Portraits of Meritorious Officials from the Lingyan Pavilion

Qing dynasty (1644�1911), Kangxi period (1662�1722)

Illustrated by Liu Yuan (fl. 1662�1668); engraved by Zhu Gui (ca. 1644�1717)

Suzhou, Jiangsu Province: Zhuhu tang, 1668

No folding margin at center of folio; no borders; overall dimensions of volumes: 30.6 x 18.5 cm; block sizes of illustrations and texts vary; stitched binding

Inventory number: 03859

Emperor Taizong (ca. 600�649; r. 626�649), second ruler of the Tang dynasty (618�906) assembled a remarkable team of ministers and eminent officials.� In recognition of their services, he commissioned the famous artist Yan Liben (ca. 600�674) to paint portraits of 24 meritorious officials on the walls of the Lingyan Pavilion in his palace; the portraits were later engraved on stone during the Song dynasty (960�1279).

Liu Yuan's illustrations, influenced by Chen Hongshou (1598�1652), were engraved on woodblocks by Zhu Gui, a master craftsman from Suzhou.� The table of contents, with its "cracked-ice" design, is unusually attractive.� Each of the 24 portraits is accompanied by the figure's name, official positions, and titles of nobility.� On the verso are poems composed by Liu Yuan and written in various manners of famous Chinese calligraphers; the striking styles were appropriate to heroic motifs and intended to evoke the volume and dynamism of the variously posed figures.� The Tang portraits are followed by three images of the bodhisattva Guanyin and three pictures of Guan Yu (162�220), a heroic field marshal of the Three Kingdoms (220�65) who later became Emperor Guan (Guan di) and who, since the seventh century, has been regarded as a spiritual protector and the god of literature.