AN IMPERIALLY INSCRIBED SPINACH-GREEN JADE TABLE SCREEN QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD

of rectangular section, finely carved on one side with a dramatic mountainous landscape scene depicting the acolyte Su Shi in contemplation by a high craggy mountain rock, with his two companions below conversing under a pine tree, surrounded by further gnarled pine and paulownia trees with clouds swirling above, the reverse carved with five figures riding in a boat down a gushing river, surrounded by pine and paulownia issuing from the craggy riverbank, each side incised and gilt with a six-column inscription written in lishu, the stone of a translucent deep green tone mottled with apple-green inclusions and black speckling, cleverly incorporated into the composition, later bronze stand supported on each side with three beast-feet punctuated by sharp talons

One side of the screen is inscribed with the poem titled Yuti Hou Chibi tu (Later Red Cliff Rhapsody) by the Qianlong Emperor.  This poem is recorded in the Yuzhi shiji (Imperial Poetry Collection) compiled in the Siku quanshu (Library of the Four Treasuries), Sanji, 42:13b, and can be translated as follows:

Whenever has it not been hard
to bear the cold up high?
From steep mountain top, air sharp and luminous,
he looks down on blue-green waves.
Hanging back, his two guests
go on arguing this or that,
But now one points up to the sky
and so they see him there.

The reverse is inscribed with the poem titled Yuti Qian Chibi tu (Former Red Cliff Rhaspsody) by the Qianlong Emperor.  This poem is recorded in the Yuzhi shiji (Imperial Poetry Collection) compiled in the Siku quanshu (Library of the Four Treasures), Sanji, 32:20b, and can be translated as follows:

Moon white and breeze pure
that autumn of the year renxu,
When with profound delight Dongpo
let his boat float free.
To have an illustration carved in jade
only such as this is suitable,
And who other than a Shuze
would dare keep it company!

It is clear that the Qianlong emperor was so inspired by the famous 11th century 'Red Cliff' poems of Su Dongpo illustrated on the present screen that he had his own thoughts included in verse form.  This was by no means an unusual occurance, as the Qianlong emperor was well-known for having his poetry inscribed on works which had captured his imagination.

A spinach-green screen depicting Daoist figures in a mountainous landscape, also inscribed with an imperial poem, is illustrated in Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 124, pp. 154-155. 

The majority of similar carved and inscribed screens attributed to the Qianlong period are of white jade, often depicting Daoist or scholarly themes.  A white jade screen depicting Mount Riguan, also bearing a poem composed by the Qianlong emperor was sold in these rooms 28th April 1998, lot 1010, and is illustrated in A Romance with Jade.  From the De An Tang Collection, Beijing, 2004, no. 63, p. 116.  Other examples of carved white jade screen bearing inscriptions include the pair of screens depicting a fisherman and a scholar and acolyte, sold in these rooms, 18th May 1988, lot 538, a vertical screen depicting pavilions on a rocky island, sold in these rooms, 16th November 1989, lot 764, and another vertical screen, depicting a scholar watching from a pavilion as an acolyte washes an inkstone, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1st April 1992, lot 1200.  The theme of the 'Red Cliff' odes was very popular, and works displaying this theme have been executed in a variety of media, including porcelain, bamboo, and jade.  For a 'mountain' landscape, depicting a boat being carried on a swift current beneath rocky cliffs from the Qing court collection, see The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictoral Jades of the Ch'ing Court, Taipei, 1997, no. 49, pp. 160-161.  See also a carved 'mountain' with very similar composition of river-boat and cliffs, with incised Imperial poem illustrated in Robert Kleiner, Chinese Jades from the Collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, Hong Kong, 1996, no. 127, pp 160-161.