disc BM-2022-3034.282

Period:Qing dynasty Production date:17thC-20thC
Materials:jade
Technique:carved
Subjects:sun/moon
Dimensions:Diameter: 253 centimetres

Description:
Pair of white jade decorative discs.
IMG


Comments:On one side of disc (A) is carved in relief a figure of a woman riding the waves on a gourd. The reverse side has the “sun” character in intaglio. On disc (B) is carved in relief two women, one sitting on a stool reading and the other sitting on a bed. On the upper right side is a four-line poem indicating that the two women are the Qiao sisters. From Neolithic to Qing: These two disc-shaped plaques form a pair. One side of each is decorated with figure subjects and the other with either the character for sun or for moon. With the moon is carved a scene of two women, sitting beside each other on a bed reading. A group of writing accessories and a flower vase elaborate the setting. A poem in relief in the adjacent space enables us to identify the two women o this disc, and hints at the significance of the single figure on the other disc and of the two characters. The poem may be translated approximately as follows: All report that Zi Jian is a hero /[To the] two pairs of eyes [of the two women] in the golden chamber /Many people bow respectfully, /admitting that they cannot match their standards [of the two women] /After the fu poem on the Bronze Sparrow Tower was composed /Then their fame was respected within the Jiandong area. Zi Jian, mentioned in the first line, is the courtesy name of Cao Zhi (191-232) son of the famous general and King of Wei, Cao Cao (155-220). Cao Cao was in combat with many of the other rules of the small states of the Three Kingdoms period (221-280) among them the King of Wu and General Zhou Yu, who were married to two famous beauties, the Qiao sisters. Cao Cao intended, when he was victorious, to carry the sisters off to the Bronze Sparrow Tower. The episode was immortalised in a fu poem by Cao Zhi : Chou Yu: ‘Can you verify Ts’ao’s (Cao’s) desire to possess these two women?’ K’ung-ming :’He once commissioned his youngest son, Chih (Cao Zhi) to compose the ‘Bronze Sparrow Tower Ode’, in which he declared his fitness for sovereignty and his vow to wive Ch;iao (Qiao) daughters’. So the two women ion this discs with the poem are the two Qiao sisters. Their images here are taken from a woodblock print such as that in the compendium of famous beauties: Baimei xinyong tuzhuan. Cao Zhi is the link to the subject of the other disc. This figure is probably also taken from the same compendium of beauties, representing this time the Spirit of the Luo River. In Cao Zhi’s most famous poem he relates how once, when passing by the Luo River he glimpsed the figure of a women, a spirit, with whom he fell in love. In this poem the spirit woman is described in terms of the moon and the sun, and it may be to such comparisons of ideal feminine beauty that the characters on the discs refer. Jade, a highly prized medium for depict ions with poetic or auspicious reference, was widely used in the Qing period for screens and high ornamented carvings. See James C. Y. Watt, Chinese Jades from Han to Ch’ing, The Asia Society, New York, 1980; and Rawson 1995, p.402, cat.no.29:16.