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Iconographic Meaning

The images and poems depict the ideal of a harmonious society in which ordinary men and women carry out their tasks with diligence and
reap the rewards of their labour.

Description

Illustrated book with twenty-three paintings in polychrome. The painting is on the right page and a short poem on the left. The book opens up accordion-style, with the paintings and poems on one side; the other side is blank. The illustrations, in sequence, are: three people working on fabric at a table with another carrying toe rolls of fabric with two women watching; three women working on fabric in a house with two more outside holding three rolls of fabric; two women working at a loom with one woman bringing them tea while she is holding the hand of child being helped by an elderly woman; one woman spinning thread with two more outside holding some; four people praying at a shrine with a child while one woman is coming to bring tea; two people dyeing yarn, and two people hanging the yarn up outside; two women spinning thread inside with a child, and one woman outside with a child; one woman working on thread in a vat while another is holding the silk sacs in a basket, a child, and another child with a woman talking to two others over a wall; two adults, and two children sorting silk sacs; two men sorting silk sacs inside while two more are watching, and a man holding a hoe over the shoulder with a child; three buildings in which people have silk sacs in large containers; six people in, and around a building with silk sacs attached to two bundles of long grasses; an elderly man watching a younger man working on two green bushy bundles while two men are holding a large flat rectangular object with two more people in the background; two women in a building with large flat rectangular objects, a woman tending to a child in another building where there is also another woman holding a flat circular object as she is talking to a man fanning a fire outside; three women sorting silk sacs while two more are carrying baskets with a child; three women in a building on one side, and a man with a woman in a building on the other side; one woman working at a loom while two more are watching; three women working at a threading contraption with two children underneath; two groups of people sorting silk sacs; one woman lying down while two more are talking next to a five-tiered silk sac sorter; people in a field gathering leaves from trees; three women with two children sorting silk sacs; and three women around a container with another bringing tea.

History Of Use

Reproduction of the illustrated book titled Yuzhi gengzhi tu (御製耕織圖; Imperially commissioned illustrations of agriculture and sericulture), Vol. I. Paintings by Jiao Bingzhen (焦秉貞). The original 1696 edition was commissioned in the early Qing dynasty by the Kangxi emperor (r.1661–1722) and produced by his court painter Jiao Bingzhen. It is based on an earlier version compiled by Lou Shou 樓璹 (1090–1162). Distributed nationwide, this set (with N1.553) of two accordion-style books served as a guide to rice cultivation and silk production.