Earthenware Jar with Mineral Pigments

Depicted from Collecting Chinese Antiquities in Hong Kong

Earthenware Jar with Mineral Pigments, Machang Phase of Gansu

H: 37 cm, Neolithic period (BC 4800-2800)

The Royal Acrobat

Compiled from Infamous Chinese Emperors

Some quick facts about this infamous emperor:

• Hailed from the Southern Qi Dynasty (479-502).
• Ascended the throne at the age of 17.
• Reigned from 498-501.
• Was given the posthumous title of Marquis of Donghun, which translates to idiotic eastern marquis.
• Liked to roam the streets and behaved like a street performer.

Who was he?

He was Xiao Baojuan. When Xiao Luan, Emperor Mingdi of the Southern Qi Dymasty died, his son, Xiao Baojuan was visibly absent from the mourning and funeral activities. He ascended the throne at the age of 17. He enjoyed performing acrobatic acts and often did it in the presence of his officials but never had time to tend to state affairs.

          The emperor also liked to create roam the streets and create chaos. He drove all the ordinary people away wherever he went. He was usually accompanied by a number of bodyguards and military officers, each beating a drum. Men and women, young and old, had to get away immediately as anyone spotted by the emperor would be executed. Xiao Baojuan liked to go out in the middle of the night and enjoyed the confusion he created. As the panic-stricken people scattered in all directions, some were even stomped to death. With the young and the aged wailing and parents calling out to their children, the streets became a mind-sundering bedlam. The locals in the capital found it difficult to live with the emperor’s monstrous escapades. Shops were closed and traders avoided the capital. It wasn’t long before business in the capital came to a virtual standstill. Even weddings and funerals ceased to be carried out.

          Xiao Baojuan doted on Concubine Pan the most. So, when she said she wanted to visit the markets, the emperor set up a market in the palace by getting his officials to dress up as vendors. One night, the palace caught fire and burnt to the ground. The emperor appointed Shen Yue to take charge of building another palace. No expense was spared in building the new palace. Even the lotus flowers carved on the ground was made of pure gold.

          In 500, troops from various quarters rose up against Xiao Baojuan. They stomped through the palace gates, and just as they were about to seize the emperor, soldiers led by Xiao Yu saved the emperor. However, instead of rewarding them, the emperor executed Xiao Yu on grounds that he might revolt against him in future. In 501, the 19 year old emperor was killed by Xiao Yu’s subordinate generals, Qian Qiang and Feng Yong.

Glorious Innovations – Imperial Porcelains of the Kangxi Era by Anthony Lin (Part 2)

Compiled from Arts of Asia (July-August 2001)

        In 1718, the Imperial Workshop was moved from Wuying Hall to the Yangxin Hall. In 1720, Yang Lin, the Governor of Canton met the French Jesuit, Father Jean-Baptiste Gravereau, who was dispatched to Beijing to work at the atelier for enamelware. The chronology of the preceding events and the numbers of Imperial porcelains painted at these workshops suggest that within a very short time span, the artists had mastered the art of enamelling porcelains in the Western palette.

        The style of the porcelains was a triumphant celebration of colour and decoration. For the most part, these Imperial famille rose wares were fully enamelled with coloured grounds in emulation of European enamels on metal (Pic 1). Bowls marked in blue or pink enamel with Kangxi Yuzhi (Made by Imperial Command for the Emperor Kangxi) form the main part of this repertoire. Dishes, vases and small boxes were made in much smaller quantities.

Pic 1: Orange ground Imperial famille rose bowl painted with orchids

Kangxi Yuzhi mark in blue enamel

Diameter: 11.3 cm

        The use of flowers was largely Chinese, with the peony, rose, lotus and chrysanthemum (Pic 2) foremost among them. Among these, bowls painted with rare variegated flowers such as rambling rose and bleeding heart are much rarer (Pic 3). The freedom with which the designs are interpreted was crucial to the development of freer, more naturalistic painting in the Yongzheng period. The style of these exclusive porcelains was a remarkable combination of European and Chinese aesthetics, best exemplified on the unique tripod censer of pure Chinese shape (Pic 4).

Pic 2: Ruby ground Imperial famille rose bowl with chrysanthemum scroll

Kangxi Yuzhi mark in pink enamel

Diameter: 14.5 cm

Pic 3: Yellow ground Imperial famille rose bowl with naturalistic flowers

Kangxi Yuzhi mark in pink enamel

Diameter: 14.2 cm

Pic 4: Ruby ground Imperial famille rose tripod censer

Kangxi Yuzhi mark in blue enamel

Diameter: 16.5 cm

        A bowl (cover) and cup (Pic 5) painted with lotus illustrates the new and highly successful combination of the styles. Great care was taken to shade the flowers to give them a three-dimensional appearance, and features such as the yellow edges of the decaying leaves are faithfully portrayed. The combination and highlight of the pink, yellow and blue flowers on the bowl is perhaps the most successful example among the series of lotus designs.

        The dichotomy between the ‘Chinese’ and the Manchu tastes is revealed in more equal proportions in the ceramics of the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns. This last great innovation of the famille rose palette was to give rise to another very important development in the Yongzheng period. While the porcelains produced for the Yongzheng Emperor never attained the extraordinary levels of innovation achieved under Kangxi, the virtuosity in the art of enamelling reached unprecedented heights in the group of porcelains referred to by the apocryphal term, Guyuexuan. 

Pic 5: Yellow ground Imperial famille rose cup with naturalistic lotus and wild reeds

Kangxi Yuzhi mark in pink enamel

Height: 4.8 cm

An Imperial Famille Rose 'Egg-shell Thin' Vase

An Imperial Famille Rose 'Egg-shell Thin' Vase, 

15cm, Wen Ge Period 

Glorious Innovations – Imperial Porcelains of the Kangxi Era by Anthony Lin (Part 1)

Compiled from Arts of Asia (July-August 2001)

        The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) is often referred to as the Manchu dynasty. The nomadic Manchus were made up of various affiliated tribes whose horsemanship, hunting skills and fearsome courage breached all Chinese resistance in conquer. The three great rulers of the empire, the Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722), Yongzheng (1723-1735) and Qianlong (1736-1795), not only brought unprecedented prosperity and power to the Middle Kingdom, but became the greatest collectors and patrons of Chinese art and culture.

        Of the three, Kangxi was without doubt the most formidable, both in his piercing intellect and his openness to new ideas and thoughts. Succeeding the throne at the tender age of seven, he was educated and immersed in the classical Chinese tradition, becoming the most ‘Chinese’, yet independently curious and enlightened ruler of his millennium. He practiced calligraphy assiduously, writing a thousand words every day and ‘diligently read all kinds of books for fifty years’. His curiosity about the West brought about a revolution in the arts and sciences of the time.

        Impressed by the missionaries’ knowledge of science, the letters and the arts, Kangxi employed Father Fedinand Verbiest (1623-1688) as his personal tutor. A complete survey of the land was made according to principles of astronomy and the Imperial Atlas of China was compiled and completed in 1718. His fascination with scientific methodology and invention was mirrored in his love for chiming clocks. Western enamels were sent to the court as tribute and gifts inspiring in Kangxi an abiding love for these brightly coloured wares. In 1680, the Imperial Workshops were established. Kangxi’s quest for innovation was to bring about the most prodigious transformation to the ceramic arts.

        Spurred on by Emperor Kangxi’s determination to produce enameled wares in the European style, technological advancement progressed apace. After about 1715, the perfection of colours such as pink derived from gold, opaque yellow and white as well an overglaze blue finally gave the ateliers the arsenal to produce a new genre of porcelain and enameled wares that was to surpass all other polychrome Imperial wares made before the 18^th century. By the end of the Kangxi reign, the unparalleled creation of new styles and wares had laid the foundation on which the Imperial ceramic arts of the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods were built. Nothing that cane later was to equal the variety, complexity and sophistication of Kangxi Imperial wares.

Imperial Style in Kangxi Ceramics

       In the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns, large numbers of blue and white vases produced were imitations of the Yongle and Xuande period (Ming Dynasty). Song revivalism was also rampant, with the recreations of the great Song monochrome glazes of the Ru, Guan, Ge, Jun and Ding kilns. Archaic bronzes of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties were imitated on porcelain with iron-rich glazes.

        During the Kangxi period, the only major decorative technique that reflected the past was a recreation of the great Ming doucai enameled wares of the Chenghua period (1465-1487). The closely copied ‘chicken’ cups (below) bore either Kangxi reign marks or apocryphal Chenghua marks. Only very close scrutiny of the minor differences in the enamels and the particularly unctuous ‘touch’ and tone of the glaze on the Chenghua originals betray the later copies. 

Doucai enamelled 'chicken' cup

Chenghua six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period

Diameter: 8.3cm

Doucai enamelled 'chicken' cup

Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue

Diameter: 8.2cm

Apart from the remarkable novelty in shapes, the other abiding impression of Kangxi wares is of a preference for light, and even minimal, decoration in overglazed decoration. In the new decorative styles developed for famille verte, doucai, ‘three coloured’ biscuit enameled and underglaze blue and copper-red wares, restraint and airiness in decoration was an overriding consideration. On the great series of ‘birthday’ dishes reputedly made for Kangxi sixtieth birthday celebrations, the influence of Song and Yuan album leaves of birds and flowers is particularly notable.

Famille verte 'birthday' dish with an eagle on gingko branch

Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue

Diameter: 25.4cm

Famille verte 'birthday' dish with bird on flowering tree, 

the porcelain decorated with anhua dragons around four characters

hong fu qi tian

Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue

Diameter: 19.5cm 

Two other very popular new designs found on the ‘birthday’ dishes include the delicate portrayal of Daoist fairies in procession on a series of dishes (below) as well as shallow bowls. The lightly penciled style of painting is further reference to the romantic style of the Song era.

Famille verte dish with Daoist fairies and a deer-drawn carriage

Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue

Diameter: 25cm

Another group of dishes and small saucers painted with peaches are among the most exquisite of all the ‘birthday’ porcelains with a very different and ingenious use of the iron red and green enamels to suggest different shades of the fruit.

Small famille verte 'birthday' saucer 

Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue

Diameter: 7cm

The restraint and elegance of these compositions is mirrored in the delicate style of the Chenghua period doucai wares extensively copied at this time. A large number of Chenghua designs were copied in the Kangxi period, the originals of which appear to have been lost. 

Fast Facts #13: The 3 ‘Mirrors’ of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty

Compiled from Origins of Chinese Art and Craft

• The mirror can truthfully reflect my appearance and personality.
• History is also a mirror from which I can learn lessons of success and failure.
• People around me serve as a special mirror that help me differentiate between good and evil.

The Significance of Mirrors in Ancient Times

Compiled from Origins of Chinese Art and Craft