A MAGNIFICENT IMPERIAL MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAID BLACK LACQUER INCENSE STAND

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ANOTHER PROPERTY IMAGE OF A HEROIC EMPRESS: PART OF INTERNATIONAL NEGOTIATIONS OR THE GIFT OF A DEVOTED GRANDSON? ROSEMARY SCOTT INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC DIRECTOR ASIAN ART This exquisitely inlaid lacquer stand is a work of great rarity and importance. Firstly, it is remarkable for the extraordinary quality of the materials and artistry that went into its production. Even amongst other fine pieces from the imperial workshops, this stand is distinguished by its superb quality. Secondly, the stand is remarkable for the fact that it bears an inscribed Kangxi cyclical mark, dating it to the guichou year corresponding to AD 1673. Thirdly, the stand is remarkable for the choice of its main decorative scene, which depicts a legendary Japanese Empress, rather than a figure from Chinese literature. This choice of decorative theme undoubtedly holds a clue to the stand's intended recipient. Before discussing the decorative theme, however, it should be noted that only one inlaid lacquer stand made in similar style with mother-of-pearl and precious metal inlays, and also bearing a mark equivalent to AD 1673 appears to have been published. A high stand, with a different scene on the upper surface, was formerly in the collection of treasures of the Hosokawa family and was exhibited at the family museum, the Eisei Bunko in Tokyo. This high stand is published in iHosokawa-ke Denrai, Makie Shitsugei (Hosokawa family heirloom, Gold-relief lacquerware and lacquer art work), Kyoto shoin, 1988, no. 7. It is also reported by Yasuhiro Nishioka that a similarly decorated pair of bookshelves, dated AD 1673; two more stands - one dated AD 1674 and another dated AD 1676; and a pair of tables dated AD 1676 are known (1). The examples cited by Nishioka almost certainly relate to three examples in the Palace Museum, Beijing illustrated by Hu Desheng (2): a pair of bookshelves (see fig. 1), a lacquer painting table (see fig. 2), and a mother-of-pearl inlaid altar table (see fig. 3). It is significant that all these items are dated within a three year period. The closeness in decorative designs employed on the Hosokawa stand, the pair of bookshelves in Beijing and the present stand (all inscribed with the same cyclical date) certainly suggest the work of a particularly skilled craftsman, or that the pieces were made with a particular recipient in mind, linked to a specific time-frame (see fig. 4). A wide variety of characters from Chinese history, legend and literature can be seen on fine inlaid lacquer wares of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, but it is very rare to find characters from Japanese history depicted on the Chinese decorative arts. Nevertheless this is what appears to be the case on the present stand. The decoration on the upper surface of the stand shows a regal lady, having left her luxuriously appointed palanquin, standing on rocks by the bank of a river, fishing, watched by her attendants and a high official. Both the roof and side curtains of the palanquin are decorated with chrysanthemum blossoms. There seems to be only one Chinese story in which a royal lady is associated with fishing, and this is the story of King Mu of the Zhou dynasty's visit to Xiwangmu (the Queen Mother of the West), which is mentioned in some of the poems written by the Tang poet Li Shangyin (AD 813-858). Significantly, in all the surviving versions of this story it is King Mu who does the fishing, either before or after his visit to Xiwangmu, and not Xiwangmu herself. It is therefore unlikely that this is the story represented on the current stand. Japanese legend, however, provides an important example of an Empress who is personally associated with fishing. The legendary Empress Jingu, whose dates are usually given as c. AD 170-269, was the wife of Emperor Chuai, the 14th Japanese emperor. Although what is known today of the events of Empress Jingu's life are a mixture of fact and legend, she has been described by a Japanese scholar as: '... our Joan of Arc. Fired by Divine inspiration; she displayed a military valour which was of incalculable service to her country in the crisis of its fortunes.'(3) Although there are a number of versions of the story, it is generally held that in about AD 193 the emperor set out with his army for Kyushu to put down a rebellion. His wife accompanied him, and, when their ship stopped at an island en route, she heard the voice of the Gods asking why she and her husband were bothering with the rebels while a far greater prize awaited them in the Land of Treasure. When Jingu told her husband of this, he was dubious and, after climbing a high mountain and failing to see this Land of Treasure, the Emperor was convinced that the Gods would not speak to him through a woman and continued on his quest to put down the rebellion. He was unsuccessful and soon afterwards died, as had been foretold. Empress Jingu and the Grand Minister Takeshiuchi no Sukune kept the death secret, and despite being pregnant with her son, who was to become Emperor Ojin, Jingu bound herself up and led the army to put down the rebellion. However, her thoughts kept returning to the words of the Gods in relation to the Land of Treasure, but she felt the need of further confirmation of their meaning. According to the Nihongi (Japanese Chronicles): 'Proceeding northwards she arrived at the district of Matsura in the land of Hizen, and partook of food on the bank of the River Wogawa, in the village of Tamashima. Here the Empress bent a needle and made a hook. She took grains of rice and used them as bait. Pulling out the threads of her garment, she made of them a line. Then mounting upon a stone in the middle of the river, and casting the hook, she prayed, saying: "We are proceeding westward, where we desire to gain possession of the Land of Treasure. If we are to succeed, let the fish of the river bite the hook." Accordingly raising up her fishing rod she caught a trout.' And further on: 'The Empress returned to the Bay of Kashihi and loosing her hair, looked over the sea saying: "I have received the instructions of the Gods of Heaven and Earth, and trusting in the spirits of the imperial ancestors, floating across the deep blue sea, intend in person to chastise the West. Therefore do I now lay my head in the water of the sea. If I am to be successful, let my hair part spontaneously in two." Accordingly she entered the sea and bathed, and her hair parted of its own accord. The empress bound it up parted into bunches (i.e. in manly fashion). (4) Thus convinced of the righteousness of her quest and protected by the Gods, Empress Jingu led her troops to victory and her country to wealth. Despite the lack of concrete evidence concerning her life, Empress Jingu came to be regarded as a national heroine. In the 19th century the empress was even the subject of several woodblock prints, including one depicting Empress Jingu Fishing, dated 1876 by Yoshitoshi (1839-1892). She was also the first empress to appear on a Japanese banknote in 1881. Although she is dressed as a Chinese empress, it seems clear that the scene on the upper surface of the current stand depicts Empress Jingu standing on a rock fishing, while her Grand Minister Takeshiuchi no Sukune looks on. Although anachronistic, the decoration of chrysanthemums on her palanquin would seem to be a reference to the 'Chrysanthemum throne' of Japan. The question is therefore: what is a Japanese heroine doing on an imperial Chinese stand of the Kangxi reign? Two possible explanations suggest themselves. It is possible that the unusual choice of a Japanese subject for this superb stand indicates that it was intended as an imperial gift to Japan. Relations between China and Japan had been somewhat uneasy since Toyotomi Hideyoshi two invasions of Korea with the intention of invading China in the 1590s. While, in the second decade of the 17th century, Tokugawa Ieyasu made it clear that he was no longer prepared to consider Japan a vassal of China (5). Nevertheless, Japan wanted both knowledge and certain commodities from China, while China, in turn, needed copper and silver from Japan. Shortages of copper were a perennial problem in China but growing commercialisation of agriculture increased the popular demand for copper coins and for silver. The adoption of the 'single-whip' tax system in the late Ming was progressively extended under the Qing and the government's concomitant shift to the collection of land taxes in cash resulted in tax-paying landlords demanding rents to be paid in cash (6). In the 1660s the shortages of copper were exacerbated by the likes of Wu Sangui, who took over the monopoly of copper mining in Yunnan and Guizhou, extending his influence by 1670 to include much of Hunan, Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi. (7) In the early Qing growing numbers of Chinese were drawn to Japan because of the availability of gold, silver and copper, but the Japanese authorities brought in ever stricter regulations governing the Chinese merchants. By 1635 the Chinese trade was centred on Nagasaki, and after years of relative freedom the Japanese government installed their shogunate administrators in Nagasaki. Furthermore, in 1672 the Japanese shogunate changed the previously liberal trade regulations to the so-called 'market Trade System'. (8) None of this should have made any difference to China, since officially the Kangxi government put in force a trade ban between 1662 and 1683. However, even during this ban on trade, silver continued to flow into China from Japan, and between 1671 and 1675 it is recorded that 105.9 metric tons was imported, which went up to 123.3 metric tons between 1676 and 1680. (9) Thus, China needed copper and silver from Japan, but officially it could not come through normal mercantile channels. Nevertheless these metals were arriving in China. Could this magnificent stand with its decoration of a Japanese heroine, and with finely wrought chrysanthemum scrolls on the legs, which could be a reference to the emblem of the Japanese monarchy, have been a gift that formed part of some high-level negotiations? If so, it would appear that they were secret negotiations, since no record of them appears to have survived. It may be of interest to note that, if this stand was intended as an imperial gift from China to Japan, then perhaps the Chinese court was unaware that the 'Land of Treasure' mentioned in Empress Jingu's legend is usually identified as Korea. Alternatively, this stand may have been intended as a gift from the Kangxi Emperor to his beloved grandmother Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang on the occasion of her 60th birthday in 1673. Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, given name Bumbutai, was the daughter of a Mongol prince, who could trace her ancestry back to the younger brother of Genghis Khan. She entered the palace as a concubine of Huang Taiji, and her son became the Shunzhi Emperor. While she played a significant role during the reign of her son, even more importantly after his death she helped his eight-year-old son, the Kangxi emperor. Indeed as a child he lived in her palace and she was one of the strongest supporters to his becoming emperor. After the death of his mother Empress Xiaokang in 1663, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang assumed responsibility for the boy emperor's upbringing and remained a trusted adviser until her death in 1688. Interestingly she played an important role in helping the Kangxi Emperor deal with the revolt of the Mongol leader Burni in 1675. The Veritable Records of the Qing Dynasty note that at this time the emperor commanded that his diarists should not come with him when he visited his grandmother, which suggests that he wanted to discuss matters with her in complete secrecy. (10) The Kangxi Emperor was devoted to his grandmother. After the final suppression of the rebellion of the Three Feudatories in 1681 the emperor began making tours of inspection and on his first western tour of 1683 he took the Empress Dowager with him. One of his grandmother's favourite places was the Five Dragon Pavilion on the north banks of the Taiyechi (Great Liquid Pool), so the Kangxi Emperor had some residences built to the north of the pavilion, in order that his grandmother could live there during the hot summer months, and when he was not involved with affairs of state the emperor would take a small boat over to see her in order to pay his respects and wait on her during mealtimes. (11) In 1673, the year in which the current stand was made, the Kangxi Emperor noted that he personally gave his grandmother restoratives. (12) Such was his devotion, that for the last 35 days of her life the Kangxi Emperor stayed by her side day and night without undressing and taking very little sleep. He had 30 types of gruel prepared in the hope that something might tempt her to eat. He personally prepared her medicines and tried to anticipate what she would require, so that she might lack for nothing (13). When the Empress Dowager died, the Kangxi Emperor cut off his queue, which was normally done only on the death of an emperor. He cancelled the New Year celebrations, refused to move out her coffin, insisted on wearing not plain silk as custom demanded, but cotton mourning clothes, and in spite of the freezing winter weather lived in a tent in order to watch over her coffin during the mourning period. He also contravened Ming regulations by installing his grandmother's spirit tablet in the Taimiao. (14) Significantly we know that the Kangxi Emperor chose presents for older people, and particularly his grandmother, with great care. The emperor himself noted: 'I would always try to make my presents something needed, or something that I knew would bring pleasure ... so I gave the Empress Dowager cherries that I had tasted in the South, and to my grandmother [who was officially Grand Empress Dowager] gave the flesh of a tiger that I had shot in the North (boxed and wrapped in grasses), a chiming clock, and a foreign mirror.' (15) An imperial 60th birthday would normally be accompanied by great festivities, but it appears that the Empress Dowager was religious, believed in modest living, and did not wish to have vast sums of money spent on her birthday celebrations. It would be natural, therefore, that her loving grandson should wish instead to have a very special gift made for her? If the current stand were that gift, the chrysanthemums that cover the legs of the stand would provide a wish for long life, while the unusual willow design that edges the stand would provide a symbol of springtime and youth. It is quite possible that the story of Empress Jingu was known at the Chinese court in the 17th century. What then could be a more fitting gift for Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang's 60th birthday than a beautiful stand decorated with the image of a woman celebrated for her piety, her wisdom, her courage, and the fact that she gave sound advice to her Emperor and brought prosperity to her country? (1) Yasuhiro Nishioka in Tokyo National Museum, Chinese Mother-of-pearl, Tokyo, 1981, pp. 186-7. The Hosokawa stand was included in this latter exhibition and is illustrated in the catalogue, pp. 136-7, no. 97. (2) Hu Desheng, A Treasury of Ming and Qing Dynasty Palace Furniture, The Palace Museum Collection, Vol. 2, Forbidden City Publishing House, Beijing, 2007, pp. 622-634, figs. 751, 752 and 753. (3) Tan Hamaguchi. 'Some Striking Female Personalities in Japanese History', Annual Meeting of the Japan Society, London, 1904, p. 241. (4) James Hastings and John A. Selbie in Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Part 8, Edinburgh & New York, 1908, p. 805, quoting translation of 1896 by W.G. Ashton. (5) Angela Schottenhammer, 'Japan - The Tiny Dwarf? Sino-Japanese Relations from the Kangxi to the Early Qianlong Reigns', Asia Research Institute Working Paper Series No. 106, Singapore, 2008, pp. 1-2. (6) William T. Rowe, 'Social Stability and Social Change', The Cambridge History of China, Volume 9 Part One, The Ch'ing Dynasty to 1800, W.J. Peterson (ed.), Cambridge 2002, p. 514. (7) Jonathan D. Spence, 'The K'ang-Hsi Reign' in The Cambridge History of China, Volume 9 Part One, The Ch'ing Dynasty to 1800, W.J. Peterson (ed.), Cambridge 2002, p. 137. (8) Angela Schottenhammer, 'Japan - The Tiny Dwarf? Sino-Japanese Relations from the Kangxi to the Early Qianlong Reigns', op. cit.. p. 6. (9) Richard von Glahn, 'Myth and Reality of China's Seventeenth Century Monetary Crisis', The Journal of Economic History, vol. 56, no. 2, 1996, p. 444, table 5. (10) Jonathan D. Spence, 'The K'ang-hsi Reign' in The Cambridge History of Chin,a Volume 9, Part one, The Ch'ing dynasty to 1800, W.J. Peterson (ed.), Cambridge, 2002, p. 141. (11) Wan Yi, Wang Shuqing & Lu Yanzhen, Daily Life in the Forbidden City, translated by Rosemary Scott & Erica Shipley, Harmondsworth New York, 1985, p. 266. (12) Jonathan D. Spence, Emperor of China - Self-portrait of K'ang-hsi, Harmondworth, England, 1974, p. 96. (13) Ibid., p.105. (14) Evelyn S. Rawski, The Last Emperors - A Social History of Qing Imperial Institutions, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London, 1998, p. 277. (15) Jonathan D. Spence, Emperor of China - Self-portrait of K'ang-hsi, op. cit., p. 106.

A MAGNIFICENT IMPERIAL MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAID BLACK LACQUER INCENSE STAND

KANGXI INCISED AND GILT EIGHT-CHARACTER MARK BEARING A GUICHOU CYCLICAL DATE CORRESPONDING TO 1673, AND OF THE PERIOD

Details

A MAGNIFICENT IMPERIAL MOTHER-OF-PEARL INLAID BLACK LACQUER INCENSE STAND
KANGXI INCISED AND GILT EIGHT-CHARACTER MARK BEARING A GUICHOU CYCLICAL DATE CORRESPONDING TO 1673, AND OF THE PERIOD
Of square section, the top panel is raised on a low waist above a curvilinear apron with ruyi-form corners, all supported on four inward-curving rounded legs terminating in scroll-feet, resting on a low pedestal base; the top surface superbly decorated in differently coloured shell, gold, silver and lead to depict a landscape scene in which the Empress Jingu is fishing on the rocky shore of a lake beside the Grand Minister Takeshiuchi no Sukune, accompanied by a retinue of attendants carrying fans, banners and a canopied palanquin all within a landscape dotted with flowers and grass among scattered rockwork, pine and wutong trees, all set within a border of six shaped cartouches detailed with further landscape scenes on a cell-pattern ground, the sides of the top, waist, legs and base minutely decorated with further geometric pattern, lotus and chrysanthemum borders, the waist with cartouches containing seascroll flowers and fruit with butterflies including prunus, lillies, peonies and ripe pomegranate on a cell-pattern ground, the top of the base with butterflies in flight among flowering branches, the reign mark incised in a line on a red lacquer ground to the underside of the top panel
15 3/4 x 16 1/8 x 16 1/8 in. (40 X 41 X 41 cm.), Japanese wood box

Provenance

A Japanese private collection, acquired in the early 20th century

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