Note: The poem inscribed on this brush pot is attributed to the Song dynasty poet Weng Sen, eulogising the pleasure and contentment attained by studying. The Kangxi Emperor was lauded for re-introducing the civil service examination, allowing ethnic Han scholars access to public service, thus neutralising the conflict between the ruling Manchu class and Han population. The copper-red seal found on the brushpot, Xichao chuangu ‘Passing on wisdom of antiquities in the Kangxi reign’, is a reminder of this remarkable achievement of the Emperor. The same red seal can be found on a number of Kangxi-marked brush pot similarly inscribed with poems in underglaze blue, such as an identical brush pot in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), Hong Kong, 2010, no. 188 (fig. 1).

fig.1 An underglaze-blue inscribed brush pot, Kangxi mark and priod (1662-1722) in the Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing