Page 283 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

ENAMELS, ETC. 8i

like a sarcophagus, is an ice-chest from the Chinese summer palace,
fashioned to hold block-ice to keep the air cool in the hot season.
It is held up by two kneeling figures of turbaned aliens with pro-
truding eyes and perforated ear-lobes, and surmounted by a grotesque
lion of gilded bronze. The cover is pierced with a gilded band of
dragons in pursuit of flaming jewels, with a circular shou character
on either side. The floral scrolls whicli cover t'le rest of the surface,
as well as the dress of the supporters, are conventional sprays of
the Hsi Fan lien, or "Indian lotus," designed in the ornate style
of the Ch'ien Lung period.
A cloisonne enamel plaque mounted as a screen picture is illus-
trated in Fig. 93. It is a picture of a country scene, a scholar being
seated in a rustic pavilion shaded by trees with an open book
beside him, and a boy squatting outside fanning a stove fire, while
a visitor is coming leaning on a staff as he crosses a plank bridge
in the foreground, followed by a boy attendant carrying his lyre.
On the back of the stand a poem is inscribed, composed by the
emperor Ch'ien Lung, and written by his minister-of-state, Liang
Kuo-chih, whose handwriting has been cut in the wood. The
picture is the subject of the impsrial ode, which runs somewhat
thus ;^
" 'Tis the first month of summer time, the leaves are all full blown.
Their serried banks of shaded green o'erspread the jadeite sward
;
They say that here, on happy days, the phcenix comes to roost.
But better, aye, in hour of ease, to plant the hazel nut.
A little lad waits boiling tea, outside the arbour wall,
A scholar high, with lyre in case, crosses the rustic bridge.
!—
May the dryandra twin trees live for myriads of years .
The fire-stove on the screen will never want its pile of fuel."
" Verse composed by the emperor on ' The Pure Shade of the Dryandra
Courtyard ' respectfully written by his humble minister Liang Kuo-chih :
and with his two seals attached, inscribed Cli'eii (Minister) and Cliih (the last
"
character of his name).
Liang Kuo-chih, according to Professor Giles' Biographical
Dictionary, lived .-^.d. 1723-1787. He became one of the counsellors
of the emperor Ch'ien Lung in 1773, and was made a Grand Secretary
S941. -iH