Hunting in the Snow
Ye Zhongshan, Beijing, 1896
Height: 5.8 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.48/1.73 cm
Stopper: coral carved with a coiled chi dragon; pearl finial; turquoise collar
Provenance:
Robert Kleiner & Co., Ltd, October 1994
Published:
Sin, Kui, and Kwong 1996, no. 300
Published:
Hugh Moss and Stuart Sargent, The Water, Pine and Stone Retreat Collection of Snuff Bottles. Part Two, Non-Imperial Influence over the Snuff Bottle Arts.
Colourless crystal with some minor icy flaws, ink, and watercolours; painted on the inside with a continuous scene of Huang Chengyan 黃承彥 riding a donkey followed on foot by his attendant holding a large double gourd on a stick over his shoulder, and a mounter hunter firing an arrow at a flying goose, all in a snowy landscape; inscribed Bingshen dongyue zuo yu dumen, Ye Zhongsan 丙申冬月作於都門, 葉仲三('Made at Beijing by Ye Zhongsan in the winter of 1896') with one seal of the artist yin 印 (‘seal’).
The subject of Huang Chengyan immortalized in Sanguo yanyi (Romance of the Three Kingdoms) was a favourite of Ye Zhongsan throughout his career. Huang Chengyan is coming to see his son-in-law Zhuge Liang 諸葛亮. The episode is a comic one in its overall context. Liu Bei 劉備 has pushed through the winter weather to persuade Zhuge Liang to advise him in his struggle against Cao Cao 曹操 in the north and Sun Ce 孫策 in the lower Yangzi region. He has found Zhuge absent from home, but when Huang rides up Liu mistakes him for Zhuge and directs all his profuse expressions of humility and respect toward the wrong man. More than classic comedy is at stake here, however. The episode is also calculated to reinforce our picture of Liu Bei as a leader with a unique ability to recognize brilliant advisors and listen to what they have to teach him, an ability that will eventually compensate for his relatively weak position in that dark era of impending all-out war.
