Lot 78 Dα

On the occasion of the Qianlong Emperor's eightieth birthday in 1790, the production of imperial seals was once again commissioned from jade carvers in Suzhou. When choosing the mottos for the seals, the emperor drew his inspiration from the Hongfan chapter (The Great Plan) in the Confucian classic Shangshu (Book of Documents). The chapter, which is structured as a conversation between the Zhou king Wu and the Shang prince Jizi, postulates the nine principles for a great government, which were supposedly revealed by heaven itself. The Qianlong Emperor was particularly impressed by the eighth article and chose the saying "Bazheng maonian zhibao" (Treasure of the octogenarian who observes the eighth principle) for the main seal, which he paired with the seal Ziqiang buxi. He wrote the essay "Bazheng maonian zhibao lianju" about his choice in which he explains that he used the two seals together with the seal "Xiangyong wufu" ('For pleasure, the Fivefold Bliss, for authority, the Six Sufferings'), a saying taken from Hongfan's ninth principle. Another secondary seal around the eightieth birthday is Nianyong shuzheng ("Think like the people"), which comes from the eighth principle of Hongfan. It is possible that archaic chi dragons (chilong) were surmounted to the seals because the carved idioms refer to a Zhou dynasty text.

清乾隆 約一七九O年
禦制玉螭龍紐印璽一對
「饗用五福」、「念用庶徴」
展覽：其一 (印文念用庶徴) 由1990至2024年借於柏林亞洲藝術博物館，期間不定期展出 (附其出具的品相記錄)
文獻：郭晶著，“乾隆禦璽 “八征耄念之寶” 疏義” ，《文津學誌》，2018年第11輯，208-212頁;
Guo Fuxiang著，“On the Qianlong Emperor’s Ziqiang buxi jade seal”，Fine Chinese Jades from the Thompson-Schwab Collection，蘇富比，倫敦，2016年11月9日，22-25頁
來源：德國威斯特法倫州私人收藏，家族幾代相傳

1790年乾隆皇帝八十大壽之際，蘇州玉雕工匠再次受命為其制作禦璽。乾隆帝在選擇印文時，從儒家經典《尚書·洪範》中汲取靈感。 該章以周武王與商王子箕子之間的對話為框架，提出了據說是由上天所揭示的九大治國大法 (九疇)。乾隆帝對其中第八條印象尤為深刻，並將 “八征耄念之寶” (遵循第八條規則八旬老人之寶)作為主寶印文，配以“自強不息”為副寶。乾隆帝在《八徴耄念之寶聯句》中解釋了此印文的由來，且將這兩枚寶璽與首引“饗用五福”搭配使用，後者出自《尚書·洪範》第九條“饗用五福，威用六極”。 乾隆帝八十壽辰前後所制作的另一副印“念用庶徴”，即《洪範》九疇之第八條。使用古螭作為印章的鈕，大約是出於印文源自遙遠的周代文本的緣由。