Asian Art in London
29 October - 7 November 2009
9. A Duan Ink Stone
Dated 16th year of Qianlong, corresponding to 1751 and of the period
The ink stone shaped as a large lingzhi fungus further surrounded by a cluster of eight smaller lingzhi fungi, forming the inkwell. The markings of each fungus worked to resemble the natural grooves of the stone, with some of them accentuated with the outer ‘skin’ of the boulder. The slightly convex base inscribed with an inscription and the date. The stone of a fine grained dark purplish colour. The original fitted black bodiless lacquer box inlaid in mother-of- pearl on the cover with the characters Jiu Ru.
20 cm. long; 5.7 cm. high;
the box 21 cm. long; 6.9 cm. high
The inscription can be translated:
May Heaven protect and secure you, So that you never stop to rise (prosper)-Like a mountain,
like a hill; like a ridge, like a mound.
Like a river just in flood, never cease to increase.
Like the constancy of the moon; like the ascent of the sun.
Like the longevity of the Southern Mountain, never corrode, never collapse.
Like the prospering of pine and cypress, never without someone to succeed you.
Two paragraphs from Tianbao, six stanzas highlighted
On the ninth day of the ninth month in the xinwei year, the 16th year of Qianlong reign, inscribed by the Master of Jingji in the Ancient Moon Pavilion.
Seal: Xiabin (illustrious guest)
The inscription on this ink stone is taken from the Book of Odes. The name of the ink stone Jiu Ru (Nine Similes) refers the character ru (like or similar to) with appears nine times in the text. As the character is also the same as the ru in ruyi (lingzhi), it is a clever word play to link the inscription to the ink stone.
At the first sight, this ink stone is an auspicious object with a wish for longevity. The chapter from the book of Odes has long been associated with birthday wishes, and the lingzhi fungus is thought to prolong life. The number nine, which is referred to repeatedly on the ink stone, is especially auspicious in being the most ‘yang’ number of all.
On closer inspection, however, one starts to see more than meets the eye. The signed name, for example, is very curious. ‘Master of Jingji’ seems to be the sobriquet of a scholar, but no such person or studio is recorded. He was obviously a learned man and with considerable wealth to have possessed such an object. Who was he? Why did he want to conceal his identity, if the inscription was indeed merely a good wish for longevity? Similarly ‘Ancient Moon Pavilion’ and the seal Xiabin, are unrecorded names, and merely add to the confusion.
The phrase jingji comes from the Interpretation of the sixth line of the hexagram Xu (‘to wait and persevere’) in The Book of Change:
‘Three uninvited guests arrive; to treat them with care (jing), it will eventually become auspicious (ji)’.
The hexagram Xu is made up of two trigrams: Qian (three unbroken lines, sky, perseverance,) at the bottom and Kan (two broken lines flanking one straight line, water, abyss) on top. The Kan trigram signifies dangerous and perilous situations. The ‘three uninvited guests’ refers to the Qian trigram, with its three horizontal unbroken lines. The arrival of the Qian trigram is supposed to turn the crisis around into an auspicious ending.
So, what is the significance of all this and how does it help us understand this piece? Perhaps historical records can assist in unravelling the mystery. In the 16th year of the Qianlong reign, it is recorded in the Qingshigao (History of the Qing) that the Yellow River breached the riverbank in the Yangwu area (modern day Yuanyang in Henan province) in the sixth month and created a flood. Work started immediately to repair the bank, but it did not finish until the 11th month of that year, almost half a year later. It would have affected a very large area of land, and it is very possible that the owner of this ink stone knew of the incident, or suffered losses as a result. Therefore, he has chosen to inscribe his ink stone on the day when the force of ‘yang’ is the strongest, using various symbolisms as well as allusions to convey his wishes to heaven. The calamity caused by water (as corresponds to the trigram kan), he hoped, would be dispelled by the arrival of a positive force or energy, as described in The Book of Change, so the situation can be turned for the better.
The repeated use of the number ‘nine’ is a way to invoke the ‘yang’ energy represented by the trigram Qian. The total number of characters in the whole inscription is a well-calculated eightyone (nine times nine), by no means a mere coincidence; and the character gu (ancient) in ‘Ancient Moon Pavilion’ is a homonym to the character jiu (nine) in old Chinese reading. The seal mark Xiabin, which literally translates as ‘Illustrous Guest’, could again be referring to the trigram Qian – a further invocation of the positive yang energy. And as the emperor himself is called Qianlong, it could also be interpreted as the person’s wish that the swift actions by the emperor would effectively put an end to the disaster.
Who could have been the owner of this mysterious ink stone? It is very hard to ascertain, but we can venture a guess. The calligraphy closely resembles that of Chen Shiguan (1680–1758), a prominent official in Qianlong’s court (his calligraphy can be found on an album in the Palace Museum, Taipei, titled Sheng di ming wang shan duan lu – ‘Kind deeds of Sage Emperors and Wise Kings’, recorded in Gugong Shuhua Lu, juan 8, vol. 4, p. 166). He was familiar with flood conservation, as he worked as supervisor of the water system in 1737. In his official biography in Qingshigao it was stated that he particularly concerned himself with floods, and often requested repeatedly to the Emperor for actions when floods happened, sometimes tearfully. The Emperor once jokingly commented that ‘Chen Shiguan is crying to me for the people again!’ We also know that he was demoted from his post as the Grand Secretary, and was not reinstated until 1751, the year the current ink stone was inscribed. Coincidentally, this was also the year of Qianlong’s first tour to the South, and he stayed at Chen Shiguan’s residence in Haining, Zhejiang province. Qianlong was very impressed with the house, and composed six poems on his return to commemorate his stay. One of the poems mentioned the Moon Pavillion (Yue Ge), and it is possible that this is the Ancient Moon Pavilion mentioned in the inscription. It was by no means a coincidence that Chen got promoted again after Qianlong’s Southern Tour. Perhaps Chen was praying for the people who have suffered from the flood, or perhaps he was praying he would be promoted again, in any case, if the ink stone did belong to him then it proved to be a very auspicious talisman, as indeed he was reinstated in the same year, and the flood was stopped.
Part of the joy in handling scholar’s objects lies in studying and deciphering the layers of meanings associated with them. Often one’s assumptions and theories are by no means infallible, but the process itself is part of the appreciation. Perhaps one day a more definite attribution for this wonderful piece can be attained; in the mean time, the riddles remain for all to enjoy.
Two other Duan ink stones in the Imperial collection are recorded in the Xiqing Yanpu, both formed with clusters of nine lingzhi fungi. Both of these two ink stones bear Imperial inscriptions by the Qianlong Emperor, indicating that the design was popular at court and appreciated in the Imperial study (fig. 11).
