Page 33 - Sotheby's Qianlong Calligraphy Oct. 3, 2018

fig. 4
Carved mark on an inscribed white jade bowl (fig.3), yuyong
mark and period of Qianlong
Qing court collection
Image Courtesy of Palace Museum, Beijing
圖四
清乾隆 圖三白玉題詩盌之《乾隆御用》款 清宮舊藏
圖片鳴謝：北京故宮博物院

Aside from the Qianlong Emperor’s appreciation of the As a sign of his passion for jade bowls, the Qianlong Emperor
importance of jade bowls in nomadic culture and the wrote around 30 poems on them throughout his life.
Manchus’ own tea-drinking customs, the Emperor also had These were inscribed on jade bowls from different periods.
a more profound and personal reason for his love of jade Moreover, under his reign, a staggering amount of jade bowls
bowls. In 1775 and 1786 respectively, he wrote poems in were made, surpassing the quantities of all other types of jade.
praise of a jade bowl (fig. 7) and a Khotan white jade bowl Jade bowls in the Palace Museum collection alone number
(fig. 8). In his annotations to them, he indicated that the over 2000.
tea-bestowal ceremonies were a symbolic expression of his To be sure, most of these jade bowls were ordinary utensils
benevolence towards his subjects. These poems are inscribed meant for banquets. They were often made from large pieces
on four jade bowls in the Palace Museum collection (figs 9 of raw jade or from material hollowed from larger vessels,
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and 10), which were used in tea-bestowal ceremonies like including shanliao jade. These bowls were often made in
the aforementioned three bowls. Jade bowls reminded the dining sets alongside basins, plates, and cups to ensure
Qianlong Emperor of a quotation attributed to Confucius consistency of colour, although they far outnumbered other
in Hanfeizi: “The ruler is like the yu vessel, and the people vessels. An entry from the 44th year of the Qianlong reign
like water. If the yu is square, the water is square. If the yu in the palace workshop records, for example, refers to the
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is round, the water is round.” Substituting the bowl for the creation of 42 jade bowls and 12 jade plates. 17
yu vessel, the Qianlong Emperor took it as a symbol of his
benevolent and just rule, which would ensure the continual Extant documentation indicates that banquets during the
peace and prosperity of his realm. later part of the Qianlong reign required vast quantities of jade
bowls, each necessitating the creation of over a hundred of
Among the jade bowls definitely used for the Qianlong them. Such large-scale production was only possible because
Emperor’s tea-bestowal ceremonies, there is only one made of improved efficiency enabled by innovations in tools and
from green jade; all of the other six were made from white jade techniques. The lathe was invented during this period, and
that satisfies the aesthetic requirement of resembling mutton most of the tea bowls in the Qianlong court were created on
fat. The Qianlong Emperor expressed his preferences clearly lathes. The palace workshops recorded hiring “lathe experts”
in a poem: “Among the five colours, white should naturally like Pingqi and Zhu Yunzhang to teach younger jade craftsmen
come first; bowls with the appropriate circumstance and how to operate lathes. 18
capacity are the finest”. The dimensions of the extant jade
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bowls conform to the standards of the Qing court. 16

QIANLONG — SCHOLAR AND CALLIGRAPHER 31