An imperial commendation
Silk scroll with a bilingual imperial edict.
Silk scroll (243 x 32.5 cm). Manuscript in Manchu and Chinese.
€ 12,500.00
An elegantly written edict on a silk scroll in Manchu, the official language of the Qing dynasty, as well as Chinese. This example dates from the Tongzhi Restoration, when imperial power and traditional structures of authority were being reasserted following the setbacks of the Opium Wars. The background as well as the writing are in varying colours, with panels in yellow, purple, white, red and blue; and blue, red, turquoise, black, green and silver ink. The imperial dragon is woven on either side of text.
The text, dated to the 9th day of the 10th month of the 10th year of the reign of the Tongzhi Emperor (4 December 1871), concerns the offical Wang Yuwen of Taiyun. The proclamation commends the recipient for his virtue and loyalty in imperial service. The document is issued by the Ministry of Rites, one of central agencies of Chinese government, responsible for religious and court ceremonial as well as civil service examinations and foreign relations.
The Manchu text is written in Mongolian script in vertical lines from top to bottom and left to right. As the ancestral language of the Qing dynasty, Manchu was used as a government language in China from 1644 to 1912, although its use steadily declined over this period as it gave way to Chinese. In spite of official efforts to promote the use of Manchu, by the nineteenth century not even the imperial court was fluent in it. Today it is considered critically endangered. Unlike Chinese, Mongolian script is an alphabet, a descendant ultimately of the Aramaic alphabet via Old Uyghur.
The Tongzhi Emperor (r. 1861-75) was the ninth of the Qing dynasty, and, as a minor, power lay in the hands of his mother, the Dowager Empress Cixi (1835-1908). His reign saw an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to halt the decline of imperial power following the Opium Wars, known as the Tongzhi Restoration, which combined reassertion of traditional structures and mindsets with efforts at modernisation through the importation of western science and military technology. A decree such as this one fits into this context in which traditional expressions of authority were of great symbolic importance.
A beautiful document evoking an era in which Chinese imperial power was being reasserted.
Acquired by the Swedish physician and missionary Joel Eriksson (1890-1987), active in Inner Mongolia between 1913 and 1937. Lattery in the collection of Staffan Rosén (b. 1944), professor emeritus of Korean at Stockholm University.
Tie mildly frayed, outside slightly faded but overall excellent condition. Inside clean, writing clear and extremely elegant.
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