Physical description
Hanging panel of embroidered red satin in coloured silks (mostly green, blue, black and white, with touches of red, pink and yellow), and silver-gilt thread in satin and stem stitches and laid and couched work. Lined with pink cotton.
Embroidered with two of the Stories of filial piety.
At the top is Tung Yung who lived about AD 200. He was so poor that when his father died he could not pay the fees for the funeral rites, so he sold himself as a bond servant on the loan of ten thousand cash with which he paid for the rites. As he returned home he met a woman who offered herself as his wife. During the month that she lived with him, she wove for him three hundred webs of silk, with the proceeds of which he was able to repay the loan and redeem himself. Then, after revealing that she was the star Chih Nu, sent by the lord of Heaven to reward him for his filial conduct, she vanished from sight. The meeting of the two is depicted in a landscape with a willow-trees; in the distance mountains and the elaborate roof of a pavilion wreathed in clouds. Below is Huang Hiang who was left motherless when he was only seven years old and thence-forward devoted himself to the care of his father, fanning him all through the summer nights, and in winter lying down first on his father's couch to warm it with his own body. He is shown standing by the couch, fan in hand, his father appears to the left.
Place of Origin
China (made)
Date
nineteenth century (made)
Artist/maker
Unknown
Materials and Techniques
Embroidered silk satin in silks and silver-gilt thread, lined with cotton
Dimensions
Length: 120 cm, Width: 35 cm
Descriptive line
Embroidered hanging, China, late 19th century
Materials
Silk (textile)
Techniques
Embroidering
Categories
Textiles; Embroidery
Collection
East Asia Collection