
Coco Li
Cataloguer / Sale Coordinator, Chinese Works of Art
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Cataloguer / Sale Coordinator, Chinese Works of Art

Senior Vice President, US Head, Asian Art Group

Vice President and Head of Department

Senior Specialist
1750-1850 白玉刻「赤壁之戰」及對弈圖鼻煙壺一件
Provenance:
Ning (Dick) Wang, Beijing, 2003
來源:
王寧,北京,2003年
When the Song dynasty literatus Su Dongpo (1037-1101) was first sent to Huangzhou in exile for opposing reformist policies at court, he passed by the supposed site of the naval battle of the Red Cliffs (208 AD) during the Three Kingdoms period. It was here, purportedly, that that the powerful northern warlord Cao Cao was defeated by Liu Bei, virtuous scion of the Han dynasty, who dreamt of reuniting China but ultimately failed. Su wrote two poems on the Red Cliffs commemorating the valor and bravery of the historical heroes that fought in the battle long past, while also voicing his own sense of nostalgia and loss. His poems have since entered into the Chinese literary canon and are a continuously popular motif for artists and poets; see R.Egan, Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of Su Shi, Cambridge MA, 1994, pp.221-228.
Scholars in a boat under a crescent moon depicts the night excursion at the Red Cliff.
For s Suzhou Chalcedony agate with a very similar scenes with two figures playing weiqi to one side and figures in a boat to the other, see Robert W. Kleiner, Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection of Mary and George Bloch, Hong Kong, 1987, pp. 110-111, no. 154