Imperially Commissioned Illustrations of Riziculture and Sericulture

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

Illustrated by Jiao Bingzhen (act. 1680�1720), with poetic inscriptions by the Kangxi emperor (1654�1722; r. 1661�1722) in upper margins; engraved by Zhu Gui (ca. 1644�1717) and Mei Yufeng (fl. 1696)

Beijing: Wuying dian, 1696

Album of 46 leaves, woodblock printed on paper, mounted between wooden boards covered with brown patterned silk brocade; each leaf: approx. 34.7 x 27.8 cm; block size of illustrations: approx. 24.4 x 24.4 cm

Inventory number: 14921

This album was based on a set of 45 poems and pictures (21 on rice cultivation and 24 on rearing silkworms) composed by the official Lou Shu (1090�1162) for the Southern Song court around 1145.

This group of images depicting two of imperial China's most important economic activities were subjected to a much heightened level of recension during the early Qing dynasty.� The Kangxi emperor commissioned the court artist Jiao Bingzhen to produce an updated set, to which he would contribute a preface and poems to accompany the 46 pictures equally divided between the two sections.� After the initial printing of this revived Gengzhi tu in 1696, many other imperial and popular editions appeared in China as well as a number of versions printed in Korea and Japan.� It also found expression in the decorative arts and provided motifs for China's domestic and export porcelain industries, some of which even appeared in numerous European prints, engravings, and watercolors.