AN IMPORTANT AND RARE WHITE JADE 'XINTIAN ZHUREN' SEAL QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD

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of large square form, surmounted by a finely carved pair of addorsed crouching Ming-style dragons, each carved with large round eyes, the pointy nose touching the top of the flared upper lips, all below bushy eyebrows and long horns, the smooth scaleless bodies intertwined and writhing displaying great vigor and power, pierced though the centre with an aperture, the square face deeply and crisply carved in the positive with the four characters in a rarely seen ancient script reading Xintian Zhuren ('The ruler who believes in Heaven'), the stone of light grey tone with pale yellow grey inclusions

The overall condition is very good. The upper corner with the character 'zhu' seems to be slightly polished, but it appears to be a characteristic of the seal recorded in the impression in the Baoshou, and not so much a condition issue.
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The Qianlong Emperor's 'Xintian Zhuren' Seal
Guo Fuxiang
Researcher, The Palace Museum, Department of Palace History, Beijing

The Qianlong emperor (r. 1735–1796) had several well-known sobriquets, among them changchun jushi ('gentleman of eternal spring'), guxi tianzi ('the over-seventy-year-old son of Heaven'), and shiquan laoren ('the old man with a perfect military record'). He also had some less-well-known sobriquets, among which was xintian zhuren ('ruler who believes in Heaven'). In fact, xintian zhuren was one of the more important sobriquets of the Qianlong emperor. Throughout his life, he had made at least eleven seals with this inscription, though varying in shape and size. One of these, a massive seal of white jade with a knob of intertwined dragons, was auctioned by Sotheby's Hong Kong in October 2010.¹ Coincidentally, this same company acquired another xintian zhuren seal, one made rather early on by the Qianlong emperor, and this seal will go on the auction block this April. This seal has a body of white jade, a knob of intertwined dragons, and a face with four seal characters xintian zhuren cut in relief. In the Qianlong baosou (Catalogue of Qianlong Seals), a catalogue of impressions of Qianlong imperial seals, held by the Beijing Palace Museum, there is a clear description of this seal. Comparing the piece before us with the description in this catalogue, we find that it perfectly matches in terms of material composition, size, style of the seal characters, and the layout. Hence, we can verify that this imperial seal is indeed from the Qianlong period.

Since the production of the xintian zhuren seal is intimately connected with the historically important Qing pacification of the Dzungars and suppression of a Muslim uprising early in the Qianlong period, and hence with the consolidation of the northwest frontier. It is thus an important material expression of the Qianlong emperor's civil administration and military victories. In my essay for the October 2010 auction of the other xintian zhuren seal, I have already elaborated on the historical circumstances in considerable detail and have explained the relevance of the sobriquet xintian zhuren. Here I will repeat the relevant details and elaborate further on the xintian zhuren seal to be auctioned, so that the reader can better understand and become familiar with this seal.

The killing of Burhan al-Din and Khoja Jihan, the leaders of the Muslim uprising, in the ninth lunar month of 1759 marked the end of the Qing five-year campaign to pacify the Dzungars and suppress the Muslim uprising. The Qing government thus was completely successful in its efforts at preventing the Northwest from gaining independence, keeping the country unified, and stabilizing the situation in the Northwest. The Qianlong emperor gave the following lofty assessment of these two campaigns: "We reckoned that we needed to send in the army, and in less than five years, we no longer have to conscript from the interior regions. Moreover, more than 1,000 settlements west of the pass were added to Chinese territory, and like these Kazakhs, eastern and western Buluts (Oirats), and Muslims at our court, city-states of these peoples were pacified in turn, and now all the tribes of Badakhshan present captives at the [imperial] temple and are filial of their own accord. Previously this area had no contact with the central regions of the empire, and now these people serve as ministers and servants at the imperial court. One searches the history books in vain for such a flourishing state of affairs. Though from the beginning I would have welcomed this turn of events, I never thought that it would actually occur."² Looking back on the five-year campaign to pacify the frontier, the Qianlong emperor, in his delight, could not help but explain in detail the gains and losses, and the ensuing doubts. Hence, he wrote his well-known account Kaihuo lun ('Resolving Doubts'), and on 13^th December 1759, distributed it to his ministers and gave public notice of the work in China and abroad.

Kaihuo lun is an important discursive work of the young Qianlong emperor. In imitation of Sizi jiang de lun ('Four Notables Discuss Virtue'), written by the literatus Wang Bao of the Western Han (206 bce–8 ce), Kaihuo lun has a moralizing learned scholar and an accomplished grandee recalling and passing judgment, in this case, on the Qing court's subduing the Dzungars and Muslims in the western borderlands. Qianlong also presented his own views of the Qing government's use of the military in the west. In this work, the moralistic scholar, whose learning inclines him to affirm the past and denigrate the present, and hence to adhere to the conventional view, criticizes the Qing government for wantonly engaging in military aggression. While the accomplished grandee, as is his wont, makes light of the enemy for military advantage, dismisses the doubts, and hopes quickly to accomplish the business at hand. In the text, Qianlong assumes the role of 'the ruler who believes in Heaven' (xintian zhuren) and offers interpolated judgments on the arguments of the scholar and the grandee, which he holds are of no consequence. At the end of the text Qianlong says, " 'You two cannot even distinguish apples and pears. How can you know me, the ruler who believes in Heaven?' The ruler who believes in Heaven then summoned the grandee and the scholar and told them, 'Just because Chu has lost some territory, does not mean that Qi has thereby gained it [Chu and Qi being two states of the Warring States Period]. For he who follows Heaven prospers, and he who acts contrary to Heaven perishes. Heaven proceeds in a timely fashion. Hence, how is he who acts in accord with Heaven depending on force to expand? Moreover, encountering numerous dangers and numerous peoples, the army became more spirited with the changes. Once mobilized, the army brought two areas into submission and 20,000 settlements into the fold, and it accomplished all this in five years. Even if we had given up the fight to avoid difficulties, we still might suffer disaster.' "³ This passage is the origin of the Qianlong emperor's sobriquet xintian zhuren ('ruler who believes in Heaven'). Clearly, the emperor called himself 'the ruler who believes in Heaven' because 'he who follows Heaven prospers, and he who acts contrary to Heaven perishes.' The sobriquet is also a concrete expression of his personal commitment, to his ancestors, to respect Heaven and cherish the people, and also of his gratitude for Heaven's aid and protection.

Then next time that this sobriquet was discussed in detail was twenty-five years after the writing of Kaihuo lun when the emperor and his court, in recollecting the emperor's accomplishments and congratulating him on his eightieth birthday, deliberated the meaning of of "the ruler who believes in Heaven." During the midsummer of 1784 the seventy-four-year-old emperor ruminated that though there was not a day since ascending the throne that he did not respect Heaven, exert himself on behalf of the people and that he did not enjoy the aid of vast Heaven, felt weary at the prospect of another eleven years on the throne. To exhort himself to carry on, he composed the poem 'Xintian zhuren zizhen' ('The Ruler Who Believes in Heaven Admonishes Himself'):

In the past I wrote a work on resolving doubts.
And in it I called myself the ruler who believes in Heaven.
I asserted that danger can often be turned into safety.
And captures and losses can still make for gains.
When a matter is settled, there is no point in looking back and remembering.
When the journey is long, benefits alone make the soul cautious.
In the past, only rarely has Heaven favored believers.
What training must I undergo to be among the few?"⁴

Over the next ten years, nearly every year one can find mention of xintian zhuren ('ruler who believes in Heaven') or a seal bearing this inscription. For example, the notes to the couplets of the elders' banquet of the first lunar month of 1785 tell us, "The western army having completed its objective, the emperor wrote Kaihuo lun, revealing the ruler who believes in Heaven, in order to dispel ignorance, and explained that the notion that he who follows Heaven prospers is also to be celebrated for its healthful benefits." And also, "the emperor on occasion admonished himself for being diligent to begin with and fatigued at the end, this year composing the poem Xintian zhuren zizhen.⁵ And in Ba zheng mao nian zhi bao lianju ('Couplets on the Seal of Concern over Phenomena at Eighty') of the first lunar month of 1790, he wrote, "In 1760 the western army finished its mission, and the Dzungars and Muslims were brought into the empire. The emperor recalled the events leading up to the use of military force. His ministers debated, and all had their doubts, but the emperor decided on a brilliant strategy on his own, and in less than five years the army reported its mission accomplished. The emperor wrote Kaihuo lun to send a message in China and abroad. As interlocutors in this dialogue, he created a moralizing learned scholar and an accomplished grandee, mediated by the ruler who believes in Heaven. He then had the seal xintian zhuren ('ruler who believes in Heaven') engraved, making use of an appellation in the work."⁶ Even as late a work as Hongfan jiuwu fu zhi wu yue kaozhongming lianju ('Couplets on the Fifth Happiness, Dying a Natural Death', "The Great Plan," 95, Book of History), of the first lunar month of 1795, says, "In the campaign of the western army, after Dawaci was captured and Ili thoroughly pacified, Amursana still harboring different intentions, retreated and continued to rebel. The emperor thought it necessary to attack, but some of his ever-cautious ministers recommended against it. The emperor then expounded the arguments of the 'ruler who believes in Heaven' work to extinguish their doubts. After the western borderlands were entirely pacified, the emperor commanded that xintian zhuren be engraved on a seal of jade. Since the emperor silently conformed to the will of Heaven, this had a direct influence on Heaven, and Heaven helped things go smoothly."⁷ One can thus see how the emperor's decisiveness in suppressing the Dzungar and Muslim uprisings and the ensuing campaign are intimately connected with the emperor's sobriquet xintian zhuren and the making of the xintian zhuren seal.

Xintian zhuren was a sobriquet that the Qianlong emperor liked, so it was quite natural for him to make seals with this inscription. By drawing correspondences with the facts above, we learn that the creation of xintian zhuren seals was concentrated in two time periods. First, shortly after Qianlong authored Kaihuo lun ('Resolving Doubts') in 1759, the emperor commanded that court artisans make a number of jade and stone xintian zhuren seals of different sizes. Rough data indicates that there were about fifty-six seals made. These seals were impressed on books and paintings that the emperor created himself. Even today one can see these seals in the collection of the Palace Museum. Another batch of seals were made after 1785, when the Qianlong emperor sought to propagate the notion of the Qing dynasty's civilized governance and military prowess.

The present white-jade xintian zhuren seal that Sotheby's Hong Kong will place on the auction block was manufactured during the first period, roughly about 1760.

Close inspection reveals two features of this white jade xintian zhuren seal worth noting. One is the style of its seal characters. Ordinarily, imperial seals are carved with regular, neatly formed "jade-chopstick" (yuzhu) seal characters, so that they can be readily deciphered. But this seal, contrary to what one expects, uses seldom seen ancient seal characters. The second feature concerns the knob of the seal. The finely carved dragons have somewhat lowered heads, protruding eyes, and slightly raised lips, giving them an august countenance. The dragons' scaleless bodies arch up, and their legs are thick and powerful. The knob is thus carved in the classic Ming style of intertwined dragons. Clearly, a Ming-period imperial seal served as the model for the present seal.

As for the use of this seal, on the upper portion of a huge portrait of the Qianlong emperor at around 80, a painting in the collection of the Palace Museum, there are impressions of four Qianlong imperial seals, the leftmost of which is an impression of the present xintian zhuren seal.⁸ In another work, an imperial album of the eighteen lohan painted on pipal leaves (Yuzhi shiba yingzhen xiangzan), auctioned by Sotheby's Hong Kong in October 2010, the front and back endpapers each have an impression of a massive Qianlong imperial seal, a total of eight impressions of eight seals. Among them is an impression of the xintian zhuren seal.⁹ Whether the impression is the rubbing in Qianlong baosou, the impressions on the two works just mentioned, or an impression that I made using the present xintian zhuren seal, all these impressions have a peculiarity worth noticing, and this is that the border corner near the character zhu (the upper left corner in the impression) juts out somewhat, making the border slightly curved and not perfectly square. I noticed this peculiarity earlier, but did not know the cause and attributed it to the seal user. Yet when I saw the original seal, I inspected it carefully and made an impression myself. Only then did I realize that the corner of the base by the character zhu is lower than the rest of the base, making the base uneven. Hence, when one makes an impression, to make all the lines clear, one has to press down hard on the lower corner of the base. This makes the corner lines longer and the affected area to curve out slightly. Even though these impressions were made nearly over 250 years ago, this protrusion of the corner is remarkably consistent and shows that this seal is the very seal made by the Qianlong emperor.

By means of this xintian zhuren seal, we can sense the effort and achievement of the Qianlong emperor, more than two hundred years ago, in maintaining China's unity and consolidating China's hold on the northwest borderlands. By placing the process of making this seal within the context of Qing dynasty history, and by adding a little research, we can begin to appreciate the value of this seal.

¹ An Important Private Collection of Qing Historical Works of Art, Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7th October  2010, lot 2103.
² Qing Gaozong shilu (Veritable Records of the Qianlong Emperor), vol. 599.
³ Qing Gaozong yuzhi wen chuji (Writings of the Qianlong Emperor, Collection 1), vol. 3.
⁴ Qing Gaozong yuzhi shi wuji (Poetry of the Qianlong Emperor, Collection 5), vol. 9.
⁵ Qing Gaozong yuzhi shi wuji (Poetry of the Qianlong Emperor, Collection 5), vol. 11.
⁶ Qing Gaozong yuzhi shi wuji (Poetry of the Qianlong Emperor, Collection 5), vol. 51.
⁷ Qing Gaozong yuzhi shi wuji (Poetry of the Qianlong Emperor, Collection 5), vol. 93.
⁸ Arts of Asia, January–February 2011, p. 44.
⁹ Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8th October 2010, lot 2631.