Page 29 - Sotheby's Qianlong Calligraphy Oct. 3, 2018

AN APPRECIATION OF THE QIANLONG
EMPEROR’S KHOTAN WHITE JADE BOWL

XU LIN

From Khotan, the packaged tributes arrive every year, What are the current locations of these bowls used for the
Of rare beauty, like fat, suitable for making bowls. Qianlong Emperor’s ceremonial tea bestowal? According to
The finished vessel illuminates the palace my research, there are three such jade bowls. One is at the
and realizes the grand ceremonies; Palace Museum in Beijing, and another at the National Palace
I brush these poetic lines to praise its preciousness. Museum in Taipei. The third is the Khotan jade bowl with the
Without flaw or defect, the jade needs no concealment; Qianlong Emperor’s imperial inscription presently on offer at
With sufficient capacity, the bowl contains plenty. Sotheby’s.
Over the generations my sons and grandson This jade bowl measures 5.6 cm in overall height. The flaring
will always cherish it: mouth measures 12.8 cm in diameter, and the ring foot
A treasure on par with the ancient swords and bi discs.
measures 5.8 cm in diameter and 1 cm in height. The bowl
In 1765, the Qianlong Emperor wrote the above poem, was carved from Khotan white jade with a fine texture and
entitled ”In Praise of the Khotan Jade Bowls,” on a pair of lustre. It is undecorated except for the inscription of the
Khotan white jade bowls. He begins the poem by referring Qianlong Emperor’s poem, which runs around the outer
to his own edict demanding tributary raw jade from Khotan surface in alternating lines of four and three characters
every spring and fall, which greatly pleased him. Thanks to to create a rhythmic composition. Following the poem is
the consistent supply of raw jade, the court had sufficient an inscription and a date reading Qianlong yiyou jixiayue
access to the mutton-fat jade suitable for making bowls. For shanghuan yuti (‘Imperially inscribed during the first third of
what purposes were such flawless jade bowls used? The the month jixia of the year yiyou of the Qianlong reign’), a relief
Qianlong Emperor explains in his annotation to the poem square seal in seal script reading bide (‘Compare yourself to
that the bowls were used to serve milk tea bestowed during jade’, and an intaglio square seal in seal script reading langrun
the celebratory ceremonies in his court. Such an important (‘Bright and lustrous’). The year yiyou was the 30th year
occasion warranted the Emperor’s poem and its inscription of the Qianlong reign, and the month jixia was the 6th lunar
on the bowls. The Qianlong Emperor even believed that the month. Shanghuan refers to the first third of the month, as
bowls were as precious as jade blades and large bi discs of the evidenced by the Ming-dynasty writer Yang Shen’s Danqian
ancient past, worthy as bequests to his descendants (fig. 1). 1 zonglu. Qianlong-period objects inscribed with the Emperor’s

QIANLONG — SCHOLAR AND CALLIGRAPHER 27