Jiao Bingzhen (active 1689-1726)

拍品描述

Jiao Bingzhen (active 1689-1726) Yuzhi Gengzhi Tu, Imperially Commissioned Illustrations of Tilling and Weaving, Beijing: 1696, comprising 44 woodblock illustrations, each page with three red seals, 淵鑒齋 Yuan Jian Zhai, 保合太和 Bao He Tai He, and 康熙宸翰 Kang Xi Chen Han, mounted in an accordion-style album, with silk brocade covered boards, 29x36cm. 焦秉貞 《御製耕織圖》木板印刷冊頁 Note: The Gengzhi Tu (Agriculture and Sericulture Illustrations) constitutes the earliest comprehensive visual record of agricultural and sericultural production in China. It reflects the traditional model of agrarian life in which farming and sericulture were pursued in tandem, with men engaged in ploughing and women in weaving. As such, it served as an important didactic instrument for imperial governance, used to encourage agricultural diligence, disseminate practical knowledge, promote technical improvements, and thereby stimulate rural productivity. The systematic pictorial rendering of the Gengzhi Tu can be traced back to the Southern Song dynasty and is attributed to Lou Shu. While serving as magistrate of Qianqian (present-day Lin’an, Zhejiang) during the reign of Emperor Gaozong, Lou was deeply moved by the hardships endured by farmers and silkwomen. In response, he composed a series of poems accompanied by illustrations of tilling and weaving, depicting each stage of agricultural and sericultural labour. These images later became some of the most valuable visual sources for the study of agricultural technology in the Song dynasty. In the twenty-eighth year of the Kangxi reign (1689), during the emperor’s southern inspection tour, a substantial number of books were presented to the court by local scholars, among them a version of the Gengzhi Tu described as “revised and verified by scholar Song and widely printed for transmission.” In the thirty-fifth year of Kangxi(1696), the emperor commissioned the court painter Jiao Bingzhen to produce a new painted version based on Lou Shu’s earlier artworks. This revised set comprised twenty-three scenes of farming and twenty-three of weaving (forty-four in total in the present lot), each accompanied by an imperial poem. The Shiqu Baoji records: “A painted album of Gengzhi Tu by Jiao Bingzhen, one superior-grade volume stored in the Yangxin Hall. Executed in colour on plain silk. In all forty-six leaves: leaves one to twenty-three depict tilling; leaves twenty-four to forty-six depict weaving… Above each image are inscriptions in the imperial hand of the Sage Ancestor, the Emperor Ren (Kangxi)… Each leaf bears the seal of Yuanjian Zhai, seal of ‘Kangxi Chenhan’ and ‘Baohe Taihe’ … Inscribed and written in the thirty-fifth year of Kangxi.” The pictorial programme underwent certain modifications. Two new scenes, “Transplanting Rice Seedlings” and “Paying Worship to the Gods”, were added to the tilling series. In the weaving series, three scenes “Lowering the Silkworms,” “Feeding the Silkworms,” and “First Metamorphosis of the Silkworm” were delated, while “Dyeing Silk” and “Making Garments” were introduced. The sequence of images was also rearranged. The emperor subsequently ordered the distinguished woodblock carvers Zhu Gui and Mei Yufeng to engrave and print the designs for distribution among officials. From the Kangxi period onward, representations derived from this imperial version of the Gengzhi Tu became standard decorative motifs on Qing porcelain. A well-known example in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, is a famille-verte bowl depicting scenes of “Husking Rice with a Pestle and Mortar” and “Separating Silkworms onto Bamboo Trays.” Although the Song and Qing versions of the Gengzhi Tu share broadly similar compositions and figural activities, Jiao Bingzhen’s renderings reflect the social customs of the Qing period and are executed with greater refinement and delicacy. Technically, they also incorporate elements of Western linear perspective. An article entitled “Western Influence on Chinese Art at the Turn of the Ming and Qing Dynasties,” compares the two versions: “The most notable difference lies in Jiao’s adoption of Western perspective.” It further observes: “Lou’s illustrations are simple and unadorned, whereas Jiao’s are intricate and elegant.” The Gengzhi Tu was first printed in the thirty-fifth year of Kangxi (1696). Numerous editions subsequently appeared, including woodblock-printed, painted, stone-carved, ink, and lithographic versions, each with varying formats. These included editions with image above and text below, with image on the left and text on the right, versions with dragon-decorated borders, miniature pocket editions, hand-coloured woodblock prints, and copies bearing vermilion seals preceding the prefaces and poems (the present lot belongs to this category), as well as others with seals printed in black ink. 《耕織圖》是中國農桑生產最早的成套圖像資料，反映了中國古代農桑并舉、男耕女織的生產形式。它是統治者勸課農桑的重要方式，旨在普及農業生產知識、推廣農業技術和促進農業生產。它的系統性繪寫淵源可上溯至南宋，繪者為樓璹。樓璹在宋高宗時期任於潛（今浙江省臨安市）縣令時，深感農夫、蠶婦之辛苦，即作耕、織二圖詩來描繪農桑生產的各個環節。《耕織圖》成為後人研究宋代農業生產技術最珍貴的形象資料。 清康熙二十八年（1689年）康熙帝南巡時，江南士子進獻藏書甚豐，其中有“宋公重加考訂，諸梓以傳”的《耕織圖》。康熙三十五年（1696），帝傳命內廷供奉焦秉貞在樓繪基礎上，重新繪制，計有耕圖和織圖各23幅（本拍品共計44幅），并每幅制詩一章。石渠寶笈記：「焦秉貞畫《耕織圖》一冊，上等宇一，貯養心殿。素絹本，著色畫。凡四十六幅，第一幅至第二十三幅，耕圖；第二十四至第四十六幅，織圖……每幅上方聖祖仁皇帝御書題句……每幅前有淵鑒齋一璽，后有康熙宸翰、保合太和二璽……康熙三十五年（1696）春二月社日題並書。」 繪畫內容略有變動，耕圖增加“初秧”、“祭神”二圖，織圖刪去“下蠶”、“餵蠶”、“一眠”三圖，增加“染色”、“成衣”二圖，圖序亦有變換。后又命著名木刻家朱圭、梅裕鳳鐫版印制，頒賜臣工。从康熙始，清代瓷器上的耕织图题材皆从此出，如北京故宮博物院藏品中有五彩耕織圖碗，畫面取“舂碓”和“分箔”兩組題材。 宋、清《耕織圖》的布景與人物活動大同小異，但焦圖畫中的風俗易為清代，所繪更為工細纖麗，在技法上還參用了西洋焦點透視法。1933年商務印書館出版之《東方文庫續編》中的《東方藝朮與西方藝朮》所收之《明清之際中國美朮所受西洋之影響》一文，將焦圖與樓圖作比較：“最為不同者，則焦圖應用西洋之透視法以作畫是也。”還說：“樓圖簡單朴素，而焦圖則纖細麗都。” 《耕織圖》初印於康熙三十五年（1696年），後又出現了很多不同版本，木刻本、繪本、石刻本、墨本、石印本均行於世，版式等也不盡相同，如上文下圖本，左圖右文本，版框帶有龍紋的裝飾本，袖珍刻本，木刻填色本，書中序文、詩文前後璽印朱色鈐印本（本拍品即為此版），前後璽印為刊版墨印本等。

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