Lot 129. A fine and large blue and white rouleau vase, Transitional period. Height 18 in., 45.7 cm. Estimate 120,000 - 180,000 USD. Lot sold 149,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

of cylindrical form with sides rising to a tapered neck, the body finely painted in washes of cobalt with Xu You in his field tending his two oxen kneeling before Emperor Yao standing beneath a parasol, the attendants holding fans and banners stand on the side by a chariot, all set between an incised band of flowers with a painted plantain leaf collar around the neck and a further incised wave band around the foot.

Provenance: Sotheby's New York, 20th March 2007, lot 763.

Note: The scene on the vase depicts Emperor Yao, the first of the sage-kings of China's 'Golden Age' (the mythical period pre-Xia dynasty), going to ask Xu You, the reclusive sage and cowherd to take over running the government. Xu You was so shocked to hear the king's proposal that he had to go wash out his ears. Yao was an excellent head of state and Xu argued that such a competent and benevolent ruler did not need his help running the country. He is seen kneeling before the king.

The story is more a Daoist tale than a Confucian one; it indicates that one good ruler is sufficient and that holding office may actually be unfavorable to the very being of an individual, giving preference to a life of seclusion. By contrast, the Confucian principle would be that one is obligated to serve if the ruler were not corrupt or totally incompetent.

Compare a similar rouleau vase illustrating the same scene in the Butler Family Collection, illustrated in Julia Curtis, Chinese Porcelains of the Seventeenth Century, China Institute, New York, 1995, cat. no. 60.