Footnotes

• 十八/十九世紀 青玉雕山水人物圖插屏
  
  The inscription reads:
  
  見仁見智性所樂,
  畫法迢融隨筆作,
  山下出泉匯澗溪,
  縈繞千巖注萬壑,
  峰巒競秀水爭流,
  試參真幻空外求,
  紆迴磅礡氣象別,
  雲煙過眼意不留.
  
  Which may be translated as:
  
  Different people have different views, this is the joy of human nature;
  the techniques of painting are in harmony with following the brush,
  the rising springs from the foot of the mountain, converge into ravines and brooks;
  entangling and weaving a thousand rocky cliffs, the water pours into ten thousand pools,
  the mountains compete in beauty, the water vies to surge forth,
  try searching for reality and illusion, seek beyond the void,
  majestically circling and twisting, leaving the atmosphere,
  misty clouds pass before my eyes, but they leave no trace.
  
  Along the inscription followed by two very faint lines which can probably read:
  御......
  臣...敬書
  
  and may be translated as:
  Imperially......
  Respectfully inscribed by Official...
  
  
  Table screens such as the present lot would have adorned the scholar's desk, providing inspiration and perhaps some momentary relief from the pressures of work. Typically inspired by paintings, the subject matter often reflects the Daoist preoccupation with mountain retreats and retirement from worldly concerns. For related examples from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, see The Refined Taste of the Emperor: Special Exhibition of Archaic and Pictorial Jades of the Ch'ing Court, Taipei, 1997, Catalogue, nos. 67, 71 and 72.
  
  Compare with a related white jade screen, slightly smaller and dated to the Qianlong period, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2009, lot 1998.