The Dragon Boat Collection
The Dragon Boat Festival as celebrated at the Qing dynasty palaces, in addition to the eating of sticky rice dumplings and hanging mugwort in accordance with festival rituals, also included the arrangement of certain offerings. The pictures and objects displayed during the Dragon Boat Festival often featured seasonal flowers and fruits such as hollyhock, pomegranate, calamus, and mugwort, as well as depictions of dragon boat races, thereby adding a lively and festive atmosphere to this holiday. As the sun rises to its highest position on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, the precious works of the imperial collection related to the Dragon Boat Festival from the Qing palaces can take us back to this holiday celebrated in the Qing dynasty.
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Dragon Boat (from Yanyun jihui)
Li Song (1166-1230)
Song dynasty
This painting likely depicts the imperial boat used by emperors for watching competitions and performances. The boat features heavy cross-ridge, East Asian hip-and-gable, and tented roofs on a two-story pavilion, connected by a suspended arched corridor, making the floating pavilion resemble a heavenly palace.
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Beautiful Scene from the Double Fifth
Anonymous
Yuan dynasty (1279-1368)
“Midsky” is another name for the Dragon Boat Festival. This painting, titled “Beautiful Scene from the Double Fifth,” was created to commemorate the festival. It depicts a vase with common hollyhocks, pomegranates, sweet flags, and other flowers of the fifth month, with delicate branch tips. The plate in the painting contains seasonal food such as zongzi, lychees, and pomegranates. This period was one when insects bred and epidemics were common, so the upper part of the painting uniquely included four Daoist talismans and an image of Zhong Kui to ward off evil spirits.
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Ivory miniature dragon boat with rooster-shaped maki-e lacquer box
18th century
Qing dynasty
This dragon boat was carved from ivory, with the entire vessel in the shape of a dragon. The artifact features a three-story cabin in the middle, with eight paddles on each side. The deck was adorned with railings, a decorated archway, and a corridor. The boat was decorated with 16 triangular flags and one umbrella. The doors and windows can all be opened, and the boat is set in a rooster-shaped lacquer box with gold detailing.
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Copper box with flowering plant decoration and “wudu (five poisonous creatures)”
Qianlong reign (1736-1795)
Qing dynasty
The entire box was decorated with enamel, featuring a light blue background. The lid was painted with five geometric lattice patterns in pink, yellow, blue, and green, along with the five poisonous creatures of scorpion, snake, centipede, toad, and spider. The spaces in between were adorned with various flowers and plants. The edge of the lid and the body of the box were painted with yellow-brown geometric patterns and decorated with fruits and flowers such as peaches and lotus flowers.
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