AN IMPORTANT IMPERIALLY INSCRIBED WHITE JADE BLADE YUTI MARK AND PERIOD OF QIANLONG

of archaistic fu form, the exquisitely polished white stone with flared sides intricately worked in low relief with a band of archaistic scrolls, between two bands of concentric circles and cloud patterns, all above a pair of boldly defined taotie masks, pierced with a circular aperture near the top, incised on one side with an imperial poem praising Hetian jade, followed by Qianlong yuti ('Emperor Qianlong's imperial composition') and two seals reading guxiang ('Fragrance of antiquitiy') and taiyu ('Noble jade') respectively, one of the thin sides incised with the phrase zhuzi wushisan hao ('zhu character, no. 53'), the translucent stone of an even white colour mottled with icy-white inclusions

The overall condition is very good with only a few occasional expected nicks to the edges. With some light brown veining and natural inclusion, the actual colour of the jade is slightly more tinged with celadon than suggested in the catalogue.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Jade blade pendant inscribed with the Qianlong Emperor’s poem
Guo Fuxiang

The reign of the Qianlong Emperor was a golden age of Chinese jades.

Building on the flourishing Kangxi and Yongzheng reigns, the Qianlong period (1735-96) was the high point of traditional Chinese feudal civilisation. The Chinese empire was socially stable and prosperous to an unprecedented degree. As the imperial court gained in wealth, it undertook many large-scale renovations and expansions of its palaces and gardens, greatly increasing the need for quality interior furnishings. Of these jades were an important part and were found in virtually every palace building and garden. The imperial court became the richest depository of jades, and the emperors and their family members possessed the greatest number of jades in the empire. The Qianlong Emperor, particularly smitten with jades, even personally intervened in their production at the imperial workshops. Imperial aesthetics and the emperor’s personal taste strongly affected the technique and style of jade production at the court; this is reflected directly or indirectly in many extant jades produced by the imperial workshops of the Qianlong court.¹ An extant example is the archaistic jade blade pendant inscribed with Qianlong’s poem offered here.

This jade blade pendant, made from pale white jade, is 18 cm in height and 7 cm in width. Its edges are 0.5 cm in thickness, and its thickest part measures about 1 cm. Wide on top and tapering inwards towards the bottom, with rounded top and bottom edges, the blade has a single hole. The top edge is dull and unsharpened. The blade’s decorative motifs are concentrated in the middle and identical on both sides. The top register of the decorative motifs features a face-like image with glaring eyes, open mouths, sharp teeth, and ear ornaments. The bottom register features two bands of concentric circles sandwiching a band of incised kuiwen pattern. One side of the blade is inscribed with a poem written by the Qianlong Emperor himself:

          ‘Jades from Khotan are many,
          White as fat, strong and delicate;
          This piece is truly dazzling,
          Without defect that mars its essence.
          Fittingly made into a blade pendant,
          It achieves harmony between hardness and softness.
          Vaguely visible is the incised kuiwen pattern,
          Elaborated following the methods of the ancients.
          In recent times the vulgar craftspeople
          Have created trendy new looks.
          Their broken wares appeal to rich merchants;
          But if we receive them as tributes we immediately throw them away.
          Such is the danger faced by jades;
          I record this in a poem of five-character lines’.

The poem is signed Qianlong yu ti ('Inscribed by His Majesty Qianlong') and followed by two seal impressions reading gu xiang and tai pu. A side edge of the pendant is inscribed in regular script with the characters Zhu zi wushisan hao in the opposite direction to the decorative patterns. This work is noteworthy as a perfect embodiment of the character of Qianlong-era court jades and a reflection of the emperor’s aesthetic taste and his support of the production of archaistic jades.

First, let us consider the basic direction of jade production of the Qianlong court as reflected by this work.

Qianlong wrote many poems in praise of jades made in an archaistic manner. “To rid vulgarity I instruct [craftspeople] only to imitate the ancients,”² “To make beautiful jades I instruct [craftspeople] to follow the ancients,”³ “To make beautiful wares I always instruct [craftspeople] to follow the ancient methods”⁴—although Qianlong wrote these lines in appreciation of and reference to specific objects, they are intimately related to his more general aesthetic principles and indicate his tireless promotion of the production of archaistic jades. Qianlong’s passion for archaism in jades can be considered a continuation of the late Ming aesthetics of archaism. Early on during his reign, he had already instructed Suzhou imperial manufactory to produce wares with “archaistic form and patterns.” He even asked the manufactory to “seek good jades to make wares according to the dimensions recorded and illustrated in the book,” the latter being Kaogutu, a catalogue of ancient artifacts.⁵ Throughout his life, the Qianlong Emperor maintained a strong interest in archaistic wares and tirelessly promoted their production. Motivated by love and admiration for antiquity, Qianlong’s taste in jades was consistent with his more general artistic principle of archaism as the foundation of creativity. It was also an important antidote to what he considered vulgarity in contemporary jades. With Qianlong setting the tone, the imperial workshops of his court produced a great number of archaistic jades, including the current piece.

Furthermore, this jade blade pendant reflects the flexibility and creativity of Qianlong-period court jade production.

Every piece of raw jade has a unique shape, size, colour, and quality, all of which impose constraints on the final product. Unlike other media, such as ceramics, textiles, and enamel ware, for which mass-production following the same model was possible, archaistic jades are rarely identical to their models. Instead they tend to be creative imitations of form and decorative motifs that account for the physical properties of the raw materials. They are thus inspired and not slavish imitations of their antique models. Jade artisans of the mid  to late Qianlong period were animated by the desire to innovate by 'learning from antiquity' and not sheer resemblance, and they rarely artificially aged or dyed their works, instead preserving their original colors. This was another characteristic of the archaistic jades of the Qianlong court.⁶ The present blade pendant is an excellent example of such creative archaism. Its form and decorative motifs are clearly based on the face-like motifs of Neolithic jades, but at the same time differ from the latter in execution. For example, the complex, variegated lines and whirlpool patterns in the Neolithic predecessors are here replaced by cloud patterns and concentric circles respectively. Realism is reduced in favor of ornamental quality to create a new kind of beauty. Furthermore, the present blade pendant preserves the original appearance of its raw form and has not been dyed. All these characteristics are typical of archaistic jades produced in the Qianlong court.

Third, the present work reflects the Qianlong Emperor’s personal participation in the production of archaistic jades.

The blade pendant bears two inscriptions, one being the poem discussed above and the other reading Zhu zi wushisan hao (’Zhu character, no. 53'). From the latter we know that this work was one of a series of archaistic jade blade pendants that Qianlong had made, with suitable adjustments, after Neolithic jade gui tablets. (They were ordered numerically as well as according to the sequence of characters in the Thousand-Character Essay.) About a decade into his reign, the Qianlong Emperor already had the idea of creating such jade blade pendants serially, and persisted in this project for decades, possibly until his death. Historical documents indicate that the first blade pendant in this series, a white jade with embossed patterns inscribed Tian zi yi hao ('Tian character, no. 1'), was designed and carved by the famous court artisan Yao Zongren. The latest known survival in the series is inscribed Gong zi yibao wushisan hao ('Gong character, no. 153'), indicating the considerable scale of the project. Among the many survival blade pendants in the series, the present work is unusual in being inscribed with a poem by the Qianlong Emperor. Recorded in Qing Gaozong yuzhi shi si ji [The anthology of imperial Qianlong poems, collection 4], vol. 49, the poem was composed in 1783, and its original title Hetian yu fupei ('Jade blade pendant made from Khotan jade') informs us that it was written on a specific object. At the time, Qianlong was dismayed by the vulgar new-style jades that he called yu’e or 'jade catastrophes', and the poem was clearly a polemic against them. The object of the poem may have been the present pendant itself. In either case, the pendant is a vivid and invaluable document of the emperor’s personal involvement in rectifying vulgarity in jades by supporting archaism.

Pure and warm in material, subtle and profound in form, antique and refined in decoration, with an inscription of praise by the emperor himself, the present jade blade pendant is a perfect fusion of various cultural elements. Delicately and indelibly, it recreates for us the historical milieu of Qianlong’s passion for and promotion of archaism in jades.

¹ Guo Fuxiang, 'Qianlong di yu Suzhou yuqi diaoke', Gugong xuekan, Beijing, 2010, vol. 6.
² Hongli [the Qianlong Emperor], Yuzhi shi wu ji, vol. 13, “Hetianyu longwei gong.”
³ Hongli, Yuzhi shi wu ji, vol. 48, “Yong Hetian yu fang Zhou Zhaofu fangyi.”
⁴ Hongli, Yuzhi shi yu ji, vol. 15, “Yong Hetian yu fupei.”
⁵ Records of the first month of the eighth year of the Qianlong reign, First Historical Archives and the Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong (eds.), Qinggong Neiwufu Zaobanchu dang’an zonghui, vol. 11, Beijing, 2005, p. 484.
⁶ Zhang Liduan, 'Cong ‘Yu’e’ lun Qing Qianlong zhongwan qi shengxing de yuqi leixing yu diwang pinwei', Gugong xueshu jikan, vol. 18, issue 2, Taipei, 2000, pp. 61-116.