book BM-1949-0709-0.1

Period:Qing dynasty Production date:1696 (Dated)
Materials:paper
Technique:woodblock
Subjects:silk production agriculture
Dimensions:Height: 24 centimetres (image) Height: 40.80 centimetres (page) Width: 24 centimetres (image) Width: 26.90 centimetres (page)

Description:
Book of woodblock prints (46 leaves) in ink on paper, colours added by brush, showing the processes involved in rice growing and sericulture (winnowing, stacking of sheaves in a rick, etc.) taken from the ‘Yuzhi Gengzhi tu’. Preface by the Emperor Kangxi.
IMG


Comments:While rearing silkworms was women’s work inside the house, men cultivated grain outside in the fields. In accordance with theories of Chinese classical government, every year the emperor and empress would open the season for agriculture and sericulture in state rituals. The scenes are part of an album with 46 illustrations on the cultivation of grain and silk, commissioned by the Kangxi emperor. Based on a 12th-century version, the Kangxi edition includes poetic verses by the emperor, and bears three of his seal impressions in red. While the outlines of the design were printed in black, colours were applied by brush in imitation of Jiao Bingzhen’s original paintings.Published: Rawson (1995), Chinese Jade from the Neolithic to the Qing, BMP, page 406, figure 1 & page 409, figure 2.