SHUNZHI PERIOD, CIRCA 1650

The scene on this dish comes from Chapter 1, Act 1 of the Romance of the Western Chamber (Xixiang ji) and depicts Zhang Sheng and a monk standing in front of a temple building, which the monk is about to enter. Zhang Sheng, however, has turned back to look at Yingying and her maid Hongniang. He bows slightly over his fan and Yingying also turns to look at Zhang Sheng. In some depictions on porcelain and in some of the woodblock illustrations - for example those from the Chongjiao Bei Xixiang Ji (The Collated Northern Romance of the Western Wing), designed and carved by Liu Ciquan in the Wanli reign), Yingying is shown holding a sprig of blossoming prunus, but on this bowl she and Hongniang are simply shown standing beneath a blossoming prunus tree. Similar variations can be seen in the depictions of Zhang Sheng, who is sometimes shown carrying a fan (fig. 1), as on this bowl, while other porcelains and some woodblock printed illustrations depict him without a fan.