QIANLONG MOULDED SIX-CHARACTER SEAL MARKS AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

Xing vessels are soup containers that were used in ritual ceremonies. In the first month of each season, the Qianlong Emperor would perform the shi xiang sacrifices and offer food to the ancestors. Altars representing Heaven, Earth, Sun and Moon used vessels of different colours, and the pale blue glaze was used at the Altar of the Moon. The present vessels share the same form and decoration to a pair of xing with covers in the Palace Museum in Beijing. These are covered in a white glaze rather than a claire-de-lune glaze, and were exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, 12 November 2005 - 17 April 2006, China: The Three Emperors 1662-1795, illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 125, no. 36. Also see another white-glazed xing in the National Palace Museum in Taipei, illustrated in Emperor Ch'ien-lung's Grand Cultural Enterprise, Taipei, 2002, p. 172.