Page 115 - A Re-examination of Late Qing Dynasty Porcelain, 1850-1920 THESIS

drawn directly from the former imperial collection. However, after Yuan’s reign, the

location of these objects is difficult to trace. 138 These actions provide evidence that Yuan

actively participated in the arts, specifically imperial porcelain. The act of inviting the

public into the Forbidden City to view porcelain marks a major shift in modernization

within China. The desire to modernize China traces back to the reign of Cixi, during

which porcelain was utilized as a means of artistically incorporating modernization and

Westernization. These actions show that Yuan strove to follow in the footsteps of

Empress Dowager Cixi as a patron of the arts. Ultimately, the action of patronage

appears to have been a means for Yuan to strengthen his authority over China.

One clear parallel between the patronage of Cixi and Yuan is the participation in

gift giving on a global scale. In the previous chapter, Cixi’s gift giving was explored as a

means of projecting a modern China to the Western world. Similarly, Yuan utilized the

wares he commissioned at Jingdezhen as political gifts, with one porcelain plaque

documented as a gift for King George V of Great Britain. 139 One of the best-documented

of these porcelain gifts was presented while Yuan was still the president of the republic in

1914. 140 The vessel is an Altar vase with a rounded pedestal base, baluster form, and

elongated narrow neck (Figure 29). The imagery on the porcelain is traditional and

138 Most scholars agree that some of these objects most likely ended up within the current
collection at the National Palace Museum Taipei. The National Palace Museum was opened in
1925 hosing nearly 1.17 million objects. Due to the threat of Japan’s army the Forbidden City
selected approximately 19,600 objects to be crated. Ultimately, these crates would travel to
Taiwan for safety. These selected objects became a part of the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
The fact that each object was carefully curated suggests that the porcelain was viewed favorably
at the time.
139 Li Zhiyan and Cheng Wen, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain: Traditional Chinese Arts and
Culture (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1984), 93.
140 Avitabile, From the Dragon’s Treasure: Chinese Porcelain from the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries in the Weishaupt Collection, 127.

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