Page 50 - Sotheby's Qianlong Calligraphy Oct. 3, 2018

In the 12th year of his reign (1747), the Qianlong Emperor
ordered Liang Shizheng and others to compile, reproduce
and engrave the calligraphic works in the imperial collection
as Sanxitang fatie. This catalogue includes a total of 103
calligraphers, from Zhong You of the Wei dynasty to
Dong Qichang of the Ming. The Mid-Autumn Manuscript
reproduced in Sanxitang fatie is slightly different from the
original in composition: the former consists of twenty-
two characters in four lines, whereas the latter consists of
twenty-two characters in three lines, although there is no
loss of coherence or continuity in either case. The version
of the Mid-Autumn Manuscript on this screen shares the
composition of the original (figs 3 and 4). It was engraved
2
on the jade, along with the seal impressions—the embossed
seals were incised, and the intaglio seals were carved in
reserve. Even more remarkable is that, because jade carving
is a subtractive process, the engraving of the calligraphy
and the seals had to be meticulously coordinated and
articulated in order to represent their temporal sequence
and spatial relations properly, especially in the areas where
calligraphy and seal impression overlap (see pp. 64-65).
This indicates the extreme care that the jade craftsmen
took in their preparations and treatment of the relationship
between positive and subtractive carving—all in order to
represent the original calligraphy faithfully. The inscriptions
by Zhang Huaiguan and Qianlong on the left were also taken
from Sanxitang fatie, although technically these parts were
not as difficult as the Mid-Autumn Manuscript proper, where
calligraphy and seals overlap often.
In fact the Thirteen Lines is itself a monumental work
of calligraphy, no less renowned than the Mid-Autumn
Manuscript. The Thirteen Lines is a fragment of Wang
Xianzhi’s calligraphic rendition in small regular script of the
famous Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River by Cao Zhi
of the Three Kingdom period. According to legend, Wang
Xianzhi was especially fond of writing this text. The original
work in question, written on hemp stationary paper, became
fragmentary already in the Tang dynasty, retaining only
thirteen lines and 250 characters. During the Song dynasty,
the bibliography Baoke leibian first referred to the work as
Thirteen Lines of the Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River,
but other publications tended to refer to it as the Ode to the
Goddess of the Luo River. Since the Ming dynasty, Thirteen
Lines has been the common title.
The original, autographically brushed Thirteen Lines was
probably in the imperial collection of the Northern Song court.
Later this was lost, although it was preserved in copies in
some model book catalogues. In such a situation, engravings
and tracing copies close to the original – known as “one
grade below authentic trace” (zhenji xia yideng) – became
very precious. According to popular understanding, during
the Wanli reign of the Ming dynasty, a stone plaque engraved
with the Thirteen Lines was discovered near West Lake in
Hangzhou. Because the plaque had a dark colour and fine
texture, it was euphemistically called green jade, and the work
as a whole the Jade Plaque of the Thirteen Lines. This work
passed through many hands. Reputedly it was acquired by
Weng Songnian, Superintendent of Guangdong, in the 42nd

48 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比