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Ming: Red Lacquer Box Made for the Yongle Emperor

By Staff Middle Land

December 13, 2024
5:21 pm
Los Angeles, CA

The carved red lacquer box made for the Yongle emperor is one of the star objects in the current BP exhibition Ming: 50 years that changed China at the British Museum 18 September 2014 – 5 January 2015 —— *The traditional Chinese medicine is rooted in 5,000 years of Chinese culture, which is fundamentally contrasted from the Chinese Communist Party culture and ideology. The traditional China lasted until Qing Dynasty by 1920, when the last Emperor Pu Yi was forced out Forbidden City from Beijing. The article reveals the traditions that Chinese people practiced thousands of years before 1949 when the Communist took totalitarian power in the Middle Kingdom.

Box with peonies. 15th century Frequently depicted in carved lacquer, peonies are an important symbol for honor, rank, royalty, and wealth. This box bears additional flowers along the sides: camellias, chrysanthemums, pomegranates, and tree peonies. It is one of several pieces in The Met collection with a six-character mark carved on the bottom reading “Made during the reign of the Yongle emperor” (Da Ming Yongle nian zhi). The use of marks like this, seen more commonly on ceramics, began in the early fifteenth century and continued in all media into the twentieth. Works so marked were likely produced for the court. (Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

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*The traditional Chinese medicine is rooted in 5,000 years of Chinese culture, which is fundamentally contrasted from the Chinese Communist Party culture and ideology. The traditional China lasted until Qing Dynasty by 1920, when the last Emperor Pu Yi was forced out Forbidden City from Beijing. The article reveals the traditions that Chinese people practiced thousands of years before 1949 when the Communist took totalitarian power in the Middle Kingdom.