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拍品专文
These small ink cakes are miniature replicas of the ten drum-shaped stones, known as Shigu (Stone Drum), which were allegedly inscribed during the Warring States period (475-221 BC), and discovered in the early Tang dynasty (AD 618-907). The inscriptions on the original stones, which record royal hunting expeditions, represent a transitional style between the guzhou ('ancient script') found on Shang and Zhou bronze vessels and the standardized xiaozhuan ('small-seal' script) used in official documents of the Qin dynasty (221–206 BC), and is the earliest known seal-script text on stone. The inscriptions in their full length would have been around 700 words, but only 310 words survived.
In 1790, the Qianlong Emperor ordered the remaining 310 decipherable characters on the original Shigu to be assembled and rearranged into ten poems and carved onto two new sets of Shigu: one set is now located in the Guozijian (Confusion Temple and The Imperial College) in Beijing, and the other set is in the Wenmiao (Confusian Temple) in Chengde. The inscriptions on the current inkcake set are based on the ones carved on the Qianlong Shigu.
Compare an almost identical box and cover containing ten inkcakes in the form of the Stone Drums, in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 49 - The Four Treasures of the Study - Inksticks and Writing Brushes, Hong Kong, 2005, p. 118, no. 101. Of particular note is the fact that the interior of the Palace Museum set is lined in the same yellow silk with a wan diaper as the present set, suggesting that the two likely came from the same workshop.
In 1790, the Qianlong Emperor ordered the remaining 310 decipherable characters on the original Shigu to be assembled and rearranged into ten poems and carved onto two new sets of Shigu: one set is now located in the Guozijian (Confusion Temple and The Imperial College) in Beijing, and the other set is in the Wenmiao (Confusian Temple) in Chengde. The inscriptions on the current inkcake set are based on the ones carved on the Qianlong Shigu.
Compare an almost identical box and cover containing ten inkcakes in the form of the Stone Drums, in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 49 - The Four Treasures of the Study - Inksticks and Writing Brushes, Hong Kong, 2005, p. 118, no. 101. Of particular note is the fact that the interior of the Palace Museum set is lined in the same yellow silk with a wan diaper as the present set, suggesting that the two likely came from the same workshop.