on the awarded to his ministers. I had the chance to see one of these at
painting of the giraffe is slender and meticulous, and less a friend’s home.
rounded and regular. More conspicuously, the term 永樂中曾獲麟，命工圖畫，傳賜大臣，余嘗於一故家得見之。 39
shenghuang 聖皇 (saintly emperor) at the start of the third line
from the left is indented rather than positioned above other Because the Yongle emperor had usurped the throne, he
lines in the inscription as a sign of respect to the ruler. A needed to use visual and literary means to support his
Hanlin scholar would never have broken a taboo like this. It legitimacy as emperor. Paintings and poems were created to
is probable that the painting in the National Palace record the arrival of numerous foreign envoys bearing
Museum, Taipei, was not intended for the emperor’s own symbolically significant gifts, such as the giraffe, interpreted
collection; instead, it may well have been painted by court as a qilin, to support the emperor’s claim to the Mandate of
painters as a reward to a minister. Paintings of this subject Heaven. These are incorporated into a wider world of
matter were in circulation during the Ming dynasty. For auspicious signs, as seen in the handscroll Painting of
instance, Xie Zhaozhe 謝肇淛 (1567–1624) records in Five Auspicious Responses (Mingren ruiying tu 明人瑞應圖) by an
Assorted Offerings (Wuzaju 五雜俎) that: anonymous Ming court painter in the National Palace
40
In the middle of the Yongle reign, [the emperor] received a Museum, Taipei (Pl. 14.7). In his preface to the painting,
qilin. He ordered paintings to be made of it, which were Zeng Qi writes that:

Gifts of Good Fortune and Praise-Songs for Peace: Images of Auspicious Portents and Panegyrics from the Yongle Period | 127