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Descriptif du lot
Leng Mei (1662–1742), courtesy name Jichen and sobriquet Jinmen Huashi, was a native of Jiaozhou, Shandong province. Based on the chronology of his surviving works, he had entered service at the Imperial Painting Academy by 1681. A pupil of Jiao Bingzhen (1689-1726), Leng Mei excelled in figure painting, particularly in depictions of elegant court ladies. His distinguished career at court spanned the reigns of the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong emperors, and he became one of the most highly regarded figure painters of the Qianlong era.
Leng's mastery of architectural and figure painting made him an important contributor to a number of major imperial projects, including the celebrated handscrolls The Kangxi Emperor’s Southern Tour (Kangxi nanxun tu) and The Kangxi Emperor’s Sixtieth Birthday Celebration (Kangxi wanshou tu). The imperial catalogue Shiqu Baoji (Precious Collection of the Stone Canal Pavilion) records fourteen works by Leng Mei; three are now preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and another three in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
The subject of the present painting recalls the celebrated composition Yituan Heqi (A Full Circle of Harmony) by the Chenghua Emperor (r. 1465–1487) and now in the Palace Museum, Beijing. Painted in the first year of Chenghua’s reign shortly after the emperor's accession, the work depicts three historical figures representing the Three Teachings: the Confucian scholar Tao Yuanming, the Daoist master Lu Xiujing, and the Buddhist monk Huiyuan. Locked in a mutual embrace, the three figures merge into a single harmonious, circular form. The image is generally understood as expressing the young emperor’s aspiration for concord throughout the empire, a marked contrast to the factionalism and political turbulence that had characterized the preceding reign.
The composition proved immensely popular and was copied repeatedly in later centuries. Over time, the imagery evolved into depictions of a single laughing figure holding a scroll inscribed with the four characters yituan heqi (perfect harmony), as shown in the present painting, becoming a popular auspicious motif in New Year prints and festive imagery.
Beyond the present work by Leng Mei, the Chenghua Emperor’s composition also inspired the depiction of Fuxi, one of the legendary Three Sovereigns of Chinese antiquity, on the celebrated Yongzheng mark-and-period vase exhibited in the landmark Oriental Ceramics Society 1951 exhibition Enamelled Polychrome Porcelains of the Manchu Dynasty, cat. No. 185, and illustrated by Soame Jenyns in Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1951, pl. XLIX. Formerly in the collections of A. de la Narde, Charles Russell, and Robert C. Bruce, it was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong on 28 May 2014, lot 3320 (Fig. 1). On the vase, Fuxi is depicted wearing a characteristic leaf-collared robe and holding a scroll bearing a taiji medallion, an allusion to the cosmological diagram traditionally attributed to him and symbolic of the origin of the universe.
Like its Chenghua prototype, the present painting conveys an auspicious wish for peace, stability, and harmony, expressing the ideal that diverse traditions and interests may coexist in mutual accord under enlightened rule.
Leng's mastery of architectural and figure painting made him an important contributor to a number of major imperial projects, including the celebrated handscrolls The Kangxi Emperor’s Southern Tour (Kangxi nanxun tu) and The Kangxi Emperor’s Sixtieth Birthday Celebration (Kangxi wanshou tu). The imperial catalogue Shiqu Baoji (Precious Collection of the Stone Canal Pavilion) records fourteen works by Leng Mei; three are now preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and another three in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
The subject of the present painting recalls the celebrated composition Yituan Heqi (A Full Circle of Harmony) by the Chenghua Emperor (r. 1465–1487) and now in the Palace Museum, Beijing. Painted in the first year of Chenghua’s reign shortly after the emperor's accession, the work depicts three historical figures representing the Three Teachings: the Confucian scholar Tao Yuanming, the Daoist master Lu Xiujing, and the Buddhist monk Huiyuan. Locked in a mutual embrace, the three figures merge into a single harmonious, circular form. The image is generally understood as expressing the young emperor’s aspiration for concord throughout the empire, a marked contrast to the factionalism and political turbulence that had characterized the preceding reign.
The composition proved immensely popular and was copied repeatedly in later centuries. Over time, the imagery evolved into depictions of a single laughing figure holding a scroll inscribed with the four characters yituan heqi (perfect harmony), as shown in the present painting, becoming a popular auspicious motif in New Year prints and festive imagery.
Beyond the present work by Leng Mei, the Chenghua Emperor’s composition also inspired the depiction of Fuxi, one of the legendary Three Sovereigns of Chinese antiquity, on the celebrated Yongzheng mark-and-period vase exhibited in the landmark Oriental Ceramics Society 1951 exhibition Enamelled Polychrome Porcelains of the Manchu Dynasty, cat. No. 185, and illustrated by Soame Jenyns in Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1951, pl. XLIX. Formerly in the collections of A. de la Narde, Charles Russell, and Robert C. Bruce, it was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong on 28 May 2014, lot 3320 (Fig. 1). On the vase, Fuxi is depicted wearing a characteristic leaf-collared robe and holding a scroll bearing a taiji medallion, an allusion to the cosmological diagram traditionally attributed to him and symbolic of the origin of the universe.
Like its Chenghua prototype, the present painting conveys an auspicious wish for peace, stability, and harmony, expressing the ideal that diverse traditions and interests may coexist in mutual accord under enlightened rule.