SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279)

A virtually identical scene can be seen decorating a Southern Song gilt-silver octagonal dish in the Shaowu Museum, Fujian province. According to Yu Guoyun, a scholar of Song-dynasty history in Shanghai Normal University, the scene on the Shaowu dish depicts a student bidding goodbye to his parents before he embarks on a journey to take the Imperial exam, after they offered prayers to Kuixing, the god of examinations, in front of the Kuixing Pavilion. Another Southern Song gilt-silver dish decorated with comparable figural scenes in relief, but of quatrilobed shape, is in the Jiangxi Provincial Museum. The Jiangxi Museum dish is inscribed in the center with an excerpt from a poem entitled Ta Sha Xing, which describes the honored student's return to his hometown after achieving the zhungyuan rank (first place). The news is delivered to his wife, who has been long waiting for him in the gazebo.
 
Based on the Jiangxi Museum dish, it has been suggested that the scene on the Shaowu Museum dish, and that on the present dish, may be related thematically, and that the bowing figures may be in the act of praying to Kuixing for high marks on the examination. It has also been suggested that they may represent a happy couple, the husband having already successfully passed the Imperial exam and the two living a prosperous life.