Page 132 - Sotheby's October 3 2017 Chinese Art

THE QIANLONG EMPEROR’S IMPERIAL WHITE JADE
‘ZIQIANG BUXI’ SEAL
Guo Fuxiang
An important characteristic of the Qianlong
Emperor’s seals is that he had multiple seals of
various materials bearing the same inscriptions.
Among them Ziqiang buxi (‘Self-strengthening
never ceases’) was one of his favourite seal
inscriptions. At least 45 of his imperial seals bear
this phrase, including the current lot. Made of
white jade with a coiled dragon on top, this seal is
worked with the four characters Ziqiang buxi. The
seal was originally part of a set of three seals, the after completing six decades of the Qianlong
other two being respectively a frontispiece seal
reading Xiangyong wufu (‘By heaven’s granting
we enjoy the five blessings’) and Bazheng
maonian zhibao (‘Treasure of the Eighty-Year-Old
Man Mindful of the Eighth Principle’).
The Qianlong Emperor (1711-1799) carefully
orchestrated the significant events of his life,
including his seventieth and eightieth birthdays
in 1780 and 1790, the birth of his great-great-
grandson in 1784 and his abdication from the
throne to become the Emperor Supreme in 1795,
and left a large number of material evidence and
textual documentation of them. As products
of these special moments and reflections of
the Emperor’s state of mind, his imperial seals
deserve our special attention. The present
Ziqiang buxi seal is an artefact of the Qianlong
Emperor’s eightieth-birthday celebrations.
The Qianlong Emperor’s eightieth birthday
coincided with the fifty-fifth year of his reign.
He regarded this as a highly auspicious event
and a sign of heavenly blessing, one requiring
a major celebration. A year beforehand, on the
Mid-Autumn Festival in 1789, he had already
begun planning the festivities, including the
consideration of what tribute he would receive
from the various provinces and vassal states,
in addition to the venue and scale of their
presentation. The manufacture of seals was an
indispensable part of these festivities.
The Qianlong Emperor focussed his attention
on the important Confucian classic Shangshu
[The Most Venerable Books). According to the
Hongfan (The Great Plan) chapter of Shangshu,
after King Wu conquered the Shang, he sought
Qizi’s instruction on the ‘Way of Heaven’.
Qizi responded with the nine principles of
emperorship, which the Qianlong Emperor
believed to be “the origin of the imperial
system that persisted throughout the ages…
All connected to the single body and heart
of the ruler”. The eighth principle, Nianyong
shuzheng (‘Think as do the common people’),
was consistent with the Qianlong Emperor’s own
populist ideology. He therefore ordered seals
130 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比
made with the phrase Bazheng maonian zhibao
(‘Treasure of the Eighty-year-old Man Mindful of
the Eighth Principle’). He elaborated his reasons
in Bazheng maonian zhibao ji: “The various seals I
ordered made to commemorate the celebrations
of my eightieth birthday and to impress on my
various writings were all connected to the idea
of Bazheng in the Hongfan chapter. Moreover, I
intend to retire from ruling at eighty-five years,
reign. Although I am currently eighty years old, I
am still six years away from retirement. As long
as I bear the burden of emperorship, I am always
conscious of my millions of subjects. How can
I not be mindful of the Eighth Principle about
regard for commoners? Regard for commoners
is regard for the millions of subjects. According
to Quli, ‘an eighty-year-old person is called mao’
because intelligence fades in old age. I have now
reached eighty. Due to good fortune bestowed by
Heaven, my body remains healthy. Handling ten
thousand affairs every day, I do not show signs of
mental deterioration. I must continue to motivate
myself”. Thus, the Bazheng maonian zhibao seals
did not only commemorate his birthday, but also
reminded him not to neglect the well-being of his
subjects. The earliest imperial seal bearing this
text dates from the winter of the 1789, and was
first used on the spring solstice of the following
year.
Bazheng maonian zhibao was a primary seal
in the set, which also included a secondary
seal reading Ziqiang buxi. The latter phrase is
excerpted from the section on the Qian trigram in
the Zhouyi/ Book of Changes, another Confucian
classic: “As Heaven’s movement is ever vigorous,
so must a gentleman ceaselessly strive to
strengthen himself”. Why did the Qianlong
Emperor select Ziqiang buxi to accompany
Bazheng maonian zhibao? According to his own
explanation, “I have always impressed my own
writings with Ziqiang buxi. During the gengzi
year, I had made a primary seal reading Guxi
tianzi zhibao and an accompanying secondary
seal reading Youri zizi (‘Still diligent every day’). of this seal precisely. On the tenth day of the
To commemorate my impending eightieth
birthday, I have commissioned a seal reading
Bazheng maonian zhibao and an accompanying
secondary seal reading Ziqiang buxi. Although
there are many self-motivational phrases in the
classics, none is more important than this one
connected to the first trigram of the Book of
Changes”. “After having the Bazheng maonian
zhibao seal made, I had a Ziqiang buxi seal made
to accompany it. This was similar to the pairing of
the Guxi tianzi zhibao and Youri zizi seals created
to celebrate my seventieth birthday. All these
phrases are to motivate myself”. The phrase
Ziqiang buxi as accompaniment to Bazheng
maonian zhibao expressed Qianlong’s resolution
to keep his subjects’ well-being in mind and to
attend to affairs of state diligently. One senses
an anxiety beneath Qianlong’s happiness about
his eightieth birthday. The phrase Ziqiang buxi
reflected this anxiety and was a form of self-
admonishment.
After deciding on the pairing of the Bazheng
maonian zhibao and Ziqiang buxi seals in 1789,
the Qianlong Emperor began to order their large-
scale production. As many as over 140 seals
bearing the phrase Bazheng maonian zhibao were
produced between the winter of 1789 and 1794
without interruption.
The primary seals Bazheng maonian zhibao were
combined with various secondary seals. Most
commonly, a Bazheng maonian zhibao seal was
accompanied by a secondary seal reading Ziqiang
buxi and another frontispiece seal, forming a set
of three. The three seals had to be identical in
material, colour and size, and housed together
in the same case. The Qianlong Emperor himself
likely chose the combination of a Bazheng
maonian zhibao seal, a Ziqiang buxi seal and a
frontispiece seal reading Xiangyong wufu. In his
preface to Bazheng maonian zhibao lianju, he
specified that the secondary seal read Ziqiang
buxi and that the frontispiece seal read Xiangyong
wufu. The latter phrase was excerpted from
the ninth principle in the Hongfan chapter, “For
enjoyment use the Five Fortunes; for authority
use the Six Extremes.”Reflecting the Emperor’s
joy and self-admonishment at the same time,
over a dozen such sets of three seals was
produced between the winter of 1789 and early
1794. The Ziqiang buxi seal currently on offer
belonged to one of these sets of three seals.
The records of the workshops of the Imperial
Household Department help us date the creation
tenth month of the fifty-fourth year of the
Qianlong reign (1789), “the eunuch Eluli conveyed
the following imperial decree: Qixianggong
(‘Palace of Auspicious Sign’) is tasked with
selecting two sets of white jade seals, each set
containing two seals and one frontispiece seal. So
it was decreed. A piece of shanliao jade weighing
10 jin was procured, and was divided into two sets
of seals. A drawing on paper of Song dynasty-
style dragon seals was made and handed for
inspection to the eunuch Eluli, who received the
decree that the seals be made according to it: a