Studies on Reign Marks Inscriptions on Jiajing Imperial Porcelains

EVENT DESCRIPTION

“Eternal Enlightenment: the Virtual World of Jiajing Emperor” Talk Series

With 2022 marking the 500th anniversary of the Jiajing Emperor’s ascension to the throne, the Hong Kong Museum of Art has organised an exhibition focused on the emperor, in collaboration with the famed Huaihaitang Collection, revealing the struggles and aspirations of this legendary Ming emperor through the precious artefacts. We will launch a talk series to tie in with the exhibition, inviting three scholars in the field to give differently themed talks that delve into the artefacts of the Jiajing period from various perspectives. The final talk will be conducted on 1 April at the Lecture Hall of the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

Talk 3: Studies on Reign Marks Inscriptions on Jiajing Imperial Porcelains

Zhu Hongcong, also known as the Jiajing Emperor or Emperor Shizong of the Ming dynasty, reigned for 45 years. The imperial porcelain commissioned by the court during the reign had unique characteristics. In this fully illustrated talk, Prof. Lam will elaborate on several topics related to the reign-marks appearing on Jiajing imperial porcelain. These include formats and positions of the marks, whether they were written by underglaze or overglaze pigments, the numbers of words in the marks, the different calligraphic styles and a few special marks. This talk will also discuss possible dates of the different marks and their relationship to preceding and following reigns in the Ming dynasty.

Speaker: Prof. Peter Y. K. Lam (Honorary Research Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)
Format: On-site talk
Language: Cantonese