Lot 2896. An inscribed Duan ink stone, Late Ming dynasty; 8 13/16 in. (22.4 cm.) long. Estimate HKD 100,000 - HKD 150,000. Price realised HKD 125,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2020. 

The irregularly shaped ink stone is carved as a cliff wall with orchids and stalks of bamboo emerging from the top, above a poetic inscription signed Zongyang.

Note: The current Duan inkstone is inscribed with three inscriptions, respectively signed Li Mengyang (1472-1529), Xu Wei (1521-1593) and Wang Shizhen (1526-1590). Li and Wang were both literary-renaissance leaders in their own right, and who wielded domineering influences during their respective lifetimes. Xu Wei (1521-1593), on the other hand, was an impoverished literati painter who later gained widespread acclaim.
The Li Mengyang text to the upper right-hand corner of the inkstone is inscribed: ‘The world values the ‘eye’, but you have none; people therefore mistake you for a brick’. Duan inkstones with ‘eyes’ – circular inclusions in the stone that resemble animal eyes – are prized by collectors but there are none on the current inkstone. The inscription was, therefore, written as a reprimand using an outwardly accusatory tone to express the author’s affection for the stone. This inscription is recorded in Li’s anthology Kong Dong Ji (juan 60) and later recorded in the imperial encyclopedia, Siku Quanshu.
Xu Wei’s inscription is adjacent to Li’s and is a rhymed stanza:
In manuals of ancient times, gradings are codified;despite having no bird’s eye, it is cherished as one of a kind!It produces ink aplenty, from a mere drop of water, like heavy rain from clouds
In ancient manuals inkstones were graded according to the mines from where they were extracted, the quality of the stone, as well as the presence of ‘eyes’. The current stone has no ‘eyes’ but it was cherished by Wu Wei for its ability to facilitate the formation of ink ‘like heavy rain from clouds’.
Lastly, the inscription by Wang Shizhen is located on the left-hand side of the inkstone. The text is a philosophical musing: ‘The ink attacks you but you are as you are. The ink moves ineffectively, while you patiently lay still. It makes you dirty but you stay content; even when dirt is removed, you are still wordless. That’s how you can last forever’. Wang juxtaposed ink and inkstone as two opposing characters in a battlefield metaphor. The ink is content when attacked by dirt but without boasting even when the dirt is removed, thus it is ascribed with high moral qualities. It is ostensibly praising the inkstone but in fact alluding to the moral quality of a man. Clearly this composition was one of Wang’s favourite as it is the only inkstone inscription selected for his anthology Yanzhou Shanren Sibugao (juan 103). The inscription is also recorded in the Siku Quanshu.