A WHITE AND RUSSET JADE 'SU DONGPO' PEBBLE CARVING

19th century

Footnotes

十九世紀 白玉帶皮巧雕東坡觀雪吊墜

The scene on the present jade carving refers to the famous Song dynasty scholar, poet and artist Su Dongpo (1037-1101) who wrote on the North Terrace Wall after snow and became the subject of two poems:

Writing on the Northern Terrace Wall After Snow

Early in the morning when the crows just fly off the city walls,
And on the paths between the fields the carts get stuck in bright mire,
From cold the shoulders shrug, chilli makes the flesh creep,
Brilliant light dazzles the eyes with sparkles.

The nymphs of the locusts must have retired into the ground a thousand feet deep,
the wheat, sown last autumn, reaches to the clouds, enough for ten thousand households,
Old and decrepit, I lament my waning poetic strength,
In vain I recite 'icicles' to commemorate Liu Cha.

The last line refers to a famous poem by Liu Cha, an unconventional man said to be a contemporary of the Tang poet Han Yu. The reference to the 'locust nymphs' driven deeply into the ground is based on the Chinese belief that cold winters drive these pests away; hence the poet's vision of a prospective bumper harvest. The poem and the jade carving referencing this scene elude to a hopeful optimism to the future.

帶皮籽料巧雕東坡題壁， 玉皮巧雕成山崖，其上淺浮雕梅花一枝，其下陰刻流水潺潺，畫面正中磨出玉肉，其上浮雕蘇東坡曳杖前行，身後有童子抱琴同往。

由畫面左面之梅花及雪崖，以及人物裝束可知為東坡觀雪之典故。宋神宗熙寧七年(1074年)蘇軾於山東諸城縣北城超然台上觀雪題壁，留有雪後書北臺壁二首，後世以為典。