A CHINESE CARVED BAMBOO 'RAFT VOYAGE' BRUSH POT.

Qing Dynasty.

Delicately incised to depict a scene of Su Dongpo and two friends drinking wine together on a raft steered by a young attendant through a rocky riverscape on a wave-filled water between rocks overhung with pines, 14cm H.

清 竹雕士大夫泛舟圖紋筆筒

The scene appears to draw directly on the work Ode to the Red Cliff by Su Shi (1037 – 1101). In the text, he writes:

“In the autumn of the year jen-hsu (1082), on the sixteenth day of the seventh month, I took some guests on an excursion by boat under the Red Cliff. A cool wind blew gently, without starting a ripple. I raised my cup to pledge the guests; and we chanted the Full Moon ode and sang out the verse about the modest lady.”

(Anthology of Chinese Literature, Volume I: From Early Times to the Fourteenth Century, edited by Cyril Birch, New York: Grove Press, 1965, pp. 381-382.)

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