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Lot Essay
The first inscription can be translated as:
On the fourth day of the seventh month in the first year of the Wuding reign, Wei dynasty (543), Buddhist follower Li Ciming commissioned a white jade Guanyin figure for his deceased son Li Nayan. Anwu Army of Jizhou (in Hebei).
The second inscription can be translated as:
Three white jade figures were in the family collection of An Shi in Guxian village, Qianqiu town, Zaoqiang county, Jizhou (in Hebei). Later on the 23rd day of the second month during the first year of the Yuanfeng reign (1078, Northern Song dynasty), a group of talents surnamed Ma, Liang and Zhao acquired these three white jade figures, and built a Buddhist temple with pagoda to enshrine them. Hence this is to be recorded.
The inscriptions above reveal the current figure was commissioned in AD 543 during the Eastern Wei dynasty, and was later acquired and enshrined by a group of devotees in AD 1078 during the Northern Song dynasty. The fact that ‘three white jade figures’ were mentioned in the inscription, and that there are perforations on the right side of the mandorla, suggest there might have been originally two side figures flanking the current standing Avalokitesvara.
According to Sun Guanwen’s essay ‘Beijing Daxue tushuguan cang lidai shike tuoben caoben (san)’(Rubbings of Stone Sculptures in the Peking University Library Collection),the current figure was acquired by Wang Xuzu (1853-1919) from Zhucheng city in Shandong during the late Qing dynasty. Wang Xuzu was a scholar-official who had passed the civil service examination as well as an avid collector of bronze and stone rubbings. It was later passed onto Yao Guifang, a renowned collector of stone sculptures from Tianjin, active during the Republic period. This incident was recorded by the well-respected writer Lu Xun in his manuscript.
For a similar example, refer to a stone figure of Avalokitesvara dated to Tianbao second year in the Northern Qi dynasty (AD 551), illustrated in Wenwu cangpin dingji biaozhun tuli·zaoxiang juan, Beijing, 2011, p. 80.
On the fourth day of the seventh month in the first year of the Wuding reign, Wei dynasty (543), Buddhist follower Li Ciming commissioned a white jade Guanyin figure for his deceased son Li Nayan. Anwu Army of Jizhou (in Hebei).
The second inscription can be translated as:
Three white jade figures were in the family collection of An Shi in Guxian village, Qianqiu town, Zaoqiang county, Jizhou (in Hebei). Later on the 23rd day of the second month during the first year of the Yuanfeng reign (1078, Northern Song dynasty), a group of talents surnamed Ma, Liang and Zhao acquired these three white jade figures, and built a Buddhist temple with pagoda to enshrine them. Hence this is to be recorded.
The inscriptions above reveal the current figure was commissioned in AD 543 during the Eastern Wei dynasty, and was later acquired and enshrined by a group of devotees in AD 1078 during the Northern Song dynasty. The fact that ‘three white jade figures’ were mentioned in the inscription, and that there are perforations on the right side of the mandorla, suggest there might have been originally two side figures flanking the current standing Avalokitesvara.
According to Sun Guanwen’s essay ‘Beijing Daxue tushuguan cang lidai shike tuoben caoben (san)’(Rubbings of Stone Sculptures in the Peking University Library Collection),the current figure was acquired by Wang Xuzu (1853-1919) from Zhucheng city in Shandong during the late Qing dynasty. Wang Xuzu was a scholar-official who had passed the civil service examination as well as an avid collector of bronze and stone rubbings. It was later passed onto Yao Guifang, a renowned collector of stone sculptures from Tianjin, active during the Republic period. This incident was recorded by the well-respected writer Lu Xun in his manuscript.
For a similar example, refer to a stone figure of Avalokitesvara dated to Tianbao second year in the Northern Qi dynasty (AD 551), illustrated in Wenwu cangpin dingji biaozhun tuli·zaoxiang juan, Beijing, 2011, p. 80.