- Museum number
- 1903,0408,0.1
- Title
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Object: Nüshi zhen tu 女史箴图 (Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies)
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Object: The Admonitions Scroll
- Description
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Handscroll painting in nine scenes (originally twelve) illustrating the 'Nüshi zhen' (Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies), a text composed by Zhang Hua (c. AD 232-300). It bears many seals and long colophons in the hands of the Huizong and Qianlong emperors (an exterior label was possibly written by the Qianlong emperor too). At the beginning is a fragment of Song dynasty 'kesi' tapestry-woven silk from an old mounting of the handscroll, depicting peonies, followed by a large three-character inscription. The scroll consists of quotations from the text by Zhang Hua, followed in each case by figure illustrations without any background or at most slight suggestions of setting. At the end of the handscroll was a landscape painting depicting trees by Zou Yigui (now mounted separately [see BM 1903.0408.01b]). Made of ink and colours on silk.
Scene seven, for example, shows a court lady advancing towards the Emperor, who repulses her with a gesture of his raised hand. The drapery is portrayed with long, continuous, even brushstrokes; movement is shown through the vitality of the swirling draperies, a continuation of Han dynasty traditions. The facial expressions of the figures have advanced beyond the generalised types of Han figures; the characterisation of facial expression is here closer to portraiture, displaying individual character and emotion.
Another scene shows a court concubine at her toilet with a maid. The concubie wears a long-sleeved wrapover robe while the maid has a separate skirt and wrapover top, and an elaborate hair ornament. A bronze mirror can be seen in use on a lacquered wood stand, as well as lacquered toilet boxes. The large lacquer box lid is inlaid with silver.
- Production date
- 5thC-7thC
- Dimensions
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Height: 26 centimetres (brocade wrapper)
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Height: 24.37 centimetres
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Length: 343.75 centimetres
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Width: 24.60 centimetres (brocade wrapper)
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- Curator's comments
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This painting is now often considered to be a work of the fifth to early seventh century . It lacks three of the twelve original narrative registers (these are preserved in the Song dynasty copy of the painting now in the National Palace Museum in Beijing, see Wen Wu 1961, no. 6, pp. 7-12 for these images [jrk 27/4/00]).
Three facsimiles of this object have been made: in 1912 a colour woodprint by Sugizaki Hideaki and Urushibara Yoshijiro with a text by Lawrence Binyon (registered as 1913.7-8.01); in 1925 a monochrome collotype, made in Japan under the supervision of Prof. Fukui Kichijiro of Sendai University; and in 1966 a colour collotype facsimile by Benrido of Japan, with a text by Basil Gray.
See Basil Gray, 'Admonitions' etc., 1966, for translations (after Waley 1923 and 1964) of the inscriptions and its mount and exterior label.
Bibliography:
Wen Wu 1961, no.6, pp.7-12.
Waley 1923.
Shimbi Taikan no.xiv.
Taki Seiichi, 'Ku K'ai-chih's Illustration of the Poem of Lo-shen' Kokka, 253 (June 1911).
Taki Seiichi, "Eikoku Hakubutsukan Ko Gaishi no Joshi shin zukan" [Gu Kaizhi's 'Admonitions of the Court Instructress picture scroll in the British Museum], Kokka, 287 (April 1914), pp. 259-65.
Also published in Michaelson, 'Chinese Art in Detail' (BMP, 2006), p. 94 ('The toilette scene') and p. 96 ('The rejection scene').
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Rawson 1992:
This is the finest extant work attributed to Gu Kaizhi and one of the two versions of this theme (the other is in the Palace Museum, Beijing). Gu Kaizhi, a native of Wuxi in Jiangsu province, gained a reputation as a painter at the Jin court in Nanjing. He was famous for his portraits and figures, but he also painted landscapes. A number of important paintings are attributed to him, but they were not associated to him in texts until the Song dynasty, so the relationship to him is tenous.
The handscroll 'The Admonitions of the Court Instructress' illustrates a moralising text by Zhang Hua (AD 232-300) which discusses the correct behaviour of ladies of the imperial harem. Didactic works of this kind continued to be produced into the Southern Song (1127-1279).
The panel of peony flowers that was used as a wrapping for the painting is one of the most elaborate examples of 'kesi' silk tapestry. Tapestry, known in Chinese as 'kesi', made its first appearance in China in the Tang dynasty like many other Western weft-faced weaves. Tapestry is very adaptable and, like embroidery, can be used for large-scale designs without repeats. In China it was particularly associated with the use of gold thread, principally in the form of gilded paper: either cut strips woven in flat, or strips wound around a silk core. 'Kesi' was to become the most highly prized of all Chinese silk textiles, and later in China it was developed into a major art form used for large pictures, chair covers and temple hangings as well as for album leaves and scroll mounts.
- Bibliographic references
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McCausland 2003 / First Masterpiece of Chinese Painting. The Admonitions Scroll
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Binyon 1916 / A Catalogue of Japanese & Chinese Woodcuts Preserved in the Sub-Department of Oriental Prints and Drawings in the British Museum
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Suzuki 1982 / Southeast Asian and European Collections (Vol.2) (E15-260 and E15-261)
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Rawson 1992 / The British Museum Book of Chinese Art (figures 65 and 121)
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MacGregor 2010 / A History of the World in 100 Objects (39)
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Wang 2012a / Tradition and Anti-Tradition in Contemporary Chinese Calligraphy (pp.102-103, fig.6)
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Stuart 2014 / The Admonitions Scroll
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McCausland 2003b / Gu Kaizhi and the Admonitions scroll
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Clunas et al 2016 / Ming China: Courts and Contacts 1400-1450 (p.223, pl.25.5)
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Kosek et al 2015 / The Admonitions Scroll: condition, treatment and housing 1903-2014 (p.25-43, p.26-27, fig.1a-j, p.29, fig.3d-f, p.30, fig.4, p.32, fig.5, p.33, fig.6, p.34, fig.7, p.35, fig.8-9, p.36, fig.10-11, p.37, fig.12, p.38, fig.13, p.39, fig.14, p.40, fig.15)
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2007 8 February-5 August, BM Gallery 91, 'Gods, Guardians and Immortals: Chinese Religious Paintings'.
2008 10 January-5 August, BM Galleries 91, Fascination With Nature.
2010-2011: London, BM/BBC, 'A History of the World in 100 Objects'.
2014 3 April-31 August, BM Gallery 91, 'Gems of Chinese painting: a voyage along the Yangzi River'.
2015 5-25 November
2016 4-18 February, 21 July-10 August, 3-23 November
2017 26-29 January, 23 February-15 March, 20 July-16 August
2019 14 Oct-24 Nov, brocade also displayed
2022 3 Oct-13 Nov
- Condition
- Good, handscroll mounted (in 1914-15) on flat panel in two sections: one the colophons and inscriptions and the other the main painting. The landscape with trees by Zou Yigui, once part of the ensemble mounted as a handscroll, is now separately mounted flat on card.
- Acquisition date
- 1903
- Acquisition notes
- Purchased from Capt. C. Johnson who brought the painting to the British Museum for evaluation. Johnson acquired the scroll in Beijing in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion and the occupation of the city by the Eight Nation Alliance. Johnson was stationed there as part of the First Bengal Lancers of the British Indian Army. The regiment entered Beijing on 15 August and stayed for the next two months. The exact circumstances of how Johnson came to possess the scroll are unclear.
The scroll was part of the Qing imperial collection during the latter part of the 18th century and 19th centuries. It was in the Qianlong emperor's collection before 1746. In 1746 the painting was moved from the Imperial Study and placed with three other scrolls. This group of four paintings was rehoused in a west chamber dedicated to them in the Jingyixuan (Verandah of Delightful Serenity), in the garden of the Jianfugong (Palace of Established Happiness) compound in the Forbidden City. It is assumed that the painting remained in the Qing imperial collection after Qianlong's death in 1799 and Jianfugong was sealed off in the reign of the Jiaqing emperor (1796-1821). It may have been moved by the order of Empress Dowager Cixi (1852-1908) to the Maoqindian (Hall of Diligence) in the Forbidden City in 1870.
See Zhang Hongxing, 'The Nineteenth-Century Provenance of the Admonitions Scroll: A Hypothesis' in McCausland ed. 2003b, pp. 277-87.
Collection of An Qi (1683-c. 1746)
Collection of Liang Qingbiao (1620-91)
Collection of Da Zhongguang (1623-92)
Collection of Zhang Xiaosi (Ming-Qing)
Collection of Xiang Yuanbian (1525-90)
Collection of Gu Congyi (1523-88)
Probably collection of Yan Song (1480-1565)
Collection of Wang Ao (1450-1524)
See Stephen Little, 'A "Cultural Biography" of the Admonitions Scroll', in McCausland 2003b, pp. 219-224, 241-48.
Unidentified Uighur collector 'Ali' (late 13th century)
Collection of Jia Sidao (1213-1275)
Jurchen Jin imperial collection (seals of Zhangzong)
Song imperial collection (seals of Huizong and Gaozong Empress Wu)
See Wang Yao-t'ing, 'Beyond the Admonitions Scroll: A Study of its Mounting, Seals and Inscriptions', in McCausland 2003b, pp. 192-218.
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1903,0408,0.1
- Additional IDs
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Asia painting number: Ch.Ptg.1 (Chinese Painting Number)
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Miscellaneous number: 1903,0408.0,1 (Number as used in Kosek et al 2015)
