Newsletter No. 497

06 # 4 9 7 | 0 4 . 0 5 . 2 0 1 7 the once convenient umbrella stand was duly stored in a custom-made box. Sir Quo-wei donated the vase to the Art Museum on 9 September 1999, a date which curiously echoes the number of shou characters on the vase. Perhaps more auspiciously, the number nine puns with the meaning of everlasting longevity. The dramatic life of the vase in recent memory is by no means the most fascinating aspect of this object. The paucity of documentation on this object intrigues scholars, and the uncertainty concerning it no doubt contributes to its appeal. While there is consensus among experts that it was a product of the Kangxi period, we have yet to find out exactly when and for whom it was made in the emperor’s long reign from 1662 to 1722. The textual content of ten- thousand shou suggests three possible occasions that called for the commissioning of the vase: (1) Chinese new year, (2) winter solstice, and (3) the emperor’s birthday. The vase was once believed to be made in 1713 for the Kangxi emperor’s 60th birthday. However, Professor Lam discovered and subsequently acquired in 2011 a brushpot that contains a long poem on the ten-thousand shou vase. As the brushpot can be dated to the early Kangxi period around the 1680s, and as the text on the brushpot provides a context for the manufacture of the vase, the vase is now believed to be made at around the same time. Current thinking leans towards 1683, a year in which the Kangxi emperor turned 30 and his grandmother the Grand Empress Dowager’s had her 70th birthday. Since the 1980s, a few more wanshou vases have been discovered. It is probable that at least nine such vases were produced, since traditionally birthday gifts to the emperor should be presented in groups of nine or multiples of nine. Whether or not this number pertains to a set commissioned specifically for the emperor (or the grand empress dowager), we remain hopeful that future research will shed light on this intriguing masterpiece. Positioned squarely in the middle of the museum gallery, the monumental blue-and-white vase has an aura that is undeniably imperial. Inscribed with precisely 10,000 characters, all but one of which are variations of shou （壽） — which means longevity, the vase is emphatically auspicious. These shou characters appear in three sizes. While the large and mid-sized characters vary in design, some small characters are written in identical style. More interestingly, the arrangement, selection, and variation of the small characters follow some sort of pattern. The auspicious meaning of the vase is further enhanced by the fact that the one exceptional character—not of shou — turns out to be wan （萬） , which means ‘ten thousand’. This prodigious number is only eclipsed by the vase’s whopping market value in 2013, when a comparable work was auctioned for over 64 million dollars at Christie’s, which duly referenced the CUHK vase and the research of our esteemed former director Prof. Peter Lam . Professor Lam has heralded the vase as the ‘iconic treasure of the museum’ upon its accession in 1999. Still, this rare treasure remained little known for a long time. Around 1951 or 1952, prominent businessman and philanthropist Sir Quo-wei Lee chanced upon it in a London antique shop and acquired it for 300 pounds, which was less than the cost to ship the vase back to Hong Kong. Local connoisseurs, who preferred imperial wares inscribed with reign marks, believed it to be an export ware or Vietnamese ware. The vase was relegated as an umbrella stand for the next few decades, until an exhibition of artworks from the Palace Museum in the early 1980s showed an almost identical work, which prompted Sir Quo-wei to invite the Palace Museum expert to authenticate his vase. When the experts confirmed that it was the third piece in existence— other than the works in Beijing and Nanjing Museum, Long Live the Majestic Vase 在文物館大堂正中，四平八穩的擺放了一只雄渾巨碩的青花 大尊，巍巍然有王者之風。該器外壁書有萬字，頂部兩圈，每 圈七十七個；方唇及底足邊各四十八個；外口沿下尊腹至底 共一百三十圈，每圈七十五字，合共整一萬個。除卻一字，其 餘均為篆體「壽」字，可見是一具吉祥之器。這些壽字共有三 種大小，排列整齊，較大的形態各異，尊腹的小字則有重複， 共十組九百七十五個不同設計，其排列、分布和寫法，自有 規律可尋。 萬中無二的原來是一個「萬」字，與九千九百九十九個「壽」 字，合成「萬壽無疆」的祝願。中大文物館在1999年獲贈此 器，其時館長 林業強 教授譽之為「鎮館之寶」。2013年，一 件類似的珍品在佳士得創下高逾六千四百萬港元的拍賣價， 足證此言非虛。 即便如此，這樣一件寶器之前竟一直籍籍無名。在1951至 1952年間，長袖善舞而又樂善好施的利國偉爵士偶然在倫 敦一間古董店得見此物，以三百英鎊購之，其後船運往香港 之費用尚不止此數。本地的鑑賞家以朝廷器物當有御窯款 識，而此尊闕如，咸認為應屬外銷品或安南製品。此後數十 年，這件古雅器物一直忝作傘架，直至1980年代初，北京故 宮博物院展出一件幾近一模一樣之物，激發利爵士邀請故宮 的專家細為其青花大尊鑑證。結果顯示，其時世上共見三只 同類的萬壽尊，北京故宮博物院和南京博物院各有一只，此 為第三只。此說一出，這萬壽尊便免於盛傘之役，而被工工 整整的珍藏在特製盒子裏。利爵士其後將之惠贈文物館，時 維1999年9月9日，正巧妙應了尊上壽字長久之數。 此尊耐人尋味之處，又豈止其命運之曲折離奇。由於有關文 獻匱乏，海內外學者對其緣起難有定論。一般認為此應為康 熙年間燒製者，然而康熙在位逾半世紀（1662 – 1722），究竟 是何年所製，又為誰而製，仍難稽考。觀其「萬壽無疆」的寓 意，督燒此尊的時節大抵有三，一是元旦，二是冬至，三是萬 壽節，即皇上壽辰。曾有說此尊是康熙五十二年（1713年）進 呈以賀其六十大壽的貢品，然而文物館2011年入藏的一個 康熙六字款青花「萬壽尊賦」筆筒，則揭露了另些線索。該 筆筒應為1680年代康熙初年的製品，外壁書有詠萬壽尊的 賦文一篇，林業強教授推算萬壽尊應為同期燒製，後再結合 官方史書、地方志、《起居注》紀事等文獻記載，推測為康熙 二十二年（1683年）所造，康熙時年三十，同年亦為太皇太后 七十大壽。 自上世紀八十年代以還，類似的大尊間有發現。鑑於清代萬 壽節進貢「以九為度」，有說當年應起碼燒造了九件萬壽尊。 是否屬實，日後的研究當會發掘出更多線索，帶領我們更深 入認識這件曠世之作。 王者大器　萬壽無疆 雅 共 賞 / ART iculation 青花萬壽字大尊 景德鎮窯 高76.1公分 利國偉爵士惠贈 Large vase with ten thousand shou characters Jingdezhen ware, underglaze blue porcelain Qing period H. 76.1cm Gift of Sir Quo-wei Lee, 99.611 「萬壽尊賦」筆筒 The brushpot bearing the Poem on the Ten Thousand Shou Vase 尊上唯一的「萬」字