Masterpieces of “Water, Pine And Stone Retreat Collection - Objects cf Contemplation” @ Sotheby’s Hong Kong

An imperially inscribed bamboo-veneer ruyi-sceptre. Qianlong period, poem composed in the bingzi year (1756) - The Qianlong Emperor's Bamboo-veneer Ruyi Sceptre. photo courtesy Sotheby's

the smooth, golden bamboo-veneer surface carved with a naturalistic curved lingzhi stalk terminating with a large head with an attendant fungus on the top, the decoration incised in low-relief on three separate planes, the knotted and gnarled, slender stalk with further minor shoots growing from the base and on the sides, the underside of the lingzhi head carved with a poetic inscription by the Qianlong Emperor in kaishu script, followed by Qianlong yuti ('Imperial composition of the Qianlong emperor' and the seal Guxiang ('Ancient fragrance') 34.7 cm., 13 5/8 in. Estimate 13,000,000 - 15,000,000 HKD

PROVENANCE: Bluett and Sons Ltd., London, 1983-1985.

EXHIBITION: Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1986, cat. no. 121.

NOTES: The poem inscribed on the present sceptre is translated by Prof. Richard John Lynn as follows:

'My literary mind is that of the rhapsodies of Deyu,
and my sense of Chan is that of the poetry of Jiaoran.
Moreover, I possess perfectly natural joints,
and am wholly free of protruding side branches.
The magic arts of Luo Gongyuan are but fantasies after all,
but the gift of Sengshao is a truly suitable thing.
I only like it where pure conversation takes place,
as when I meet with noble men.'

Qianlong yuti ('Imperial composition of the Qianlong Emperor')

The poem titled Zhu ruyi ('The bamboo Ruyi Sceptre') is recorded in Qianlong yuzhi shiji ('Collected Poems of the Qianlong Emperor'), vol. 2, 63 juan, and is dated between the 10th day of the 4th month and the 28th day of the 4th month of the bingzi year (equivalent to 1756).

Qianlong in his poem refers to Deyu or Li Deyu (787-850) of the Tang dynasty who served as prime minister and was also famous as a writer of poetry and prose. He wrote beautiful rhapsody (fu) described by the emperor as wenxin or 'literary minded' which is possibly a pun for the word wenxin meaning 'the core of my grain' implying that the bamboo grain is robust and strong just like Li's rhapsodies. However, more importantly, Li was a man of eminently high moral principles (dajie) to which Qianlong alludes in his poem using the expression tianran jie ('natural joints') a reference to Li's 'heavenly endowed moral integrity'.

Jiaoran (730-799) was a monk-poet from Changcheng, Zhejiang province, with the secular name Xie Zhou. He was deeply steeped in the Daoist, Buddhist and Confucian traditions and resided in the Miaoxi temple on Xu Mountain in Wuxing. He became famous for his literary criticism and was a key participator in the Classical Prose Movement of the late Tang dynasty. Jiao, through his work, onveyed the meaning of Chan (Zen) Buddhism. His poems describe the truth about consciousness, contemplation and enlightenment. Qianlong, a devote Buddhist, spent many hours in his study reading the poems of Jiaoran and associated himself with the notion that his 'sense of Chan' was on the same level as his.

The third historical figure mentioned by Qianlong in this poem is Luo Gongyuan, a Daoist priest, who according to legends, used his magic to help Emperor Xuangzong (712-755) meet the beautiful Consort Yang Guifei in his afterlife. The poem further mentions Sengshao, who was also a priest and had compiled the work Hualin Fodian zhongjing mulu ('The Catalogue of the Scriptures Kept in the Buddha Hall of Hualin Palace') in 513 on the orders of the Wu emperor of the Liang dynasty. He was a learned monk who lived in recluse and gave up his hermitage so that it could be reconstructured and used as a Buddhist temple. Qianlong mentions 'the gift of Sengshao' which is the famous Qixia si ('Perched among Rosy Clouds Temple').

By comparing himself with famous figures in antiquity, Qianlong was setting an example for himself and for others to follow. He wrote that his preference was 'pure conversation' insinuating that Li Deyu and the others were men who were free from the taint of the mundane, political and personal ambitions and all worldly concerns that he himself had to experience on daily basis. According to Prof. Lynn, in the poem Qianlong seems to be writing as if he were the bamboo ruyi, his viewpoint acting both for it and for himself. It can safely be assumed that the poem was written for this particular sceptre.

The technique of bamboo-veneer (zhuhuang) was developed during Qianlong's reign. It involves taking the inner wall of the bamboo stem which is of light yellow colouration and applying it over a wood core which is then left plain or carved in shallow relief to achieve an elaborate decoration, often, in a two-colour effect. See an elaborately carved bamboo-veneer sceptre decorated with jade pieces illustrated in The Palace Museum Collection of Elite Carvings, Beijing, 2004, pl. 55.

A large white 'taihu' rock, Qing dynasty. photo courtesy Sotheby's

the chalky white, porous and pitted surface pierced with holes, wooden stand, together with an ink painting on paper by Liu Dan, with one seal of the artist, framed, wood stand. Quantity: 3 - rock: 85 cm., 33 1/2 in. painting: 39.3 by 37 cm., 15 1/2 by 14 1/2 in. Estimate 2,000,000 - 3,000,000 HKD

PROVENANCE: Rock: My Humble House, Taipei, circa 1991.
Painting: Gift from the artist, 1995.

NOTES: The painting is signed:
Work of Liu Dan (b. 1953) from Jinling in the ninth month of the jihai year (1995)

Lu Dan was born in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, into a scholarly family that educated him and his siblings in philosophy, poetry, painting and calligraphy. His main teacher was his grandfather who taught him calligraphy because he believed that calligraphy distinguished an ordinary 'man' from the 'gentleman'. It was a mark of a true scholar-artist. In 1966, during Mao's Cultural Revolution, Liu was sent to the countryside where he worked as a farmer on the paddy fields. Despite the hardships, he continued drawing and writing poems and calligraphy. With the ending of the Cultural Revolution, he enrolled in the newly opened Jiangsu Academy of Chinese Painting where he was a student between 1978 and 1981. At the academy he learnt the art of traditional Chinese ink-painting, as well as Western painting. Upon graduation, he moved to New York in 1992, where he remained for the next 25 years developing and perfecting his own distinguished painting style. Liu is the master of monumental landscapes and rocks that transcend the boundaries between Chinese and Western style painting. His compositions are powerful yet delicate and elegant at the same time. Working within the framework of traditional materials, formats and subjects, Liu's work is set apart from traditional Chinese ink painting. They are not copies of the great masters of the past, but are 21st century innovative masterpieces. Liu shows great admiration and respect for the classical tradition, however, in his work he has taken the essence and has managed to revitalize and rescue something that was fast becoming stagnant and languished from the past.

Liu Dan's works have been included in a number of exhibitions such as the exhibition Outside In: Chinese X American X Contemporary Art, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, 2009; and in the exhibition The Chinese Landscape: Recent Acquisitions, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, Mass., 2006.

A nanmu root 'lingzhi' ruyi sceptre. Qing dynasty - The Empty-Headed Hermit's Ruyi Sceptre.

from a natural hollowed root, the fine grained wood of golden- brown tone with a slight greenish tinge, together with three paintings by the Master of the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat, with five seals of the artist. Quantity: 4 - ruyi: 57 cm., 22 1/2 in. paintings: 69.5 by 76.8 cm., 27 3/8 by 30 1/4 in. 77.5 by 61 cm., 30 1/2 by 24 in.90.7 by 22.8 cm., 35 3/8 by 9 in. Estimate 300,000 - 400,000 HKD

PROVENANCE: Acquired in Germany, December 1990

A boxwood imperial 'lingzhi' ruyi sceptre. Mark and period of Yongzheng. photo courtesy Sotheby's

naturalistically carved from a single branch, the head with one large lingzhi and several attendant shoots, the stalk with burls and knots partially hollow on the back, inscribed on the stalk with a four-character reign mark, the smooth patina of warm ochre tone, together with an ink painting on paper by the Master of the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat, with two seals of the artist - ruyi: 39 cm., 15 3/8 in. painting: 58.3 by 75.5 cm., 23 by 29 3/4 in. Estimate 5,000,000 - 7,000,000 HKD

EXHIBITION: Arts from the Scholar's Studio, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1986, cat. no. 7.

LITERATURE: Jean de Loisy and Alain Thuleau, La Beauté, Flammarion, 2000, p. 238.

NOTES: The present sceptre is a masterpiece of naturalism much favoured by the Yongzheng emperor for its simple and 'raw' appearance. During Yongzheng's reign, decoration on artefacts is generally characterized as elegantly simple and restrained. Sceptres of this seemingly unaffected form would have been made for his personal use. Technically, the sceptre is impeccable and is finished to appear as if just found in the woods. However, on close glance it is evident that the carver has skilfully applied his talent to its making and had used the long gnarled stalk creating a piece of art.

The four-character reign mark, written in elegant regular script, is typical of that found on Imperial wares made in the palace workshop, while the natural wear and patination of the object further confirms the present sceptre's authenticity. The piece is the product of the wood carving workshop, originally set up by Yongzheng's father, the Kangxi emperor, within the Forbidden City in Beijing. According to Moss and Tsang, ibid., p. 42, 'the art of moulding gourds set up within the palace by the Kangxi emperor also required the production of finely carved primary wood moulds, while some of the stands made for pieces in the imperial collection are of the highest quality and works of art in their own right. The skills certainly existed within the palace workshops to produce a ruyi such as this'.

For examples of natural wood sceptres see two illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Ju-I Sceptres in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1974, pls. 22-23, both made of birch. See also a court painting titled A Life Portrait of Emperor Yongzheng Watching Flowers, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Paintings by the Court Artists of the Qing Court, Hong Kong, 1996, pl. 19, where the emperor is depicted holding a ruyi sceptre of closely related naturalistic form.

The number and opulence of ruyi sceptres increased during the reign of Yongzheng's son, the Qianlong emperor. It was Qianlong who officially ordered the court to present sceptres at imperial birthdays and New Year celebrations. Sceptres were made in all mediums with their design left to the artists' imagination. See ten sceptres included in the exhibition China. The Three Emperors, the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2006, cat. nos. 273-282, which represent the variety of imperial sceptres from the Qing Court collection and presently in the Palace Museum, Beijing.

A Grey 'Ying' Scholar's Rock. Ming - Qing Dynasty - The Dancing Sage Scholar's Rock.

the pale grey vertically oriented stone with a rough, pitted and jagged surface on one side and a smooth back side, hongmu stand, together with an ink painting on paper by the Master of the Water, Pine and Stone Retreat, with three seals of the artist. Quantity: 3 - stone: 27 cm., 10 5/8 in. painting: 76.5 by 47.6 cm., 30 1/8 by 80 3/4 in. Estimate 150,000 - 250,000 HKD

PROVENANCE: Acquired in Hong Kong, February 1991.

Sotheby's. “Water, Pine And Stone Retreat Collection - Objects cf Contemplation”. Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (New Wing). 8 Apr 2010 www.sothebys.com