Kangxi The centre depicted with a lady carrying a wrapped qin and talking with a lady with a fan in her right hand, and a lady with a book in her left hand seating on a stool in front of the fourth lady sitting between a long desk displayed with stationery and a folding screen decorated with a landscape, all within a border of stylised ruyi head and coral, the base inscribed with a pictorial mark within a double-circle. 59.8cm (23 1/2in) diam.Footnotes清康熙 青花四美圖大盤 Educated ladies in ancient China had regular gatherings like male scholars, which, however, usually happened in a private household rather than in a public setting. The earliest record of 'Four Concubines' in literature was in the Yiwen Leiju, (Classified collection based on the Classics and other literature), a Chinese encyclopedia completed in 624 AD under Imperial order during the early Tang dynasty. The 'Four Imperial Concubines' refer to the four consorts of Emperor Ku: Jiang Yuan, Jiandi, Changyi and Qingdu, see Ouyang Xun, ed.(557-641), Yiwen Leiju, Beijing, 1773-1792, vol.15, p.4. See a woodcut print scroll dated 1747, Sifei tu, in the British Museum, depicting the 'Four Imperial Concubines' and sixteen boys playing in the garden of a mansion (acc.no.1926,0410,0.25) It is rare to find the depiction of the 'Four Imperial Concubines' on dishes in such size. Compare with a related blue and white dish, Kangxi, depicting four ladies at play in a pavilion, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, which is illustrated in the Qing shunzhi kangxichao qinghuaqi (Blue and White Porcelains in the Shunzhi and Kangin Period), Beijing, 2005, no.100. Compare a blue and white vase with related four-ladies design, Kangxi, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, which is illustrated in the Porcelain Wares from Imperial Kiln in Kangxi Period of Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2015, p.66. See another blue and white jar with a design of 'Four Concubines and Sixteen Children', illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pp.84-85, no.54. 盤圓口，坦腹，盤心繪四位仕女，一位攜琴，一位持衫，一位持卷，一位倚案，案頭陳列筆筒、硯台、筆山及法帖，後靠山水屏風，四人著長袍霞帔，出身華貴，口沿一周如意雲頭紋間以珊瑚紋，圈足修整利索均勻，露胎處可見胎體燒結細密，底面漫佈棕眼，底心繪雙圈，內繪青花款識。 此盤體量巨大，所繪人物、家具裝飾細膩精彩。青花出色雅緻，分水清楚自然。四位仕女形象應來自古代四妃典故。此典說法不一，或云黃帝的四妃：嫘祖、女節、彤魚氏、嫫母，或謂帝嚳四妃：安源氏、簡狄氏、陳豐氏、諏訾氏，或指初唐貴、淑、德、賢四妃。其形象多為文雅仕女，所玩多為琴棋書畫之屬。《藝文類聚》轉引《世本》曰：「帝嚳卜其四妃之子，皆有天下，元妃有邰氏之女，曰姜嫄，生后稷，次妃有娀氏之女，曰簡狄，生契，次妃陳酆氏慶都，生帝堯，次妃娵訾氏，生帝摯。」四妃四子或出於此，四妃即帝嚳之元妃姜嫄，次妃簡狄、慶都、娵訾氏，四子即后稷、契、帝堯、帝摯，皆上古賢帝，見唐代歐陽詢編，《藝文類聚》，《欽定四庫全書》本，1773-1792年，卷15，頁4。 明末清初動亂之後，四妃又常搭配十六子，皆有子孫昌盛之寄託，由是民窯官窯多有繪製。 版畫的興起可能擴大了這一題材的流行，可參考大英博物館藏一幅十七世紀《四妃圖》版畫，館藏編號1926,0410,0.25。然而體量如此巨大的四妃圖青花盤十分少見，可比較北京故宮藏一件清康熙青花四妃圖盤，見《清順治康熙朝青花瓷》，北京，2005年，編號100。四妃圖樣較多見於瓶罐等立件，如北京故宮藏一件康熙四妃圖青花罐，見《盛世風華：大清康熙御窯瓷》，北京，2015年，頁66。亦可比較上海博物館藏一件青花四妃十六子圖罐之圖樣及畫法，見《上海博物館藏康熙瓷圖錄》，香港，1998年，圖版54，頁84-85。