A FINE CHINESE BLUE AND WHITE 'GU' VASE, Kangxi (1662 - 1722)
Height: 44.5cm; 17 1/2 ins.
BJ52
BJ52
Further images
Of cylindrical form, with flaring mouth and foot, painted in vibrant shades of cobalt blue, the middle section painted with well delineated detached floral sprigs, the upper register with two...
Of cylindrical form, with flaring mouth and foot, painted in vibrant shades of cobalt blue, the middle section painted with well delineated detached floral sprigs, the upper register with two elongated quatrefoil panels, one with a scene of Shoulao, the Deity of Longevity, and an immortal, the other panel with the immortal Lan Caihe, holding a basket of flowers together with another immortal and a deer, the lower register with two further quatrefoil panels one with a fisherman in a boat the other depicting a scene from the legend Han Xin and the Old Man by the River, three panels inscribed with a seal, the glazed base with a leaf mark within the double circles.
Literature
The immortal Lan Caihe, 700 - 800 A.D. variously stated to have been a woman and a hermaphrodite wandered the country waving a wand and denouncing this fleeting life and its delusive pleasures. The emblem is the flower-basket which is carried. Lan Caihe is the patron saint of the florists.
The deer, In Daoist mythology, are companions of immortals and are thought to know the locations of sacred mushrooms or herbs of immortality, like the lingzhi.
The deer, In Daoist mythology, are companions of immortals and are thought to know the locations of sacred mushrooms or herbs of immortality, like the lingzhi.
The Legend: Han Xin and the Old Man by the River
Han Xin (?-196 BCE, early Western Han) was born into poverty and obscurity. Despite his brilliant strategic mind, he struggled early in life.
According to legend one day, while Han Xin was wandering near the Huai River, he found a shoe in the river and proffered it to the old man sitting nearby. The old man, identified as Huang Shigong is a semi-mythological figure and a Taoist hermit who told Han Xin he was destined for greatness and offered to teach Han the strategy of war. Han Xin accepted the offer with gratitude and the old man taught him and gave him a book of military strategy-often referred to as the "Three Strategies of Huang Shigong" a real historical text attributed to Han Xin.
Han Xin (?-196 BCE, early Western Han) was born into poverty and obscurity. Despite his brilliant strategic mind, he struggled early in life.
According to legend one day, while Han Xin was wandering near the Huai River, he found a shoe in the river and proffered it to the old man sitting nearby. The old man, identified as Huang Shigong is a semi-mythological figure and a Taoist hermit who told Han Xin he was destined for greatness and offered to teach Han the strategy of war. Han Xin accepted the offer with gratitude and the old man taught him and gave him a book of military strategy-often referred to as the "Three Strategies of Huang Shigong" a real historical text attributed to Han Xin.
