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JADE BUFFALO - SYMBOLS OF STRENGTH, PROSPERITY AND PEACE
ROSEMARY SCOTT, INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC DIRECTOR ASIAN ART
Jade bufalo have traditionally been greatly prized in China. The Asiatic ox or bufalo is one of the twelve horary animals
representing Chou丑, the second of the twelve branches of the Chinese calendrical system. Bufalo are associated with strength,
prosperity and tranquillity in China, in part because of their role in farming and the production of food. This association led to
an imperial ceremony, which took place in the third lunar month, when the emperor personally ploughed three furrows within
grounds of the Xiannongtan (先農壇the Temple of Agriculture) in Beijing and made sacrifces to the God of Agriculture. This
annual imperial ritual, which began in the 15th century, was intended to begin the agricultural year and ensure a good harvest. A
1780s engraving by Isidore Stanislas Helman shows the emperor directing a plough pulled by an ox (illustrated in From Beijing
to Versailles - Artistic Relations between China and France, Urban Council Hong Kong, 1997, pp. 248-9, no. 95). The ox, which
is depicted as being led by two men dressed in similar ‘farming clothes’ to those worn by the emperor himself. This attitude
ceremony at the Xiannongtan may be alluded to in a Qianlong inscription, dated 1746, which appears on a carved brownish-black
jade bufalo sold at Christie’s London in 2003, and can be translated as reading:
‘Chou is essential to provide food, helping thousands of people to bring in a bountiful harvest every year.’
Bufalo also appear in a famous series known as Gengzhi tu (耕織圖Pictures of Tilling and Weaving). The original version of this
appears to have been by Lou Shou (AD 1090-1162) and was published, as forty-six illustrations accompanied by poems, around
AD 1237. A fne woodblock printed version was produced under the imperial auspices of the Kangxi Emperor in AD 1696, known
as Yuzhi Gengzhi tu御製耕織圖or Peiwenzhai Gengzhi tu佩文齋耕織圖. A beautiful series painted in colours on silk was produced
in the Yongzheng reign (1723-35) probably by the court artist Chen Mei (1694-1745). This series shows the emperor himself
engaged in farming, and in one leaf is shown working with a water bufalo in the felds. This series is today preserved in the Palace
Museum, Beijing. One of the pictures with water bufalo from the latter series is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Splendors of
a Flourishing Age, Museu de Arte de Macau, 1999, no. 16.
The romanticised view of the bufalo had resonance for Chan Buddhists and Daoists alike, suggesting retreat into a tranquil rural
life, away from the cities and the responsibilities of public ofice. This tranquil life evoked by the bufalo is eloquently expressed by
the famous Song dynasty literatus Su Shi (AD 1037-1101) who was prompted by a painting of boys herding bufalo to write a poem,
which includes the lines:
‘Long ago I lived in the country,
And knew only sheep and bufalo.
Down the smooth riverbeds [riding] on the bufalo’s back,
Steady as a hundredweight barge,
A boat that needed no steering, while the banks slipped by,
I stretched out and read a book: she [the bufalo] didn’t care.’
The bufalo is also associated with Laozi, who is often depicted in paintings riding a bufalo. The titles of paintings, such as that
by Zhang Lu (c. 1490- c. 1563) in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (illustrated by S. Little in Taoism and the
Arts of China, Art Institute of Chicago, 2000, p. 117), are often simply translated as Laozi on an Ox, but unsurprisingly the beast on
which the founder of Daoist rides has the swept-back, inward-curving, horns of a bufalo or Asiatic ox. The popularity of these
creatures also has an ancient source, since the legendary Emperor Yu of the Xia dynasty (c. 2100-1600 BC) is said to have cast an
iron ox or bufalo to subdue the foods. This theme was taken up by the Qianlong Emperor (AD 1736-95), when in 1755 he ordered
the casting of a large bronze ox and its placement looking out over Kunming Lake at the Summer Palace. On the animal’s back is
an 80-character essay in seal script, referring to Yu’s casting of the iron bufalo to control the foods. Qianlong’s bronze animal and
the current white jade bufalo share very similar poses, although the bronze creature has its head raised and has neither a leading
rope through its nose, nor any ceremonial garb.
The mythological and practical auspiciousness of bufalo ensured that they were included among animal fgures from early times.
A small recumbent bufalo carved from steatite was found in the Tang dynasty tomb dated AD 845 at Xingyuancun, Yanshi, in
Henan see Kaogu, 1984, vol. 10, p. 911, fg. 9: 4 and 5). Large jade bufalo were greatly treasured by the imperial family and the
Chinese elite. A grey-green jade example from the collection of Sir Joseph Hotung is illustrated by Jessica Rawson in Chinese Jade
from the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum Press, London, 1995, p. 175, no. 26:19. Another large jade bufalo is in the collection
of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge was included in the exhibition Chinese Jade throughout the Ages held at the Victoria and
Albert Museum, London in 1975 (illustrated by J. Ayers & J. Rawson in Chinese Jade throughout the Ages, Oriental Ceramic Society,
London, 1975, p. 120, no. 395). Another impressive grey-green jade bufalo, which was formerly in the collection of Somerset de
Chair, was also included in the 1975 exhibition Chinese Jade throughout the ages, no. 397. The same exhibition included one more
of these large Ming dynasty jade bufaloes, exhibit 396, which was lent anonymously.
A green jade bufalo, formerly in the Bulgari Collection, was sold at Christie’s New York in March 2000, and a green jade bufalo
from the Estate of Leona Helmsley, was sold at Christie’s New York in 2008. A white jade bufalo from the collection of the famous
Dutch industrialist and collector Hugo Tutein Nolthenius (1863-1944) was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong in December 2009.

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