Scroll
Right-hand inscription:
Nongyan xinying xiaolu kai
穠艷新迎曉露開
Extravagant beauty blossoms welcoming anew the morning dew
The final four characters of this inscription are a quotation from Jilingtai ershou, the first of two, four-line poems composed by the Tang dynasty poet Zhang Hu 張祜 (c.782-852). This poem describes the morning sun shining upon the dew-covered flowers blossoming by the imperial palace at Tang dynasty capital Chang’an. The previous night the emperor Tang Xuanzong had sent a note inviting his consort Yang Guifei to join him for the night; an invitation that she gladly accepted, entering the curtained bed with a smile.
Guangxu renyin zhongqiu xiahuan
光緒壬寅中秋下浣
[Painted during] the final ten days of mid-autumn in the renyin year during the reign of the Guangxu emperor [equivalent to 1902 in the Western calendar].
Yubi
禦筆
Imperial brush [painted by Cixi]
Large seal
Cixi huang taihou zhi bao
慈禧皇太后之寳
A Treasure of the Empress Dowager Cixi
Seal
Bingqing yurun
冰清玉潤
Two further seals are as yet unidentified
Nongyan xinying xiaolu kai
穠艷新迎曉露開
Extravagant beauty blossoms welcoming anew the morning dew
The final four characters of this inscription are a quotation from Jilingtai ershou, the first of two, four-line poems composed by the Tang dynasty poet Zhang Hu 張祜 (c.782-852). This poem describes the morning sun shining upon the dew-covered flowers blossoming by the imperial palace at Tang dynasty capital Chang’an. The previous night the emperor Tang Xuanzong had sent a note inviting his consort Yang Guifei to join him for the night; an invitation that she gladly accepted, entering the curtained bed with a smile.
Guangxu renyin zhongqiu xiahuan
光緒壬寅中秋下浣
[Painted during] the final ten days of mid-autumn in the renyin year during the reign of the Guangxu emperor [equivalent to 1902 in the Western calendar].
Yubi
禦筆
Imperial brush [painted by Cixi]
Large seal
Cixi huang taihou zhi bao
慈禧皇太后之寳
A Treasure of the Empress Dowager Cixi
Seal
Bingqing yurun
冰清玉潤
Two further seals are as yet unidentified
Object Summary
- Accession Loan No.
- 44/1918
- Category
- Ethnography
- Collection Class
- Manuscripts and writing tools
- Common Name
- scroll
- Simple Name
- scroll
- Production Country
- China, People's Republic of
- Production Date
- 1902
- Production Year High
- 1918