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China's Top Arts 中國頂級藝術

Updated: Oct 28, 2023

Top Masterpieces: 2. Eastern Jin Dynasty. Gu Kaizhi's "The Picture Scroll of Women's Admonitions" 2. 頂級名畫: 東晉. 顧恺之《女史箴图卷》


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"The Picture Scroll of Women's Admonitions" is the oldest picture scroll we can still see. It may be a copy from the Sui and Tang Dynasties. It was valued by Song Mifu's "History of Painting" and "Xuanhe Painting Book", and was also used as a In modern times, critics and connoisseurs such as Dong Qichang and Xiang Molin praised it. Existing in the British Museum, London, UK. This painting is based on the "Proverbs for Women's History" written by Jin poet Zhang Hua in 292 AD. "Proverbs for Women's History" was used to warn women in the emperor's harem to respect women's virtues. This scroll shows Zhang Hua's poetry.

This painting is one of the earliest known scrolls of Chinese painting. The first record was recorded during the Huizong period of the Song Dynasty. It has been passed down for hundreds of years and left a large number of collectors' seals, and finally became the collection of Emperor Qianlong. In 1900, when the Eight-Power Allied Forces entered Beijing, "Proverbs of Women's History" was taken away from the Qing Palace by the British army and is now stored in the British Museum in London.


About this painting: Mi Fu first mentioned this painting, and then entered Huizong's Xuanhe Painting Book. The painting itself has many collection seals that can be used to date it, but many of them have been proven to be forgeries.

The existence of this painting is confirmed by Huizong's Xuanhe Painting Book of 1120. Mi Fu recorded that the painting was owned by the eunuch Liu Youfang.

During the Jingkang Disaster in 1121, the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed, and the whereabouts of "Proverbs of a Female History" are unknown. However, from the Southern Song Dynasty copy in the Palace Museum in Beijing, we know that this painting did not fall into the Jin Dynasty. It may have been collected by a Uighur official during the Yuan Dynasty.

It was not until the middle of the Ming Dynasty that Wang Hao and Yan Song collected it one after another. After Yan Song's downfall in 1562, his collection was confiscated by the Ming government, but it soon went to He Liangjun, and then to Gu Congyi's hands. In the 1560s, Xiang Yuanbian stamped 50 collection stamps on the "Picture of Proverbs of Female History", followed by the famous painter Dong Qichang. Later, in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, "Pictures of Admonitions of Women's History" was collected by Zhang Chou, Zhang Xiaosi, Da Chongguang, Liang Qingbiao and others, and finally passed into the hands of Emperor Qianlong from the great salt merchant Anqi. Emperor Qianlong painted orchids and wrote poems.


Emperor Qianlong was very fond of "The Picture of Admonitions of Female History". In 1746, it was reframed and some new parts were added, including the description at the beginning, the orchids painted by Emperor Qianlong himself, etc. Emperor Qianlong combined "The Picture of Admonitions of Women's History" with the "Picture of Admonitions of Female History" by Li Gonglin of the Song Dynasty. The "Reclining Tour of Xiaoxiang", "Overview of Sichuan Victory" and "Nine Songs" are collectively called the Four Beauties and are hidden in Jingyixuan. Emperor Qianlong stamped 37 collection stamps on "The Picture of Women's Proverbs".

After the death of Emperor Qianlong, the "Four Beauties", including the "Pictures of Proverbs of Female History", have been collected in the Jianfu Palace Garden in the Forbidden City. During the period of Empress Dowager Cixi, they were moved to the Summer Palace. In 1899, during the Boxer Rebellion Incident, the Eight-Power Allied Forces entered Beijing, and the British troops stationed in the Summer Palace Captain Clarence Johnson of the 1st Bengal Cavalry Regiment took advantage of the chaos and stole "Proverbs from Women's History". After Johnson returned to London in 1902, he did not realize the value of "Programs from Women's History". I took it to the British Museum and asked the curator to appraise the jade buckle on the scroll. The British Museum bought it from Johnson for 25 pounds. From 1914 to 1915, "Pictures of Admonitions of Women's History" was divided into two long sections and one short section for preservation. The first section contained the original works of 9 scenes, the second section included all other later additions,

and the third section was Zou Yigui's The painting has been housed in the North Wing of the British Museum since 1914.

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