Page 36 - Sothebys Fine Chinese Art London, November 2018

Fig. 6
Anonymous court artists, One or Two?, colour on paper, hanging scroll, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period,
© Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
圖六
清乾隆 《弘曆是一是二圖》， 北京故宮博物院

his love of the past, the Emperor ordered Liang Shizheng Zhou through the Tang periods. Also produced during the
and others to begin the compilation of Xi Qing gujian, an Qianlong reign, the sixteen-volume Ningshou gujian, another
illustrated catalogue of the bronzes in the imperial collection. supplement, catalogues 701 bronzes dating from the Shang
Completed in the 20 year of the Qianlong reign (1755), and Zhou through the Tang, housed in Ningshougong ‘Palace
th
the catalogue was modelled on the Xuanhe bogu tu of the of Tranquil Longevity’ in the Forbidden City.
Northern Song dynasty, an illustrated catalogue of bronzes
The four large-scale catalogues of bronzes in the Qianlong
in the Song imperial collection, and included some 1500
imperial collection are known collectively as Xi Qing sijian
bronzes in the imperial collection dating from the Shang
(‘four Xi Qing catalogues’). The many bronzes documented
and Zhou through the Tang dynasties, with Shang and Zhou
therein often served as models for archaistic jades created by
ritual bronzes predominating. Xi Qing gujian accurately
the Qianlong court.
illustrates each work and details its dimensions, weight,
and inscription, far surpassing similar catalogues of the past I have not found a single bronze that has the form of the
and setting a new standard for Chinese publications at the present washer in Xiqing sijian or among extant excavated
time. It consists of forty volumes and an appendix of sixteen bronzes and bronzes in museum collections. However, pan
volumes. In the 58 year of the Qianlong reign (1793), dishes with two or four rings are relatively common (fig. 7).
th
Wang Jie and others were ordered to compile Xi Qing xujian This suggests that jade washers with two or four rings were
jiabian, a twenty-volume supplement of Xiqing gujian in the based on bronze pan dishes, and craftsmen sometimes chose
same format that records 975 bronzes and seals in the Qing to create jade washers with six rings. This innovation may have
imperial collection dating from Shang and Zhou through been because the additional rings improved the aesthetic appeal
Tang, Song, and subsequent periods. In the same year, Wang and visual harmony of jade washers as they increased in size
Jie and his colleagues compiled also Xi Qing xujian yibian, during the Qianlong period. However, such jade washers with
a twenty-volume catalogue of the bronzes in the Shengjing six rings were still very rare because of the amount of human
(present-day Shenyang) Palace dating from the Shang and and material resources they required.

34 SOTHEBY’S