Lot Essay
The poem is a four-line verse which may be translated as:
Raining clouds resembling smoke;
fast descending onto the Jade Pavilion in the yonder mountain.
In the pavilion one is dreaming of grassy fields;
as if in a drunken stupor, at a time when apricot flowers blossom.
The scenes depicted around the sides of this libation cup refer to the late Ming dynasty play 'The Peony Pavilion' by Tang Xianzu in which the daughter of an important official, Du Liniang, dreams of an encounter with a young scholar, Liu Mengmei. When she wakes from her dream she is so consumed with her longing for the scholar that she dies and is buried in the family's garden beside a plum tree. It is only when Liu Mengmei coincidentally rests at the family's home on his way to the Imperial examinations and sees a portrait of Du Liniang, that he decides to open her coffin and finds her alive. This famous story remains by far the most popular vernacular play of the Ming dynasty.
Raining clouds resembling smoke;
fast descending onto the Jade Pavilion in the yonder mountain.
In the pavilion one is dreaming of grassy fields;
as if in a drunken stupor, at a time when apricot flowers blossom.
The scenes depicted around the sides of this libation cup refer to the late Ming dynasty play 'The Peony Pavilion' by Tang Xianzu in which the daughter of an important official, Du Liniang, dreams of an encounter with a young scholar, Liu Mengmei. When she wakes from her dream she is so consumed with her longing for the scholar that she dies and is buried in the family's garden beside a plum tree. It is only when Liu Mengmei coincidentally rests at the family's home on his way to the Imperial examinations and sees a portrait of Du Liniang, that he decides to open her coffin and finds her alive. This famous story remains by far the most popular vernacular play of the Ming dynasty.