Fondo SC72 - Two copies of 'Imperially Commissioned Illustrations of Tilling and Weaving'

2 volumes, printed

Copy 1 was housed in a box labelled 'Uncatalogued drawings', while Copy 2 was part of 'Miscellaneous Manuscripts Box Q'.

Unknown.

Two copies of Imperially Commissioned Illustrations of Tilling and Weaving (Yuzhi gengzhi tu 御製耕織圖), a book illustrating the processes of rice growing and silk production which was first printed in 1696 by order of the Qing emperor Kangxi. The two copies are both woodblock-printed, but are different editions.

Copy 1

This copy is in a concertina format. It includes a preface, followed by a section on rice and the other on silk. Each section contains woodcut prints facing each other, each containing an inscription in it and accompanied by poetry composed by Kangxi in the upper margin, with seals in black. There are 44 prints in total, including 23 from the rice section and 21 from the silk section.

This copy has disintegrated into several parts and no covers are present. The opening page of the preface is missing, and two prints from the silk section (for steps of ‘warming the screens’ 炙箔 and ‘demounting’ 下簇) appear to be also missing. Page size measures 37cm high and 28cm wide.

Copy 2

This copy is in traditional Chinese thread binding. It includes a complete preface and one section on rice and the other on silk. Each woodcut print also contains an inscription and is followed by poetry on the verso. For each print the poetry composed by Kangxi is followed by additional poetry, including that composed by the Emperors Yungzheng and Qianlong, the latter in honour of the original poetry composed by Kangxi. This suggests that this copy is a later edition and is datable to the reign of the Emperor Qianlong (1735–1796). There are no seals accompanying the prints. There are 46 prints in total, including 23 from each section.

Annotation in pencil on the cover reads: ‘Pictorial Representation of Rice-growing + Silk [?] with preface by Kiang Hei, dated 1696’. A label on the cover bears the reference number ‘RAS 50’. Annotation in ink on the bottom edge reads: ‘御製耕織圖’. Page size measures 28.5cm high and 29.5cm wide.

Stored together with this copy is a photocopy of an article on the book, possibly taken from an auction catalogue (reference number 14921), made in October 2002.

The two books are catalogued together as they are different editions of a same title and no information on acquisition and provenance has been found.

Open. Please contact the Archivist.

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Among the many books donated by Sir George Thomas Staunton to the Society there was a work 'on weaving and ploughing', part of his donation made on 19 April 1823. It is unclear whether this refers to one of the above copies, or at all.

On page 44 of Samuel Kidd's Catalogue of the Chinese library of the Royal Asiatic Society there is an entry of a 'Yu che kang chih' which is 'plates of ploughing and weaving, by Imperial rescript' in one volume, quarto. Again, there is not enough information to ascertain whether this is one of the above copies.

More information of the book can be found here: https://glam.uoregon.edu/fabricofcollecting/page/collecting-pictures-of-tilling-weaving#?xywh=0%2C-971%2C15910%2C7938. Images of a copy similar to Copy 1 in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums can be viewed here: https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/211235.

These items were catalogued by James Liu, RAS Archivist, in 2025.