| 内容简介（英文） | Vase of Plum Flowers Tzu-hsi t’ai-hou (The Empress Dowager) Ch’ing Dynasty Empress Tzu-hsi t’ai-hou (family name Na-la), concubine of Emperor Wen-tsung, was the mother of Mu-tsung, the following Ch’ing emperor. Because of the tender age of both her own son and his successor (Te-tsung, his cousin), the Empress Dowager ruled in their stead for 40 years. After her death she was given the posthumous title “Kung-chin huang hou”. During her life, the Empress was most dedicated to her rule over China, a domination which ultimately led to the downfall of the Ch’ing dynasty. In her leisure, the Empress exhibited great interest in the arts; in addition to this patronage, she herself was fond of writing large inscriptions and of painting flowers. She often wrote single characters, “good luck” and “long life”, and presented them to her high officials. Her flower painting, however, was quite poor. Most of the better works were executed late in her life, when two female artists in her Fu-ch’ang Palace, Miu Su-chun and Yuan P’ing-hsiang, painted in the Empress’ name. |
