A highly important and extremely rare large Ru Guanyao bowl, Northern Song dynasty | 北宋　汝窰天青釉缽

5th Anniversary Exhibition. All-Stars of the Okada Collection: Masterworks of Korin, Jakuchu, Hokusai and the Ru Ware Kilns, Okada Museum of Art, Hakone, 2018-19, exh. no. 96 (unillustrated).

'Joyo. Shugyokuno seiji [Ru ware]', Shubi [Quarterly Journal for the Arts of East Asia], vol. 22, Tokyo, 2017, fig. 7 and p. 61.

Kobayashi Tadashi, ed., Masterpieces of the Okada Museum of Art, vol. 2, Tokyo, 2018, no. 7.

There are few creations in all of Chinese art that seem to belong more to heaven than to earth. The surface of a Ru bowl is a miracle of restraint and chance; a glaze that catches light like frozen moonlight, its delicate web of crackles like the first ice forming over a still pond. Across its subtle blue-green expanse, one perceives movement within stillness, serenity within fragility. No other ceramic has achieved such harmony between nature’s spontaneity and the potter’s control.

As Northern Song imperial taste evolved from the austere white wares of Ding and the celadons of Yue toward the luminous refinement of Ru, the aesthetic ideals of the Song court found their purest expression: simplicity of form, flawless glaze, and an otherworldly hue said to match “the sky after rain.” Commissioned for the highest echelon of the court and never produced on a commercial scale until the Jin invasion, Ru wares marked the culmination of a lineage of imperial ceramics that would inspire all imperial celadons to follow — from the guan ware of the Southern Song to the reverent revivals of the Qing. 

The wonder of Ru ware lies not only in its transcendent beauty, but in its near-legendary rarity. Produced for only a fleeting moment at the turn of the Northern Song dynasty — likely not more than twenty years, during the reigns of Emperors Zhezong (r. 1086-1100) and Huizong (r. 1101-1125) — these wares were made exclusively for the imperial court at Kaifeng and never in great number. As early as the Southern Song period, the scarcity of Ru had already become proverbial. By 1151, when official Zhang Jun presented sixteen pieces of Ru ware to the Gaozong Emperor (r. 1127–1162), the scale of the collection was already so noteworthy as to inspire records in Zhou Mi’s (1232-1298) memoirs of Hangzhou, the Wulin jiushi [Ancient matters from Wulin Garden] while pieces from the bequest were almost certainly brought to the Imperial kilns of Hangzhou to act as prototypes for the ‘official’ guan ware to follow. Writing in 1192 in his Qingbo zazhi [Miscellaneous notes from Qingbo], scholar Zhou Hui noted that “Ru ware was fired for the imperial court, and agate was used in its glaze. It was only after pieces required by the court had been selected that others could be sold. Recently these have been very difficult to find.” Thus even then, barely a century after its production, Ru ware was already understood as something exceptionally rare; the perfection of an age almost entirely beyond reach. 

Even today, with the digitisation of collections around the world, far fewer than one hundred examples of intact Ru ware appear to survive from antiquity, with Regina Krahl’s most recent estimate accepting just eighty-nine pieces as surviving examples of ‘heirloom’ Ru, the vast majority still preserved in the former Qing court collections at the Palace Museum, Taipei and Palace Museum, Beijing; see Regina Krahl, ‘Ruyao No. 88 resides in Dresden, Germany and another chance discovery’, Arts of Asia, Spring 2021.

Gracefully thrown to generous proportions and trimmed to exceptional fineness, it is unsurprising how few bowls appear to have ever been produced at the Ru kilns, let alone survived for more than nine centuries. Indeed, even in the eighteenth century, the view that Ru bowls specifically were of an extraordinary rarity appears to have been well understood by their ultimate collector – the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736-1795). Inscribed to the base of one of the only two other bowls apparently still preserved since antiquity – the footed example from the Percival David Collection at the British Museum, London (accession no. PDF.3) – lies a poem composed by the Qianlong Emperor himself in 1786, wondering at the rarity of these bowls:

至今盤多椀艱致，内府藏盤數近百，椀則晨星見一二，何物不可窮其理, 椀大難藏盤小易，於斯亦當知懼哉, 愈大愈難守其器 。

Many [old] dishes have survived, but bowls are difficult to find. 

There are over a hundred dishes stored in the Palace, 

Yet bowls are as rare as stars in the morning. What is the reason that more bowls are not found?

Large bowls are difficult to preserve, small dishes are easy. In this I find a moral and a warning. 

The greater the object, the more onerous the task of caring for it.

• Illustrated Catalogue of Ru, Guan, Jun, Guangdong and Yixing Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1999, p. 16.

While the Qianlong Emperor was right to note the heavy task of caring for such a large and delicate treasure, the erstwhile owners of the present bowl – most recently the Okada Museum – have clearly risen to the occasion, preserving the piece in an extraordinarily fine condition and still glowing with the ice-like crackle and ephemeral blue tone that has captivated Song Emperors, Qing Emperors and modern scholars alike for almost a millenium. 

However, while representing a previously unrecorded example of a coveted Ru form would itself be an extraordinary notion, the emergence of the present vessel to market is even more remarkable. Its subtle curving sides sweeping up from a smooth glazed base; its grand silhouette unhindered by the formality of foot or flaring rim — the present vessel is, in fact, entirely distinct from the bowls (wan), basins (pen) and washers (xi) previously recorded on the market and represents a unique and spellbinding example of an unprecedented form: the bo 缽.

Initially entering the Chinese language as a cognate of the Sanskrit pātra, the minimalist yet striking form of the bo appears to have evolved directly from the auspicious form of the Buddhist alms bowl. Reliant on the generosity of mankind and the winds of fate, sutras describe the Buddha and his disciples wandering from town to town with alms bowls in hand gathering their daily ration. Centuries later, though the Buddhist communities of China were soon self-reliant through taxation and agriculture, this symbol of humility and serenity endured. Softly rounded and graceful in the hand, passed from master to disciple along with his kasaya robes as a symbol of the transmission of the Buddhist Way (Dharma), these extraordinary objects of practical and religious significance have embedded themselves into the very fabric of the Chinese visual language and were undoubtedly recognisable and celebrated forms to the early Song court. Indeed, ceramic vessels of bo shape were created already before the Tang dynasty, for example, by the Xingtai kilns of Hebei in the Sui dynasty — see Xingtai Suidai Xing yao [The Xing kilns of the Sui dynasty at Xingtai], Beijing, 2006, pp. 69-73 and col. pl. 4 — and examples in gold, silver, and even glass were preserved in the most lavish of Tang contexts, including an inscribed gold example from the famous collection uncovered from beneath the Famen Temple, Shaanxi, illustrated in Famensi digong zhenbao / Precious Cultural Relics in the Crypt of Famen Temple, Xi'an, 1989, pl. 32.

This extraordinary bo is the only example of its form and size apparently to survive and certainly the only one ever to come to market. Nonetheless, in colouration, form and potting, each element of this remarkable treasure corresponds precisely with those heritage pieces still preserved in the collections of the Qing court and elsewhere, while its generous proportions position the bowl as one of the largest pieces of Ru ware still in existence. Other than elongated ‘narcissus basins’ which generally measure around 23 cm in length, only two other heirloom Ru vessels on record appear to span such a large diameter as the present, namely: the tripod incense burner in the British Museum, London (accession no. PDF,A.44, 24.8 x 15.3 cm) and the deep footed dish in the Palace Museum, Taipei (accession no. gu ci 017855, 21.4 x 4.4 cm) inscribed by the Qianlong Emperor.

While no bowls of this magnificent bo form seem to remain in the Qing Court Collection, archaeological data uncovered from Ru kiln sites in modern-day Henan clearly establish the circulation of this design during the sites’ zenith in the Northern Song dynasty. In the groundbreaking excavations of forty-seven pieces from the Qianliangsi site in modern-day Baofeng county, Henan, in the spring of 1989, archaeologists uncovered 14 bowls of similar bo shape and flat glazed feet: three larger (ca. 26.5 cm) examples carved to the exterior with lotus petals and dragon motifs to the interior; five medium (ca. 22 cm) examples carved with peonies and dragons; and “six unadorned bo of roughly 21 cm diameter and 7.2 cm in height”— almost certainly corresponding to the present form; see Zhao Qingyun and Wang Liming, ‘Henan Baofeng faxian yao cang Ru ci zhenpin [Ru porcelain treasures discovered in Baofeng, Henan]’, Huaxia Kaogu, 1990, no. 1, pp 51-5 (particularly p. 53 table). As excavations continued in Baofeng, particularly circa 2000-2003, the importance of the bo form in various sizes to the producers of Ru ware has become self-evident, with bo representing roughly 2% of total material excavated from the sites and attested in a larger variety of sizes and designs; see Henan Sheng Wenwu Kaogu Sanjiusuo, ed., Baofeng Qingliangsi Ru yao [Ru wares of Qingliangsi, Baofeng], Zhengzhou, 2008, p. 101; col. pls 152-7 for excavated examples and sherds of the larger decorated types; and p. 102, fig. 67 for line drawings of more attested designs including the present design unadorned but for a single bow-string to the interior rim. Compare also a related unadorned basin form of shallower proportions uncovered from the site, ibid., col. pl. 130; a bowl possibly of the present design illustrated in Li Huibing, Songdai guanyao ciqi [Official wares of the Song dynasty], Beijing, 1992, fig. 14; and related sherds collected and preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, in Gugong Bowuyuan cang Zhongguo gudai yaozhi biaoben [Specimens from ancient Chinese kiln sites in the collection of the Palace Museum], vol. 1: Henan juan [Henan volume], pt. 1, Beijing, 2005, pls 203 and 209 (bottom middle), the latter preserving signs of one ‘sesame seed’ firing spur.

Other than occasional excavated or fire-damaged shards, fewer than ten Ru vessels appear to have ever come to auction since 1940, three of which are now similarly preserved in museum collections, including: the bottle from the Eumorfopoulos collection, now in the Sir Percival David Collection in the British Museum (accession no. PDF.61), sold in our London rooms, 28th May 1940, lot 135; the ‘narcissus basin’ with metal rim from the Ataka Collection, now in the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, sold in our London rooms, 17th March 1959, lot 26, and again, 24th February 1970, lot 1; the brush washer from the K. S. Lo Collection, now preserved in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, sold in our London rooms, 15th April 1980, lot 140; the dish from the Stephen Junkunc III Collection, now in the collection of Au Bak Ling, sold at Christie’s New York, 3rd December 1992, lot 276; the reduced dish from the Stephen Junkunc III Collection, now in a private collection, sold at Christie’s New York, 29th March 2006, lot 401; the lobed brush washer from the Alfred Clark Collection, now in a private collection, sold in these rooms, 4th April 2012, lot 101; and the brush washer from the Le Cong Tang and Chang Foundation Collections, sold in our London rooms, 15th June 1982, lot 252 and in these rooms, 3rd October 2017, lot 5.

Two other related Ru vessels were similarly preserved in illustrious Japanese collections and have come to market in recent years: compare the much smaller Ru brush washer from the collections of Luo Zhenyu and Japanese Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi, repaired with kintsugi, sold at Council Hong Kong, 2nd April 2019, lot 251; and the teabowl (d. 10.2 cm) from the collections of Kobijutsu Kusaba and Yuzura Sato, included in Sō ji no bi / The Beauty of Song Ceramics, The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 2016, cat. no. 1, and sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 26th November 2018, lot 8006.

As it returns now to the market from its spotlight in Hakone, this great bowl stands as a vision of all that Song art aspired to — the meeting of form and spirit, substance and void — a unique vessel in which the stillness of a thousand years continues to shimmer like light across ice.

展覽

《開館5周年記念展―美のスターたち―光琳．若冲．北斎．汝窯など名品勢ぞろい》， 岡田美術館，箱根，2018-19年，展覽編號96（沒載圖）

出版

〈汝窯—珠玉の青磁〉，《聚美》，第22期，東京，2017年，圖7及頁61

小林忠編，《岡田美術館名品撰》，卷2，東京，2018年，編號7

中國藝術品瑰寶中，能臻「天工勝於人巧」之境者寥寥無幾。汝窰之釉面，乃虛實相生之偶然奇跡：釉光流轉如凝凍月華，冰裂開片宛若靜潭初凝之薄冰。在其溫潤天青釉色間，可見靜中蘊動，柔中藏剛。歷代陶藝中，能達至此般自然天成與匠意掌控之完美平衡者，無出其右。

當北宋宮廷審美由定窰素白、越窰青瓷漸趨汝窰瑩潤，宋人美學理想終得極致彰顯：形制簡澹，釉質無瑕，雨過天青之色更是開物成務。金人入侵以前，汝瓷專供宮闈，不作市貿，自南宋官窰至清代摹古，皆奉其為御瓷典範，堪稱千年窰火之絕頂。

汝窰之奇，不僅在超逸之美，更在寥若辰星之珍。其燒造時限於哲宗（1086-1100在位）至徽宗（1101-1125在位）廿載間，專供汴京宮廷，存量本稀。南宋周煇《清波雜志》已載「汝窰供御，釉含瑪瑙，宮揀退件方許市貿，近尤難得」。至1151年張俊獻汝器十六予高宗之事，見載於周密《武林舊事》，此時汝瓷已堪稱傳奇。

縱觀寰宇，傳世汝瓷完整器不足百件，學者康蕊君2021年統計僅八十九例確認為清宮舊藏，見康蕊君，《Ruyao No. 88 resides in Dresden, Germany and another chance discovery》，載於《Arts of Asia》，2021年，春季刊。本品器型碩大而修胎極精，存世九百年仍葆冰釉沁色，更顯彌足珍貴。乾隆帝曾為倫敦大維德基金會藏汝窰盌（編號PDF.3）題詩詠歎：

「均窰都出脩内司，至今盤多椀艱致。

内府藏盤數近百，椀則晨星見一二。

何物不可窮其理，椀大難藏盤小易。

於斯亦當知懼哉，愈大愈難守其器。」

今觀此器，益見其諦，見《Catalogue of Ru, Guan, Jun, Guangdong and Yixing Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art》，倫敦，1999年，頁16。

乾隆帝雖慨嘆守護如此碩大易損之珍器責任重大，然此缽歷代藏家，包括岡田美術館甚皆不負重託，以其非凡的守護令此器歷近千年仍葆絕佳品相，冰裂瑩澈，天青幽微，釉色一如往昔，令宋代以來帝王與今世學者為之傾慕不已。

此缽器型未見著錄，本已堪稱曠世奇珍；而其今日現身藝市，更屬空前盛事。其器壁自釉底婉轉而起，形制宏闊，不拘圈足侈口之定式，迥異於市場曾現之盌、盆、筆洗等常見器類，乃是一件獨一無二、器型卓絕的「缽」式傑作。

「缽」之器型源於梵語「pātra」之音譯，其簡約而奪目的造型，與佛教盂器的莊嚴形制及祥瑞寓意密不可分。佛經記載，佛陀與弟子手持盂器，仰賴世人佈施與命運造化，雲遊四方化緣度日。數世紀後，中國佛教團體雖漸透過香火與農耕自給，這一象徵謙遜與寧靜的法器仍傳承不絕。缽體圓潤盈手，與袈裟同為師徒間傳法之信物，此類兼具實用與宗教意義的非凡器物，早已深植於中國視覺語彙之中，無疑亦為北宋宮廷所熟知與推崇。事實上，缽形陶瓷器早於唐代之前已現，如河北邢台窰於隋朝已燒造此類器物，參見《邢台隋代邢窰》，北京，2006年，頁69-73及彩版4；而金、銀乃至玻璃材質的缽器，亦見於唐代最華麗的遺存中，包括陝西法門寺地宮出土刻銘金缽，圖見《法門寺地宮珍寶》，西安，1989年，圖版32。

此件非凡的汝窰缽，乃目前所知私人收藏中同器型、同尺寸之孤例，更是市場上首次出現的同類作品。儘管如此，其釉色、造型與製胎工藝的每一細節，皆與清宮舊藏及其他傳世汝瓷精準吻合；其恢弘體量，更是存世汝窰中尺寸最大者之一。除寬約23公分的橢圓形水仙盆外，僅有兩件傳世汝瓷的尺寸可與本品比肩：一為倫敦大英博物館藏三足爐，館藏編號PDF,A.44，24.8 x 15.3公分，以及台北故宮博物院藏乾隆御題詩深腹盤，館藏編號故瓷017855，21.4 x 4.4公分。

雖此恢弘缽式造型未見於清宮舊藏，然河南汝窰遺址考古發現明確證實，此類設計於北宋鼎盛時期已然流傳。在1989年春對河南寶豐清涼寺窰址的開創性發掘中，出土四十七件標本，其中十四件為相似缽式造型與釉底平切式圈足：三件較大者（約26.5公分）外壁刻蓮瓣紋、內裡飾龍紋；五件中等尺寸（約22公分）刻劃牡丹龍紋；另有「六件素面缽，口徑約21公分，高7.2公分」，其形制與本品頗為相類；參見趙青雲、王利明，〈河南寶豐發現窰藏汝瓷珍品〉，《華夏考古》1990年第1期，頁51-55（尤見頁53表格）。隨著寶豐地區考古工作持續推進（特別在2000-2003年間），缽式造型於汝窰燒造體系中之重要性已不言而喻：此類器形約佔遺址出土總量的2%，且呈現更多元之尺寸與紋飾，詳見河南省文物考古研究所編，《寶豐清涼寺汝窰》，鄭州，2008年，頁101；彩版152-157為帶紋飾之大件出土標本及瓷片；頁102之圖67為更多已確認器形之線描圖，其中包括與本品相同、僅於口沿內飾一道弦紋之素面設計。另可比較同遺址出土之相關淺腹素面盆造型，同上書，彩版130；另見一件可能屬本品造型之同類，刊於李輝柄，《宋代官窰瓷器》，北京，1992年，圖14；以及北京故宮博物院採集收藏之相關瓷片標本，見《故宮博物院藏中國古代窰址標本》，卷一《河南卷》上編，北京，2005年，圖版203及209（中下），後者尚存一枚「芝麻釘痕」燒造支釘痕跡。

除零星殘片或燒損破片外，自1940年以來，現身拍場的汝窰完整器不足十例，其中三例現已納入博物館收藏：包括尤莫夫普洛斯舊藏瓶，現存倫敦大英博物館大維德基金會（館藏編號PDF.61），1940年5月28日售於倫敦蘇富比，編號135；安宅舊藏金屬扣水仙盆，現存大阪東洋陶瓷美術館，1959年3月17日售於倫敦蘇富比，編號26，後於1970年2月24日再度釋出，編號1；羅桂祥舊藏筆洗，現存香港藝術館，1980年4月15日售於倫敦蘇富比，編號140；仇焱之舊藏汝窰盤，現為區百齡收藏，1992年12月3日售於紐約佳士得，編號276；仇焱之舊藏斂口盤，現為私人收藏，2006年3月29日售於紐約佳士得，編號401；阿爾弗雷德·克拉克舊藏葵口筆洗，現為私人收藏，2012年4月4日售於香港蘇富比，編號101；以及樂從堂與鴻禧美術館舊藏筆洗，1982年6月15日先售於倫敦蘇富比，編號252，後於2017年10月3日售於香港蘇富比，編號5。

另有兩件相關汝窰器曾由日本顯赫家族收藏，並於近年現身市場：可比對羅振玉與日本首相犬養毅舊藏、以金繼修復的汝窰小筆洗，2019年4月2日見售於香港匡時，編號251號；以及久留米古美術草場、佐藤弓葛(1917-1996年)舊藏茶盞（徑10.2公分），曾展於《宋磁の美》，大阪東洋陶瓷美術館，2016年，編號1，後於2018年11月26日售於香港佳士得，拍品8006號。

此件宏製自箱根藝壇焦點重返市場，堪稱幸事。本品獨一無二，乃宋代美學追求之極致體現，其形神相融，虛實相生，在千年靜穆歲月中依舊冰面流光，熠熠閃耀。