AN INSCRIBED WHITE JADE 'ORCHID PAVILION' PLAQUE QING DYNASTY, 19TH CENTURY |

of rectangular form, the front face worked in relief depicting scholars gathered at Lanting (Orchid Pavilion) amongst a mountainous landscape, below a gilt-inscribed imperial poem corresponding to the scene, the reverse with two further scholars and their attendant journeying up the mountains towards the Yunquan waterfalls below another imperial poem corresponding to the scene, the stone of an even white tone with occasional milky inclusions

The plaque is in good overall condition with typical minute bruises and nibbling to fragile extremities. There is also expected rubbing to the gilding.
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The present jade plaque follows the tradition of shiyi tu (poetic paintings), which aims to translate poetry into artworks. The aesthetics and poetic quality of this type of works are amplified through the juxtaposition of the poems with the corresponding pictorial depiction. On the present plaque, one scene illustrates a pavilion overlooking a freshly melted waterfall, which announces the arrival of Spring. The other scene depicts Wang Xizhi at the famous Lanting (Orchid Pavilion) gathering near Shanyin, Zhejiang province, to celebrate the Spring Purifying Ceremony in the 9th year of the Yonghe reign (353 AD). The wine cups on leaves floating down the stream refers to the poetry competition, which condemned the scholars to drink wine if they failed to come up with a poem.

A slightly smaller table screen, decorated with scholars and inscribed with an imperial poem, is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and illustrated in The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, Taipei, 1997, cat. no. 67.