Page 21 - Christies May 2016

VARIOUS PROPERTIES

13 them mounted and encased in precious materials. The emperor gave a copy
of the ‘true forms’ to one of his ministers, and subsequent transmissions
A PAIR OF ARCHAISTIC GILT-DECORATED BRONZE VASES, GU of the ‘true forms’ are believed to be based upon this. By the Ming Wanli
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722) period(1573-1619), these symbols were regularly engraved on stone steles,
and a rubbing from a stone stele dated to 1604 is kept at the Zhong-yue Miao
Each vessel is fnely cast to the upper and lower sections with the Daoist on Mount Song in Henan (illustrated in Daoism and the Arts of China, The Art
symbols representing the Five Sacred Peaks amidst scrolling clouds, Institute of Chicago, 2000, p. 358, no. 137). This has inscriptions providing
separated by band of archaistic kui dragon scroll to the mid-section. the names and locations of the mountains, the gods who rule over them, and
16 in. (40.5 cm.) high references to the peaks in classical literature. Daoists believed that, when
ascending these mountains, if they wore representations of the ‘true forms’,
£15,000-20,000 $22,000-28,000 they would embody the powerful energy of the mountains. This would, in turn
€19,000-25,000 invoke protection from the gods of the mountains, and thus help the wearer
to fend of danger from lesser unwelcome spirits.
PROVENANCE:
清康熙 局部鎏金銅仿古五嶽真形圖觚一對
From a private collection in Brussels, Belgium.
來源:比利時私人珍藏
The gilt-decorated emblems are Daoist talismanic diagrams known as the
‘Five Sacred Peaks’, Wuyue Zhenxing. Legend says that the ‘true forms’ of
the Five Sacred Peaks were frst given to the Han dynasty Emperor Wudi (r.
140-87 BC) by Xiwangmu (the Queen Mother of the West), and that he had

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