A large white jade 'qilin and book' carving, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period | 清乾隆 白玉麒麟背書擺件

A European private collection.

Sotheby's London, 14th November 2000, lot 52.

歐洲私人收藏

倫敦蘇富比2000年11月14日，編號52

The present white jade carving of a ferocious mythical beast, detailed with scrolling clouds supporting a brocade-covered book, is notable for its large size and heavy weight.

A similar carving was included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition, Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1975, cat. no. 374; and a pale green jade version, with the book sliding off of the ruyi scroll-covered back of the qilin, was included in the exhibition Jade as Sculpture, Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, 1975, cat. no. 11. See also a larger example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum. Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 94.

According to the Liji [Book of rites], written from the Warring States Period to the Qin and Han dynasties, Fuxi, the first of the three legendary rulers of ancient China, was observing all under heaven when he saw a creature emerge from the river. This creature had the form of a horse, the head of a dragon and the scales of a fish, thus containing the essence of both heaven and earth. The markings on the creature's back inspired Fuxi to invent the eight trigrams, which led to the invention of writing, represented by the book on the creature's back. Later writings described the creature as appearing when a sage ruled the land.

此玉碩大厚重，妙琢麒麟回首，口吐祥雲，繞環背上冊書。相類玉雕，可參考東方陶瓷學會展覽一例，收入《Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages》，維多利亞與艾伯特博物館，倫敦，1975年，編號374。另見一青白玉例，曾展於《Jade as Sculpture》，明尼蘇達州藝術博物館，聖保羅，1975，編號11。北京故宮藏一尺寸較大之例，收入《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集．玉器（下）》， 香港，1995年，圖版94。

據《禮記》，傳說伏羲氏某天見有獸自河中冒出，此獸馬軀、龍首、魚䚬，聚天地之氣，獸背上圖案，是為《河圖》，伏羲氏由此繪成八卦，進而衍變出文字。後人又指每有明君治世，麒麟便應瑞而出。