Liu Shang Tu

Illustration for the qin melodies Liu Shang and Xiuxi Yin
Part of a long scroll made from an ink imprint of a stone engraving dated 1417

The setting is a sort of park near Shaoxing, east of Hangzhou, called the Orchid Pavilion.¹ In 353 CE Wang Xizhi is said to have organized a famous purification ceremony here.² The whole scroll shows 42 attending scholars plus the poems 26 of them are said to have written during the event.³

Beginning of the Orchid Pavilion Xiuxi scroll

Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a separate page)

1 Shaoxing is about 50km southeast of Hangzhou. 越王句踐 King Gou Jian of Yue is said to have raised orchids there in the 5th c. BCE, hence the name Orchid Pavilion (蘭亭 Lan Ting 33297.121) (Return)

2 For more on this purification ceremony, called a xiuxi, see the melody Xiuxi Yin (Return)

3 The contents of the scroll as I have it (I bought it at Lan Ting in 2000) are as follows:

A preface, dated 1417, that begins by saying Wang Xizhi's original preface is to its right;
A pavilion with Wang Xizhi in the center;
The statement "11 people wrote two poems, 15 people wrote one poem, 16 people didn't write any;"
Servants making preparations;
Scholars drinking and writing poems, with their poems included in boxes On my copy of the rubbing there are 41 scholars; this section of the rubbing consists of 6 sheets, with the breaks after #3 (see above), #10 (see above), #18, #25, #32 (who is partly missing), and before the second from the end; most likely the original has all 42, with the 33rd missing from here;
Orchids are mentioned in two poems, those by 陳郡袁^山高之 Yuan Qiaozhi and 行參軍徐豐之 Xu Fengzhi. More servants;
An afterword by 孫綽 Sun Chuo (314-371; he was also the 7th scholar depicted);
??; begins "蘭亭詩兼公榷續...."
(Return)

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