Page 84 - 2020 December 1 Bonhams Hong Kong, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of art

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A RARE RED OVERLAY GLASS ‘FOUR NOBLE OCCUPATIONS’ Confucian society broadly categorised people into four occupations:
BRUSHPOT, BITONG scholars (shi), farmers (nong), artisans (gong), and merchants (shang).
Mid Qing Dynasty This was a classification system that dates as far back as the late Zhou
Of cylindrical form, deftly carved through a thick layer of ruby-red glass dynasty and was considered a central part of the fengjian (sometimes
to a snowflake-white ground with a continuous landscape depicting inaccurately translated as ‘feudal’) social structure. These categories,
a fisherman and a woodcutter passing a long bridge connecting two according to Confucian standards, essentially measured a person’s
pavilions above crested waves, a scholar inside a pavilion on one side, usefulness to the state; therefore, scholars who could serve as
above a farmer carrying a hoe in one hand while holding a plough administrators and officials were at the top, and farmers who provided
pulled by a buffalo, all amidst meticulously-carved gnarled trees and food (which also served as currency and tax to the state) were next.
branches of bamboo, orchid, prunus and chrysanthemum, below a These categories did not correspond to wealth, and so merchants
band of incised key-fret pattern at the rim. were placed at the bottom of this idealised hierarchy, as they were
15cm (5 7/8in) high. seen as more interested in securing personal profit rather than directly
serving the state or teaching Confucian ethics. The four categories
HKD600,000 - 800,000 excluded certain professions however, such as soldiers, religious
US$77,000 - 100,000 clergy, entertainers, eunuchs and slaves.

清中期 霏雪地套寶石紅料「漁樵耕讀圖」筆筒

Provenance:
Lucy Maud Buckingham (1870-1920)
Kate Sturges Buckingham (1858-1937), Chicago, before 1925

來源：
露西·莫德·白金漢（1870-1920）
凱特·斯圖加·白金漢（1858-1937），
芝加哥，於1925之前獲得

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