Item No.: 1053
Name: Kangxi Wucai Brush Pot with “The Dream at the Grass Bridge Inn”
Period: Qing dynasty, Kangxi reign
Height: 22.1 cm
This wucai brush pot, bearing the reign mark “Made during the Kangxi reign of the Great Qing,” is an unusually ingenious work of Chinese porcelain painting. Its use of a dream as a visual narrative is remarkable in itself; the suggestion of social criticism within that imagined world gives the work a further depth that sets it apart.
The outer wall depicts a scholar asleep at his desk by bright candlelight. In his dream, a tender scene unfolds: he walks closely beside a young woman, like a loving couple. Their happiness is suddenly shattered when an armed intruder, wielding a blade and raising a torch, forcibly separates them. Without familiarity with traditional Chinese drama, the literary source of this startling scene may be difficult to recognize.
This dream of lovers interrupted by violence closely matches the episode “Zhang Junrui Dreams of Yingying at the Grass Bridge Inn” in The Romance of the Western Chamber. In the play, Zhang Sheng and his beloved Cui Yingying are forced apart by her mother, and he reluctantly leaves for the capital to take the imperial examinations. While lodging at the Grass Bridge Inn, he falls asleep and dreams that Yingying has secretly come to see him off. Just as they share a tender reunion, an intruder carrying a torch bursts in and takes her away. Zhang Sheng awakens in terror, realizing that it was a nightmare. The brush pot captures this moment of intense dramatic tension.
Although The Romance of the Western Chamber was a popular subject in Qing porcelain painting, familiar episodes such as the meeting in the Buddhist hall, the exchange of verses by the wall, and the farewell at the Long Pavilion are more commonly represented. The dream at the Grass Bridge Inn, with its surreal atmosphere, is a less usual subject. Beyond evoking the literary world of Yuan drama, the brush pot invites a reading of social criticism through the image of lovers torn apart in a dream. It brings humanistic reflection and ceramic craftsmanship together with exceptional ingenuity.