AN INSCRIBED IMPERIAL CELADON JADE PLAQUE QING DYNASTY, QIANLONG PERIOD

of rectangular form, one face exquisitely incised and gilded with scholars and attendants engaged in various pursuits amongst a riverside landscape with pavilions sheltered amongst pine, bamboo and wutong trees, the reverse engraved and gilded with an inscription from the Lanting xu (Preface to the Orchid Pavilion) in Qianlong Emperor’s calligraphy, the stone of an even pale celadon tone

This plaque is in reasonably good condition, but there is a flaw to the centre of one side that has chipped, approx. 1.2cm by 0.3cm. There are also small chips to two of the four corners.
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This plaque is notable for its inscription which is incised in the calligraphic style of the Qianlong Emperor, and cites a passage from Wang Xizhi’s (a.307- c.365) Lanting xu (Preface to the Orchid Pavilion). It combines three of Qianlong’s passions: calligraphy, history and highly-crafted works of art. His particular enthusiasm for Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy, who was also known as the ‘Sage of Calligraphy’, is well documented as the emperor made it his lifelong mission to assemble as many important copies of Wang’s works as possible. On the 44th year of his reign (1779), Qianlong compiled in an eight-volume work, comprised of the best surviving copies of the Lanting xu together with copies of other great Tang calligraphers and his own poems.

Inscribed jades of the Qianlong period are more commonly produced with clerical or regular (kaishu) script. Compare plaques of this double-sided type, with a pictorial image on one side and inscriptions on the other, such as one with a landscape, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st June 2011, lot 3622; another with Daoist immortals, from the De An Tang collection, included in the exhibition A Romance with Jade, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2004, cat. no. 23; and a third, depicting a pine tree and dragon border, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum. Jade, vol. 8, Qing dynasty, Beijing, 2011, pl. 154, together with a pair of plaques gilded only on one side with landscape scenes, pl. 152. See also a plaque inscribed and gilded on the same side with a landscape and an imperial poem, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s exhibition The Refined Taste of the Emperor, Taipei, 1997, cat. no. 68.

Considered Wang’s most famous work, the Lanting xu was written at Lanting [Orchid Pavilion] near Shanyin, Zhejiang province, on the 9th year of the Yonghe reign (corresponding to AD 353). To celebrate the Spring Purifying Ceremony, Wang invited 41 guests to participate in a poetry competition whereby if they failed to write a poem they had to drink wine.