Depictions of weaving and tilling began as early as the Southern Song dynasty as part of the didactics of teaching princes and officials the necessity of sericulture and farming. In the 28th year of Kangxi, the emperor ordered the court painter, Jiao Bingzhen to produce an album from which, in the thirty-fifth year, sets of woodblock were printed comprising 23 illustrations of farming and 23 of weaving.

Two pages of woodblock prints from the same 1696 edition are illustrated by J. Rawson, Chinese Jade: From the Neolithic to the Qing, British Museum, London, 1995, pp. 407 and 409, figs. 1 and 2; where the author suggests that these prints, or a very similar version of this subject, must have been made available to lapidary craftsmen for the carving of jade, ibid, p. 407. Imageries from these prints illustrating tranquil agricultural life were used as design templates on other works of art, cf. a mother-of-pearl screen dated to the first quarter of 18th century decorated with similar scenes, sold in our London Rooms, 10 June 1996, lot 212.

For a related woodblock print on silk of the same theme but with the additional figure Yongzheng before ascended the throne, as indicated by the two seals, Yongqin Wangbao, and Pochen Jushi, on the album, see Splendors of a Flourish Age, Macau, 2000, no. 16; where some of the pages portray the prince as the dutiful son tending to farming and weaving activies.