Page 31 - Sotheby's Qianlong Calligraphy Oct. 3, 2018

fig.2
Inscribed white jade bowl, mark and period of Qianlong
© Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
圖二
清乾隆 白玉題詩盌 《乾隆年製》款
台北國立故宮博物院藏品

The poem and the Qianlong Emperor’s annotation to it did not understand the jade bowl’s significance in nomadic
indicate that the bowl was sent as a tribute from the ruler cultures and failed to see it as valuable. Given the popularity of
of the Hui. According to the research of Deng Shuping, the high-footed and thick-walled jade bowls during this period, the
bowl came from the Yarkent Khanate in southern Xinjiang Yongle Emperor very likely received one of them. Due to his
as a tribute through emissaries from Labunidun, ruler of refusal, we have been deprived of a specimen of 15th-century
the Altishahrs. Labunidun’s sister became a consort of the Central Asian jade bowls.
Qianlong Emperor and the Fragrant Concubine of popular lore. Among Chinese emperors, the Qianlong Emperor best
This jade bowl may very well have travelled to Beijing together understood the jade bowl’s importance to the nomadic
with the Fragrant Concubine. 6
peoples of the Steppes. He was personally fond of jade, but
High-footed and thick-walled jade bowls were popular more significant was the Manchus’ origin as nomadic hunter-
in Central Asia between the 15th and the 18th centuries. gathers in the northwest. No stranger to life on horseback, the
They were primarily used to serve milk tea by nomads Qianlong Emperor appreciated the meaning of the jade bowls
of the eastern plains of Central Asia, and were important sent to him as tributes from Central Asia and reciprocated
personal objects. For these nomads, to give one’s own jade with even more valuable gifts, as he wrote humorously in his
bowl to another person was to show the highest respect. poem on the 1758 bowl (fig. 6). 8
Unfortunately, not all Chinese emperors understood this. However, because the first three jade bowls that the Qianlong
According to Ming Taizong shilu [Veritable records of the Emperor received were crafted from green jade of ordinary
Yongle reign], in 1406 the Yongle Emperor received a jade quality, he did not use them in his tea-bestowal ceremonies.
bowl as a tribute from the Altishahr emissary Huihuijieyasi, but Only in the 30th year of his reign, when he received the white
had it sent back, citing as a reason that “the Chinese porcelain jade bowl of high quality from Central Asia, did he have it
used in our court is pure and lustrous. It suits our heart. We do inscribed with his own poem, decorated with decorative
not need this…” 7
patterns, and used as a ceremonial vessel. It is as yet
The Yongle Emperor rejected the tribute for several reasons. impossible to determine whether this jade bowl is the one in
First, he had little interest in jade, preferring the purity of Taipei. However, the current lot was definitely a bowl created
porcelain. Second, in the sedentary culture of the Han on the Qianlong Emperor’s order from Khotan white jade for
Chinese, a bowl was an everyday vessel; the Yongle Emperor tea-bestowal ceremonies. The Qianlong Emperor’s poems on

QIANLONG — SCHOLAR AND CALLIGRAPHER 29