1632 A blue-and-white meiping vase with figures from The Brocade Pavilion

Figures stand apart in a garden, their turned bodies and glances suggesting a relationship across the intervening space. The restrained poses leave room to imagine anticipation or a meeting. Under the museum’s Jinxiangting title, the vase can be read as a literary romance, illustrating the exchange between storytelling and ceramic painting without fixing an uncertain episode.