IP20 An amber glass inside painted “Ghost lady” snuff bottle, Yong Shoutian

Description

Description:  Chinese amber color glass snuff bottle, painted inside by Yong Shoutian (active 1898 – 1926). The two scenes on this bottle are taken from Liaozhai zhiyi (聊齋誌異), sometimes shortened to Liaozhai, known in English as “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio”, a collection of Classical Chinese stories by the writer Pu Songling (蒲松龄) (1640-1715), comprising 494 stories. It was written over a period of forty years from the late 1600s till the early 1700s and the story collection served to implicitly criticize societal problems at that time. More about the nature of the “Strange Tales”, mostly related to the supernatural, ghosts and human soul, is explained in the Description of the snuff bottle IP16.

The first scene is related to the story of Huan Niang (宦娘), i.e. Zhao Huan Niang (趙宦娘), a lady ghost. Here a resumption:

“Wen Ruchun (温如春) was a poor scholar from a good family who had loved playing qin since he was young and always carried one when he traveled. One day he met a Daoist in an old temple who also carried a qin around with him. From him Wen learned great playing skills. On his way home, during a heavy rain storm he went into a house. There he saw a beautiful girl, age 17,18, who ran into his room. An old lady came out and told him that the girl, Huan Niang, was like a daughter to her. Wen Ruchun stayed there and at night played his qin. After Wen Ruchun arrived home, he met a rich girl, Lianggong (良工) who loved both the qin and him, and against the wishes of her family, they married. One night they heard Wen’s qin being played, but they found no one playing it. The wife suggested using an ancient mirror belonging to her family, because if it was a ghost playing, they would then be able to see it. They did this and found it was Huan Niang. She confessed that she had been dead now for 100 years. When young she had always loved zheng and qin, but she had died before learning qin. When she heard Wen playing it, she decided to help him marry the beautiful Lianggong. She then asked Wen to teach qin to her, and she in turn taught zheng to Lianggong. Before she left, she gave Wen a picture of her, and told him that if from time to time he would hang up the picture, light incense, and play a tune, she would then be very happy. Upon saying this she disappeared.”

The second scene is related to the story of Wu Xiao Lian (武孝亷). It tells the story of an official who abandoned his original wife who once saved him when he was very sick. The scene is showing the official vomiting blood when he was sick.

Mark:  No marks

Material:  Amber color glass

Size: 63 mm high

Stopper:  No stopper

Provenance:  Antiquarian market

References:  See our bottle IP16

Notes:  By the style of painting, this bottle, like the bottle IP16 which too is painted with a scene from the “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio”, should be dated to the first period of activity of Yong Shoutian (active 1898 – 1926).