{
"data": {
"id": 136411,
"accession_number": "1960.278",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Scepter (Gui) with Miscellaneous Poems by Tao Qian (365\u2013427 CE), 1122 or later. China, Possibly Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Qianlong period (1736-1795). Translucent white jade; overall: 2.8 x 0.3 cm (1 1/8 x 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. John Lyon Collyer in memory of her mother, Mrs. G. M. G. Forman, 1960.278",
"current_location": "240B Chinese Decorative Arts",
"title": "Scepter (Gui) with Miscellaneous Poems by Tao Qian (365\u2013427 CE)",
"creation_date": "1122 or later",
"creation_date_earliest": 1122,
"creation_date_latest": 1795,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"China, Possibly Qing dynasty (1644-1911), Qianlong period (1736-1795)"
],
"technique": "translucent white jade",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Chinese Art",
"collection": "China - Song Dynasty",
"type": "Jade",
"measurements": "Overall: 2.8 x 0.3 cm (1 1/8 x 1/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"width": 0.028,
"width_inch": 1,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.125,
"depth": 0.003,
"depth_inch": 0,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.125,
"length": 0.242,
"length_inch": 9,
"length_inch_fraction": 0.5
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "\"Respectfully made by the jade works of the palace work bureau, on an auspicious day in the twelfth month of the winter, in the third year of Xuanhe of the Imperial Song (Dynasty)\" (1121). \n\nOn the front and back of the knife are engraved, in minute characters with double contour lines, eight complete poems entitled \"Miscellaneous Thoughts\" by Tao Yuanming (365\u2013427 CE), one of the greatest early poets of China. Here are two examples:\n\nThe bright sun sinks beyond the western ridge,\nThe white moon rises behind the eastern range.\nAfar, afar a myriad miles it flashes,\nImmeasurably vast its light amidst the sky.\nA wind comes and enters the bedroom door,\nSo in the night pillow-and mat are cold.\nThe air seems different- - I awake to the season's change.\nI cannot go to sleep and know the night's eternity,\nI wish to speak but there is no friend to talk to.\nRaising my cup I challenge my lonely shadow.\nThe days and months fling us aside and pass;\nWe have high purposes but cannot realize them.\nThinking of this I have grief and pain at heart,\nAnd all night long can find no quietness.\n\nIt is hard to dwell long in prosperity;\nRise and decline cannot be reckoned on.\nWhat were formerly lotus buds in May,\nNow in the autumn are but withered seed-pods.\nA heavy frost stiffens the prairie grasses- - \nThey wilt despondently and do not quickly die.-\nThe sun and moon come ever circling back.\nOnce we depart we do not shine again.\nI ponder deeply on times long past and gone\nThough to remember them tears my very entrails.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": 1
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Chinese Jades from Han to Ch'ing. Asia House Gallery, New York, NY (?-October 9, 1980); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (January 12-February 22, 1981); Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA (March 26- May 10, 1981); Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, HI (May 17-September 13, 1981).",
"opening_date": "1980-10-09T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Mrs. John Lyon [Georgia Forman Elliott] Collyer [1898\u20131994], Akron, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131960",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1960\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "This piece derives its shape from the ancient jade scepter known as gui. On both sides of the jade surfaces are the inscribed texts \"Miscellaneous Five-Character Poems by the Jin Poet Tao Qian\" engraved in minuscule characters, with a reference indicating that the piece was made by the jade workshop of the Xiuneisi Office in 1122 of the Xuanhe reign. This Northern Song attribution is, nevertheless, questionable.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80030331"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Watt, James C. Y. Chinese Jades from Han to Ch\u02bbing. New York: Asia Society, in association with J. Weatherhill, 1980.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Riddell, Sheila. Dated Chinese Antiquities, 600-1650. London: Faber and Faber, 1979.",
"page_number": "p. 169, cat. 141",
"url": ""
}
],
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"creditline": "Gift of Mrs. John Lyon Collyer in memory of her mother, Mrs. G. M. G. Forman",
"image_credit": null,
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"athena_id": 136411,
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"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1960-12-29T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1122,
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"updated_at": "2026-09-03 16:45:45.361000"
}
}