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Lot Essay
The inscription reads:
Yu wei wen run rou kan yu
Fu yi cai cheng gang ze ran
Xie yong zhong he heng zuo pei
Que chan wei ren wu hu juan
Qianlong Gengxu yu ti
The reverse:
Se fei tu jin ji xie jin
Qi shi Shang liu huo Xia liu
Fu zhuo jue huang shang ben zhi
Tian ran fu pei xie gang rou
Qianlong Gengxu yu ti
Which may be translated as:
The smoothness of the jade is laudable
In contrast the nature of an axe is sharp and tough
With harmony it can be used as a pendant
But regrettably I cannot bring myself to give up the world
Imperial poem, Gengxu year, Qianlong
The reverse:
Neither soil nor age has altered the colour
The vessel was left to us by the Shang or the Xia
Carving this into a jue or a huang would destroy its essence
The natural form of the axe strikes a balance
Imperial poem, Gengxu year, Qianlong
Recorded in Qing Gao Zong (Qianlong) yu zhi shi wen quan ji, published in Zhongguo Renmin Daxue chu ban she, Beijing, 1993, pp. 127 and 238.
This jade axe head is an example of the Qianlong emperor's love of archaism. Compare the current lot with a white jade axe, also in archaistic style with incised taotie masks in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Jadeware, Hong Kong, 2002, pp. 151-2, no. 122.
Yu wei wen run rou kan yu
Fu yi cai cheng gang ze ran
Xie yong zhong he heng zuo pei
Que chan wei ren wu hu juan
Qianlong Gengxu yu ti
The reverse:
Se fei tu jin ji xie jin
Qi shi Shang liu huo Xia liu
Fu zhuo jue huang shang ben zhi
Tian ran fu pei xie gang rou
Qianlong Gengxu yu ti
Which may be translated as:
The smoothness of the jade is laudable
In contrast the nature of an axe is sharp and tough
With harmony it can be used as a pendant
But regrettably I cannot bring myself to give up the world
Imperial poem, Gengxu year, Qianlong
The reverse:
Neither soil nor age has altered the colour
The vessel was left to us by the Shang or the Xia
Carving this into a jue or a huang would destroy its essence
The natural form of the axe strikes a balance
Imperial poem, Gengxu year, Qianlong
Recorded in Qing Gao Zong (Qianlong) yu zhi shi wen quan ji, published in Zhongguo Renmin Daxue chu ban she, Beijing, 1993, pp. 127 and 238.
This jade axe head is an example of the Qianlong emperor's love of archaism. Compare the current lot with a white jade axe, also in archaistic style with incised taotie masks in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Jadeware, Hong Kong, 2002, pp. 151-2, no. 122.