Ref: Y543
Archive item - not for sale
Chinese blue and white sleeve vase (rolwagen), Chongzhen (1628-1643), depicting the story of Bing Ji and decorated with a farmer chasing a buffalo on a riverbank, with the dignitary Bing Ji and his entourage standing among rockwork, plantain and pine trees, the shoulder decorated with a band of lanceolate leaves, height: 18 1/4in., 46.4cm; condition: piece out of rim and small chip to rim restored to a high standard. Bang Gu recorded the story of the prime minister Bing Ji enquiring about a buffalo in his History of Han. One day Bing Ji saw a wounded person on the road and continued his trip. Then he saw a person chasing a buffalo and the buffalo was out of breath. Bing Ji stopped and asked how far the buffalo had been chased. His attendant official asked him why he had not enquired about the first case but had enquired in the second case. Bing Ji answered that it was the duty of local officials to investigate fights between locals, and that this kind of trivial affair should not bother a Prime Minister, but the second case was different. It was only spring, and the climate should not be hot. If the buffalo was only chased for a short distance but already out of breath, that meant the climate was already like summer. To balance the yin and yang of nature was the duty of a Prime Minister. For more information and to see an illustrated jardinière decorated with a similar scene see Seventeenth Century Jingdezhen porcelain from the Shanghai Museum and the Butler Collections, Shanghai, 2005, p. 110, pl.23. SOLD
