An important imperial white jade 'changyi zisun' bi disc with original zitan 'fengji zhenfu' album-form box, Mark and period of Qianlong | 清乾隆 御製白玉透雕夔龍鳳紋「長宜子孫」珮 《乾隆年製》、《知字一百六十九號》款 及 御製紫檀「逢吉珍符」冊頁式函匣 水墨紙本 御筆《逢吉珍符》 及 《幽芳圖》 「五福五代堂寶」、「八徵耄念之寶」、「八徵耄念之寶」、「幾暇怡情」、「聚雲」印

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 27th April 2003, lot 3.

香港蘇富比2003年4月27日，編號3

A Romance with Jade: From the De An Tang Collection, Yongshougong, Palace Museum, Beijing, 2004, cat. no. 21.

《玉緣：德安堂藏玉》，永壽宮，故宮博物院，北京，2004年，編號21

Intricately carved with an auspicious blessing amidst a swirling web of dragons and phoenixes, the present pendant pays tribute to the unparalleled imperial support for jade production under the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. Inspired in form by ornately carved bi discs of the Han dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE), the present pendant exemplifies the Emperor’s deep passion for archaism; turning to China’s ancient past as a foundation on which to craft a new imperial legacy. 

Inscribed with a serial number ‘zhi,’ correlating to the 169th character of the Thousand Character Classic (Qianziwen), the present pendant appears to have been produced as part of a larger series. Despite this, to date, only a small number of similar pendants appear to have come to light: compare a very closely related similarly inscribed example (fu series, no. 188) preserved with its imperial box in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 127; another in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (liang series, no. 168), illustrated by James C.S. Lin in ‘The Collection of Qing Dynasty Jades in the Fitzwilliam Museum’, Arts of Asia, vol. 40, no. 3, May-June 2010, fig. 14; a third (yang series, no. 200), probably from the collection of Luigi de Luca (b. 1875), sold with its imperial box at Holly’s Beijing, 5th June 2021, lot 1813; and a fourth (wang series, no. 20) from the V.W.S Collection, sold at Christie’s Paris, 14th December 2022, lot 556. 

The present pendant is preserved within a zitan album, inscribed and painted on each leaf with evidence of its imperial origin. From the calligraphic inscription wishing for ‘great blessing and precious fortune’ and marigold painting both in the Qianlong Emperor’s own hand to the bright red of five imperial seal marks, the present box does more than protect its jade contents – rather it also serves to further accentuate the piece’s beauty and highlight the scholarly refinement of its erstwhile owner. While every pendant in this remarkable series was made to very similar specifications, the accompanying wooden boxes appear to have been ‘made to order,’ each featuring unique calligraphic expressions and painted motifs. For a more comprehensive list of known box inscriptions and other pendants of this type, see Huang Ying, ‘Qianlong kuan Qianziwen fanggu yuqi xintan – Jianlun Qianlong huangdi de zhiyu zhuiqiu / On the “One-Thousand-Character-Text Archaized Jades with Qianlong’s Reign Mark” and Emperor Qianlong’s Perception on the Making of Jade Artifacts’, Palace Museum Journal, 2023, vol. 7, pp 83-112. 

For a possible prototype of this design, compare a large disc decorated with a pair of addorsed dragons in ornate openwork, excavated from the richly adorned tomb of Prince Liu Sheng (d. 113 BCE) in Mancheng, Hebei province, illustrated in Zhongguo meishu quanji, vol. 9: Yuqi, Beijing, 1991, pl. 164. See also a bi attributed to the Eastern Han dynasty, similarly carved with chilong flanking the characters chang le (‘eternal happiness’) in openwork above a disc, from the Qing Court collection, included in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Jadeware (I), Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 217; and another carved with a dragon and two phoenixes, ibid., pl. 215. 

此璧雕工精絕，玉質白潤，寓意吉祥。以漢玉為本，慕古好求。中間鏤雕「長宜子孫」，環以夔龍夔鳳，乃乾隆一朝玉器雕琢之佼佼者，也是皇帝本人對皇清正統的定鼎宣示。

玉璧邊緣陰刻隸書「知字一百六十九號」，或為一系列玉璧之一。此一系列玉璧存世稀少，可比較北京故宮藏一件「覆字一百八十八號」長宜子孫玉璧，帶原匣，見《故宫博物院藏文物珍品全集．玉器（下）》，香港，1995年，圖版127；另可比較劍橋菲茨威廉博物館藏一件「良字一百六十八號」鳳紋長宜子孫璧，著錄於林政昇，〈The Collection of Qing Dynasty Jades in the Fitzwilliam Museum〉，《亞洲藝術》，第40卷，第3期，2010年5-6月，圖14；還可比較第三例「陽」字二零零號，或為路易吉．德．盧卡（1875年生）收藏，售於北京華藝，2021年6月5日，編號1813；再比較第四例「往字二十號」玉璧，來自 V.W.S 收藏，售於巴黎佳士得，2022年12月14日，編號556。

本璧存於紫檀冊頁匣中，每頁有御書繪畫或鈐印，足證皇帝對其之珍視。除了乾隆皇帝親筆書寫的「逢吉珍符」，更有五方璽印。此一系列玉璧之匣裝似有固定制式，相關討論參見黃瑩，〈乾隆款千字文仿古玉器新探——簡論乾隆皇帝的製玉追求〉，《故宮博物院雜誌》，2023年第7卷，頁83-112。

此璧仿古之原型可參考從河北省滿城劉勝（公元前113年去世）豪奢墓葬出土之一件大璧，出廓裝飾兩條對龍，見《中華人民共和國美術全集》，卷9：玉器，北京，1991年，圖版164。另見北京故宮藏一枚東漢玉璧，上雕虬龍「長樂」二字，收錄於《故宫博物院藏文物珍品全集．玉器（上）》，香港，1995年，圖版217；以及另一枚龍鳳玉璧，見同書，圖版215。