The Boat Carved from an Olive Stone () is a fruit pit carving of a boat made out of an olive pit. It is part of the collection of the

National Palace Museum The National Palace Museum (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Kwet-li̍p kù-kiung pok-vu̍t-yèn), is a museum in Taipei, Republic of China (Taiwan). It has a permanent collection of nearly 700,000 pieces of Chinese artifacts and artworks, many of which wer ...

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Description

The boat is a miniature carving of an olive pit, measuring only and is only tall. Inside the boat, there are a total of eight figures, with the

Song Dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...

poet Su Tung-po sitting beside the window at the table. The sculpture features incredibly detailed carvings of windows on the side, with the center two panels movable. On top of the boat is a rolled up sail in rope. The full text of Su Tung-po's ''Latter Ode on the Red Cliff'' of more than 300

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

is engraved in details on the bottom of the boat, demonstrating the expert craftsmanship of the artist. The poem depicts the poet enjoying a boat ride with his friends on a full moon night at the site of

Battle of Red Cliffs The Battle of Red Cliffs, also known as the Battle of Chibi, was a decisive naval battle in the winter of AD 208–209 at the end of the Han dynasty, about twelve years prior to the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history. T ...

. The artist, Chen, recreated a miniature moment, with the boat being a symbol of seclusion holding men safely on top of life and water.

History

The boat was carved in the second year of

Qianlong Emperor The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, born Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1735 t ...

's reign () by the sculptor Chen Zuzhang. Chen, originally from

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...

, had entered the Imperial Bureau of Manufacture during the reign of

Yongzheng Emperor , regnal name = , posthumous name = Emperor Jingtian Changyun Jianzhong Biaozhen Wenwu Yingming Kuanren Xinyi Ruisheng Daxiao Zhicheng Xian()Manchu: Temgetulehe hūwangdi () , temple name = Shizong()Manchu: Šidzung () , house = Aisin Gioro ...

. In , The artist carved the boat out of a pit of an olive, taking advantage of its shape. Following the fall of the Qing Empire in the

Chinese Revolution of 1911 The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. The revolution was the culmination of a ...

, the sculpture became part of the collection of the

Palace Museum The Palace Museum () is a huge national museum complex housed in the Forbidden City at the core of Beijing, China. With , the museum inherited the imperial royal palaces from the Ming and Qing dynasties of China and opened to the public in 192 ...

in the Forbidden City. Along with a core of that collection, the piece survived the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...

(

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

) and the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

and was eventually relocated to Taiwan's National Palace Museum.

References

External links

Ganlan Olive Stone Miniature Boat with the Ode to the Red Cliff Carved on the Bottom
at the

* {{Palace Museum Chinese sculpture National Palace Museum Qing dynasty art 1730s sculptures