Page 138 - Sotheby's Arcadian beauty Song Pottery Oct. 3, 2018

circular perforation in the body. See also a celadon and russet On the first auspicious day of this month, the Son of
jade ram from the Hei-Chi collection, included in the exhibition Heaven conducts the rites and entreats the supreme deity
Chinese Jade Animals, op. cit., cat. no. 92, and sold in these for a bumper harvest. He brings the plough personally,
rooms, 8th April 2010, lot 1990. Both jade carvings, though placing it between the guard and the driver, and
much smaller than the current buffalo, demonstrate the same commands the three dukes and nine princes to assist him
structural approach to the carving, the use of bold arc and in tilling the field.
powerfully defined lines to etch out the form of the animal
This excerpt from Li Ji (Book of Rites) by Confucius provides
while remaining integrally close to the pebble or boulder itself.
the background to the annual sacrifices proscribed for the
See also a jade mythical animal in the Palace Museum, Beijing,
Son of Heaven to ensure a healthy harvest. The Xiannongtang
illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the
altar complex was created in 1420 during the Yongle era, and
Palace Museum. Jadeware II, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 58, where
annual sacrifices were made there. The Qianlong Emperor
the naturalistic treatment of the animal depicting turning its
is recorded as having been particularly serious about the
head, and the characteristic networks of veins on the stone,
practice, conducting it 58 times and ordering a renovation of
closely resemble that on the current figure.
the whole complex with additional buildings created. On the
The following inscription is intricately incised on the base, third lunar month he would personally plough three furrows
together with the seals Qianlong chenhan and Xintian Zhuren, within the grounds. This is shown in an engraving by Isidore
both important seals used on paintings created by the Stanislas Helman in the 1780s, illustrated in From Beijing to
Qianlong Emperor: Versailles – Artistic Relations between China and France,
Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1997, pp. 248-249, no. 95.
The spirit of Chou (buffalo) provides the foundation for
food, brings joy to tens of thousands of people, and forms The precise inscription on the current buffalo clearly makes
the basis of the harvest year by year. reference to this ritual, so important to the Qianlong Emperor,
suggesting it was actually brought to ritual sacrifices at the
The essence of this inscription strongly points to the buffalo
Xiannongtang, where its additional potency as a treasured
itself being used in an important annual agricultural ritual.
object of antiquity would enhance the effectiveness of the
It is recorded that the Qianlong Emperor commissioned a
ritual, or kept as an object of contemplation in the halls of the
large bronze ox to be placed at Kunming Lake at the Summer
palace, to remind him of the importance of the ritual.
Palace in 1755. The back is inscribed with an eighty-character
inscription relating to the legendary Emperor Yu having cast The buffalo was originally in the collection of Natasha du
an iron buffalo to control the floods. It is likely that he was Breuil (1891-1966), a renowned White Russian antiques dealer
consciously looking to emulate the past, not only due to who moved to Beijing in 1918 after the Russian Revolution
his reverence and interest in it, but also to endure stability and operated between Beijing and Tianjin before eventually
and prosperity in the present. What is interesting is that it moving to Hong Kong after 1949.
demonstrates his commitment to the traditional belief in the
power of objects to have an effect on nature itself.

136 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比