Album impérial 'Ershiwu Yuantong', d'après Zhang Ning (1425-ca.1506) Chine, Dynastie Qing, cachet Qianlong yulan zhi bao et époque Qianlong (1736-1795)

comprenant la page de titre Ershiwu Yuantong et une représentation du Dejavara Skanda, apposées des cachets Midian Zhulin (Forêt des perles dans le palais Secret) et Qianlong Yulan zhi bao (Trésor inspecté par sa Majesté Qianlong), suivit de vingt illustrations d'Arhats, certaines planches avec plusieurs figures, en représentation des "vingt-cinq perfections bouddhistes", l'album signé sur la dernière page Xuande ernian mengchun zhi ji, Fo dizi Zhang Ning jinhui "peint avec révérence par le disciple Zhang Ning la deuxième année du règne de Xuande" [correspondant à 1427], face à une tablette sur une base de lotus inscrite Huangtu yonggu, Fori zenghui, Didao xiachang, Falun changzhuan, cachets Qianlong jianshang (apprécié durant le règne de Qianlong), Sanxitang jingjian xi (examiné dans le studio des trois raretés), et Yi zisun (Sera approprié pour mes descendants) ; peint avec des pigments or et argent sur du papier bleu nuit, sur un fond cartonné jaune, folio européen en cuir du XVIIIème siècle ; couverture originale manquante, plusieurs planches aves des trous de vers, salissures et tâches d'humidité (visibles sur les illustrations)

Frédérique Albert Constantin Weber (1830-1903), médecin militaire et botaniste. 
Demoiselles Densmore, rue Dufresnoy, Paris, 1961.

The original album cover is missing and is now replaced with a European leather folio. The leaves are splitted in three separate groups, of 6, 8 and 10 sheets respectively. Thirteen leaves have humidity stains and/or woodworms to varying degrees, mostly located on the yellow brocade border (visible on the illustrations in the catalogue), the woodworms are partly coming from the edges inside the design on six leaves (top right vignette image p.183 in the catalogue, and second and third illustrations in the left column of images p.183 in the catalogue), some surface wear, mild fading or minor tears to the paper ground of some, but overall the colours are fresh and the paintings are in good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Ershiwu yuantong (Twenty-five Kinds of Perfect Understanding) Richard John Lynn

Subject
The title refers to disciples of the Buddha who each acquired a special knowledge of one of twenty-five modes of perfect enlightenment and was its authority, for which the source is the Da foding rulai miyin xiuzheng liaoyi zhupusa wanxing shoulengyan jing (Great Tathāgata Buddha's Uṣṇīṣa Heroic March Sūtra in Which the Esoteric Causes Underlying All Modes of Bodhisattvas to Achieve Cultivation and Realization Are Clearly Explained), i. e., the Śūraṃgama-sūtra (Taishō Tripitaka ed.), 5:0421a- 6: 0128b.  The twenty-five kinds of understanding are the six data-fields (five sensory fields and the thought-field, form, sound, odor, taste, touch, and conceptual); the six faculties (six sense organs: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind), the six consciousnesses (functions of the six organs attained in the acts of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and knowing); and the seven elements (earth, water, fire, wind, space [ether], the senses, and consciousness).

Sets of these twenty-five in temple statuary and illustrated in temple wall paintings were not uncommon, but paintings in album or scroll format seem extremely rare; hitherto, only two examples from the late Ming were known to exist: an album, the Hua lengyan ershiwu yuantong ce by Wu Bin (1620)[1] and a scroll, the Hua ershiwu yuantong xiang by Fu Kun (1627),[2] both in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan.

Texts and Seals
Centered on the first leaf is the title, Ershiwu yuantong (Twenty-five Kinds of Perfect Understanding), with a seal at the right, Midian zhulin (Forest of Pearls in the Secret Palace), a seal at the bottom right, Taiping shanzhong ren (Man on Great Concord Mountain) (unidentified), and a large seal straddling the next leaf at the upper left, Qianlong yulan zhi bao (Treasure Scutinized by His Majesty During the Qianlong Era).  The penultimate leaf contains an image of a tablet atop a lotus blossom inside which are printed: Huangtu yonggu, Fori zenghui, Didao xiachang, Falun changzhuan "May  the Empire be strong forever, the Buddha-Sun always increase in brilliance, the Way of the True Emperor ever prosper, and the Wheel of the Dharma ever roll."  The signature is dated: Xuande ernian mengchun zhi ji "1^st day of the 1st month of Spring in the 2nd year of the Xuande era [28 January 1427], Fo dizi Zhang Ning jinghui "Reverently painted by Buddhist disciple Zhang Ning."  Two seals follow the signature:  Zhang Ning and Jingzhi (Zhang's personal name).  Three additional seals appear on the same leaf: Qianlong jianshang  Appreciated During the Qianlong Era) (top center), Sanxitang jingjian  xi (Great Seal on Works Carefully Examined in the Three Rarities Hall) and Yi zisun (Appropriate for My Descendants) (lower left of center), all of which are authentic and match original impressions in the "Qianlong Baoshou." （should be Qianlong Baosou）
The presence of these seal is consistent with the process described in the fanli (notes on use) for the joint edition of the Midian zhulin Shiqu baoji xubian (Forest of Pearls in the Secret Palace and Bamboo Treasure Box from the Stone-lined Moat Pavilion, Second Series) (1793): "When calligraphy and paintings come to the imperial treasury, five great seals are affixed to those initially selected: Qianlong yulan zhi bao, Qianlong jianshang, Sanxitang jingjian xi, Yi zisun and sometimes Midian zhulin or Shiqu baoji.  However, the presence of these seals does not mean the work should have been recorded in the imperial catalogue. Only a selection would have made it to this stage, receiving then two additional seals either related to the Midian zhulin for Buddhist and Daoist works or the Shiqu baoji for secular works.  Especially fine works from among them that should be recorded in the catalogue have two great seals affixed to each of them: either Midian and Zhulin chongding or Shiqu dingjian and Baoji chongbian.  Then ultimately a seal was applied indicating one of the five locations where the work was to be kept: Qianqinggong, Yangxindian, Chonghuagong, Yushufang, or Ningshougong.  The album lacks any of these second-stage selection seals, so we can deduce that it was not kept in any of the five locations above nor recorded in the imperial catalogue.

The only references to Zhang Ning in the Shiqu baoji is one painting by him, Suihan sanyou tu  (Picture of the Three Friends [Pine, Prunus, Bamboo] in Winter) and several collophons by him on other works.  More significant is a colophon by him in the Midian zhulin to a Song dynasty block print of a seven story "Diamond Sutra Pagoda" (dated 1452), which records two seals:  "Zhang Ning" and "Jingzhi," the same two as appear on the signature page of the album.

Zhang Ning (1425/26- ca.1506)
Zhang Ning, zi (personal name) Jingzhi, sobriquet Fangzhou, native of Haiyan, Zhejiang and successful jinshi (metropolitan degree) candidate of 1454, was an official, poet, and moderately well-known calligrapher and painter.  Modern reference works only provide the year in which he attained the jinshi, but his birth year can be calculated from a poem, "Last Day of the Year bingxu, Arriving by Boat at Fuyang" [4 February 1467]
...
With tonight it is the end of 390 days,
My forty-second year begins tomorrow.
....
The bingxu (1467) year contained an intercalary month so had 390 and not the usual 360 days.  Since Zhang's was then forty-second sui (one year old at birth), he must have been born in 1425 or 1426. We know from other dated documents that he lived into the first decade of the 16^th century, thus the date of the album inscribed on the final leaf, 1427, is too early for him, as well as too early for the album itself, which, based on provenance, style and physicality, can be safely dated to the 18^th century. Assuming that the work is a replica after an original (and not apocryphal), and assuming that Zhang Ning did not have an exact namesake preceding him in history, it is possible that the copyist mistook Zhengde er nian (1506) as Yuande (should be Xuande) ernian (1427), confusing zheng and xuan, perhaps because the original leaf was damaged and here illegible

Provenance
Documents kept with the album state it was acquired in 1860 at the "Library of the Summer Palace" by Frédéric Albert Constantin Weber (1830-1903), doctor and aide-Major de 1ère classe (aide to the major, first class), 2nd Bataillon d'infanterie légère (second battalion of light infantry), when Weber served in China with the Anglo-French expedition of that year. Weber had the texts in the album translated after acquisition by a "savant mandarin" (learned official) to whom he had been referred.  Later when a second owner, unidentified, acquired the album, he had a member of the Chinese Embassy staff in Paris translate the texts again, a certain "Li-Tchou-pé mandarin 5^e classe au bouton de cristal" (Li Zhoubo, Mandarin 5^th class with a crystal button).  The second translation must have been done between 1879, when the Chinese embassy was first established in Paris, and the end of the Qing dynasty in 1911, after which Li would not have used his imperial rank and title.

Iconography
Twenty-one illustrations (some more than one figure) appear in the album. Those that can be identified from the Sutra are, in the order of the album (identifications are tentative):
1- A Devaraja, Guardian King (Tianwang) or Hushiwang (World-Protecting King), placed at the head of the illustrations to "protect" them; specifically the temple guardian Skanda.
2- Subhūti, (11 in the Sutra) one of the Buddha's ten principal disciples and main interlocutor of the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras, where he excelled in explaining the doctrine of emptiness; special knowledge of mind and thought.
3- Cūḍapanthaka (right), sixteenth of the sixteen arhats; special knowledge of nose and smell and Mahā-Maudgalyāyana (left), one of the ten principal disciples of Śākyamuni noted for his miraculous powers; special knowledge of mental or thinking consciousness; respectively 8 and 17 in the Sutra.
4- Maitreya Bodhisattva, the future Buddha and successor of the historic Śākyamuni Buddha; special knowledge of the element of consciousness;  23 in the Sutra.
5- Wuliang shoufo (Buddha of Immeasurable Life), the buddha Amitāyus, an epithet for Amitābha (Buddha of Immeasurable Light); no correspondence to the the sutra but iconography similar to the first figure in the album by Wu Bin, there identified as the Wuliang shoufo (Buddha of Immeasurable Life).
6- Mañjuśrī subduing a lion, with attendant holding books of the law; though not in the Sutra list, Mañjuśrī  personifies supreme wisdom, which accounts for his presence here.
7- Unidentified
8- Bodhidharma on far left, luohan or bodhisattva pointing way with a lotus-head sceptre, attendant on far right carrying baggage.
9- Unidentified.
10- Unidentified.
11- Sundarananda (left), disciple and half-brother of Śākyamuni, the second son of King Sudhodhana, original name Nanda but in order to distinguish him from Ānanda, he was called with the name of his wife, Sundarī attached;  special knowledge of nose and smell (olfactory consciousness); and Ākāśagarbha (right), known also as Gaganagarbha, one of the twenty-five bodhisattvas who protect all who call on Amitābha (the primordial and self-existant Buddha), guardian of the treasury of all wisdom and achievement; special knowledge of the element of space; respectively 14 and 22 in the Sutra.
12- Fragrant Adornment Bodhisattva; special knowledge of data-field of odor.  No.3 in the Sutra.
13- Dharaṇiṃdhara-Bodhisattva or (Earth-holding Bodhisattva), also known as Gandhāra, ruler of the earth, special knowledge of the element earth; 19 in the Sutra.
14- Medicine King (Bodhisattva), Bhaiṣajya-rāja, and Bhaiṣajya-samudgata (Medicine Supreme Bodhisattva); special knowledge of data-field of taste;  4 in the Sutra.
15- Raised Bowl Luohan with subdued demon attendant; no correspondence with the Sutra.
16- Monk contemplating eight figures, perhaps eight of the sixteen arhats, or an arhats. contemplating the Eight Bodhisattvas: Mañjuśrī, Avalokitêśvara, Kṣitigarbha, Akṣayamati, Baotanhua, Bhaiṣajya-rāja, Bhaiṣajya-samudgata, and Maitreya.
17- Unidentified.
18- Candraprabha (Moonlight Bodhisattva); special knowledge of the element water; 20 in the Sutra.
19- Unidentified.
20- Pūrṇa Maitrāyaniputra (Fuluona), one of the ten principal disciples of Śākyamuni, famous for his eloquence in preaching the dharma; so associated with the tongue is his special knowledge of taste perception (gustatory consciousness); 15 in the sutra.

[1] Wanming bianxing zhuyi huajia zuopin zhan  (Taibei: Guoli gugong bowuyuan, 1977), 224; Chen Yunru, "Wu Bin Hua lengyan ershiwu yuantong ce yanjiu," Guoli Taiwan daxue meishushi yanjiu jikan 13 (2002), 167-199;
[2] Gugong shuhua lu, 8, Vol. 4, 51; Vol. 24, 43-52.