A RARE WHITE JADE ARCHAISTIC 'CHANG YI ZISUN' BI DISC MARK AND PERIOD OF QIANLONG

the lustrous white stone finely worked in openwork with four vertical characters reading chang yi zisun ('to benefit future generations forever'), the circular disc enclosing the latter two characters flanked by four pairs of confronting mythical beasts, including two stylised phoenix with large sweeping wings canopying a pair of mythical beasts, the first two characters on the upper crest enveloped by sinuously undulating bodies terminating in stylised phoenix and human heads beneath two ruyi-shaped rings, the thin sides incised with a four-character reign mark on one side and a six-character inscription in kaishu on the other reading zhong zi liu shi er hao ('number 62, character zhong')

The plaque is in good condition with just faint surface wear and pitting, as well as expected minute nicks to the fragile extremities as can be expected. The catalogue illustration is a tinge brighter than the actual colour of the stone.
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This piece represents the Qianlong Emperor’s taste for archaism and belongs to a group of jade pendants carved in the shape of bi discs created during the early years of his reign. According to James C.S. Lin in ‘The Collection of Qing Dynasty Jades in the Fitzwilliam Museum’, Arts of Asia, May/June, 2010, p. 115, the craftsmen numbered these pendants according to the characters in the text Qian zi wen [Thousand characters essay] instead of using figures. While the number of similar jade pendants produced is unknown, the Zaobanchu (‘Imperial Palace Workshop’) continued to make them well after the fifteenth year of the Qianlong Emperor’s reign (1750). 

This pendant is unusual for the incorporation of the two characters chang yi into the elaborately intertwined bodies terminating in stylised phoenix and human heads with long combed mane. A closely related example from the Qing court collection, preserved in Beijing, is illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade, vol. 9, cat. no. 245. See also a comparable pendant, numbered 185 (character xin), sold in our New York rooms, 17th/18th September 2013, lot 128. Another example, of similar design but with the character yi flanked by dragon heads instead of human faces, numbered 163 (character zhen), was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th April 2013, lot 3040.

The motif of a profile human head was probably inspired by decorations on jades of the late Neolithic period. The artisans of the present plaque were likely to be familiar with and may have taken their inspiration from archaic pieces in the Qing court collection, such as a jade gui blade attributed to the Longshan culture, Shandong province, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Art in Quest of Heaven and Truth: Chinese Jades through the Ages, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2012, fig. 4-3-4 (accession no.: Gu Yu 2100). It is carved in low relief with a full-frontal face of a mythical figure flanked by two small human heads in profile. For the Eastern Han prototypes containing the characters chang le (‘eternal happiness’) and decorated with raised studs on the disc, see an example from the Qing court collection and still in Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jadeware (I), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 217, together with another plaque with a smaller finial containing the characters yi shou (‘boosting longevity), pl. 216. 

Further pendants of this type, but with all four characters chang yi zisun carved into the bi disc, include one published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 127; one sold in these rooms, 27th April 2003, lot 3, and included in the exhibition A Romance with Jade from the De An Tang Collection, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2004, cat. no. 21; another in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, illustrated in James C.S. Lin, The Immortal Stone. Chinese Jades from the Neolithic Period to the Twentieth Century, Cambridge, 2009, pls. 77a and b; and a fourth example, from the L. de Luca collection, sold in these rooms, 8th April 2011, lot 2805.