Page 64 - Bonhams UK Marsh Collection Art for the Literati November 2, 2022

Image courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing Image courtesy of The Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong

Another clue that the present lot could have been made in the characters, used in the background of a painting of a lady; see 'Twelve
1670's, is the close stylistic relationship between the style of the Shou Beauties at Leisure Painted for Prince Yinzhen', late Kangxi, illustrated
characters and a dictionary re-published in 1670. The characters on in China: The Three Emperors 1662-1795, London, 2005, pp.258-259.
the present brushpot include unusual variants of the Shou character
including in so-called 'tadpole' script (kedou wen 蝌蚪文) and 'birds Scholars generally accept the large blue and white zun vases with
and worms' script (niaochong wen 鳥蟲文). The characters on the Shou characters mentioned above, were ordered by the Kangxi
brushpot appear to be based on the Jinshi yunfu (金石韻府) or Emperor for his grandmother, the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang's
'Treasury of Ancient Characters on Bronze and Stone', an epigraphic (1613-1688) 60th birthday (corresponding to 1673 in the Gregorian
dictionary that combines characters from earlier dictionaries and a calendar). Furthermore, in 1674, the major kilns in Jingdezhen were
wide range of sources. It was originally compiled by the Ming scholar razed to the ground following the chaos and suppression of the Revolt
Zhu Yun in 1530, but in 1670 another edition was published, from of the Three Feudatories (1673-1681). The rebuilding of the kilns was
which the present lot may have been based on. not completed until 1684. It therefore seems likely that the present lot
was also made for the occasion of an Imperial birthday before 1674.
The Kangxi reign ushered in a new age for epigraphy with numerous
scholars and Imperially sponsored projects compiling new dictionaries; Another opinion, though less likely, is that the present lot was made
the largest among these was the 'Kangxi Dictionary' published in after 1684, for the occasion of Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang's
1716, the most authoritative dictionary of Chinese characters from 75th birthday (1687, by Chinese count), which would correspond to
the 18th century until the 20th century. The proliferation of dictionaries the period when several vessels were written and signed by Gong
reflects the Kangxi emperor's personal concern for Confucian culture Yuzi (攻玉子). Gong Yuzi was apparently active for only a three year
and to foster the standardisation of the writing system. This paved the period between the 26th and 28th years of the Kangxi reign (1687-
way for the height of the 'searching for evidence' movement (kaozheng 1689). According to research by Lu Chenglong, 'Jianwei zhizhu - You
考證) in the Qianlong era: a rigorous new philology that sparked closer xin faxian de yi xiao kuai cipian tan Kangxi qinghua wanshou zun'
scrutiny of stone inscriptions and inscriptions on archaic bronze. (Recognising the Whole from one Small Part: New Discoveries from
The fascination for characters can be seen on a screen with Shou a Kangxi Blue and White Ten Thousand Shou Character Zun Vase) in

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