Page 48 - Sothebys Fine Chinese Art London, November 2018

Oscar Raphael was responsible for curating the jade exhibits, and This analogy between a brush in a brush pot and a person behaving
he selected the present brush pot, along with the washer, lot 18, with ritual propriety became an important theoretical justification for
from a private British family collection . the use of the brush pot by the Ming and Qing literati.
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As one of the Four Treasures of the Study, the brush pot appeared Jade brush pots required raw jade that was not only relatively
later than the brush. The term bitong was first used in Maoshi caomu large but also free from too many blemishes, chips, and other
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niaoshou chongyu shu, a 3 -century commentary on the Confucian imperfections. Consequently, jade brush pots were rarer and more
Classic Shijing, by Lu Ji, who lived in the Wu Kingdom during the valuable than bamboo, wood, or porcelain brush pots, and tended to
Three Kingdoms period . According to research by Yang Zhishui, the be concentrated in the homes of the nobility and the wealthy.
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bitong mentioned there was not the same as the brush pot familiar The earliest extant jade brush pot dates from the Ming dynasty,
to us from the Ming and Qing periods, but rather “a brush case, but overall the Ming and the early Qing periods produced
common in the Qin and Han periods, consisting of two bamboo relatively few of them. After the mid-Qianlong period, as the
segments attached together and containing a pair of brushes”. The supply of raw jade from Khotan to the court became ample
Song-dynasty medical recipe book Chuanxin shiyong fang mentions and reliable, jade brush pots increased in quantity. The Palace

the use of bitong as a tool to feed liquid medicine, and another Song Museum collection contains approximately 200 jade brush pots
text, Zhixu zazu, mentions that “[Wang] Xianzhi owned a bitong dating from the mid-Qing and later, and most of these postdate
named qiuzhong (‘fur cup’) made from spotted bamboo”. Yang the mid-Qianlong period. These were created by the Zaobanchu
believes that both were brush cases rather than brush pots . (Palace Workshop), the Suzhou Manufactory, and under the
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supervision of the Lianghuai Salt Administration, or sent as
Indeed, excavated tombs predating the Ming dynasty have yielded
tributes by local officials. The production of jade brush pots
no cylindrical brush pots, but they have yielded long and narrow
accelerated during the Qianlong reign. According to Zaobanchu
brush cases. When cylindrical brush pots first appeared remains a
records, during the 59 and 60 years of the Qianlong reign
th
th
question for further investigation.
alone (1794/5), the court created or received as tributes over ten
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After cylindrical brush pots became fashionable in the mid- jade brush pots .
Ming period, the form began to appear in different materials.
The ample supply of raw jade after the mid-Qianlong reign
During the Qing dynasty, the quantity and material variety of
meant that the Emperor’s need for jade desk items could be fully
brush pots both increased. Although the majority were still made
satisfied. The former Qing imperial collection contained many
from bamboo or wood, there appeared also ceramic, lacquer, jade,
different kinds of brush pots, including those made from spinach-
ivory, glass, enamel, and bronze examples. The Palace Museum
green, qingbai (‘greenish white’), white, Khotan-green, and yellow
collection contains some 1500 Ming and Qing brush pots made
jade, as well as those made from crystal, agate, and other colourful
from a dozen or so different materials, documenting the rich
stones. They encompassed also various different shapes, including
variety of brush pots used at the imperial court.
cylindrical, rectangular, tree-branch, and bamboo forms, although
The popularity of the brush pot was in part due to the ritual the cylindrical type predominated. They came polished and
significance invested in it by the literati. Consider, for example, the undecorated, or carved with decorative designs featuring bamboo
Ming literatus Zhu Yizun’s Inscription on the Brush Pot: and plum, flowers and birds, or figures in landscapes. The
Qianlong Emperor especially favoured brush pots carved with
‘A brush on a desk can tilt or lean. This is like a person behaving improperly.
landscapes and human figures, composed poems about them and
To contain a brush within a brush pot is like giving a traveller a home. It
had them inscribed.
is to constrain its wandering heart, to return it to a state of moral purity’ .
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