Beschreibung:

A RARE BLACK LACQUER AND MOTHER-OF-PEARL-INLAID DOCUMENTARY PIPA17th century
The musical instrument of elongated tear-drop shape, the finely-grained wooden belly decorated in gilt with a pair of birds and gnarled branches of prunus and bamboo, rising to a long shaft with four strings leading to four tuning pegs on the sides of the bent-back pegbox inlaid in mother-of-pearl with a rooster on a rock with crashing waves, the reverse of the body lacquered black and decorated in mother-of-pearl with two figures gazing at three tall rocks across the sea, a large cartouche with long calligraphic inscription below, Japanese wood box and cover.
91cm (36in) long. (3).Footnotes十七世紀 黑漆嵌螺鈿花鳥人物紋詩文琵琶
Provenance: R.H.van Gulik (1910-1967), and thence by descent
來源：高羅佩（1910-1967）舊藏，並由後人保存迄今
Robert Hans van Gulik (1910-1967), also known as Gao Luopei (高罗佩) was a famous Dutch diplomat, musician, writer and sinologist. He was a great admirer of traditional Chinese literati culture and apart from practicing Chinese calligraphy everyday, he also learnt to play the guqin. The guqin was often played by van Gulik at diplomatic events, helping him to forge close ties with China's elite; and his book The Lore of the Lute was the first academic study of the instrument and its role in Chinese culture, introducing it to a Western audience for the first time. Van Gulik was one of the rare and great sinologists at the time who embodied the literati ideal and through his rigorous study and translations of classical Chinese texts allowed Chinese culture to speak for itself, acting as a bridge of understanding between East and West.
Van Gulik was born in Zutphen in the Netherlands, but from the age of three he lived in Jakarta, with his father who was a medical officer in the Dutch East Indies. While there, he learned Indonesian and Chinese as well as other languages. In 1935, van Gulik earned his PhD from Utrecht University with a dissertation on Hayagriva, the Mantrayanic aspect of Horse-cult in China and Japan. His linguistic skills allowed him to have a position in the Dutch Foreign Service from 1935 where he was largely based in Japan and China. During the Second World War he was with the Dutch mission in Chongqing. While in Chongqing, he married Shui Shifang (1912-2005), the daughter of a Qing dynasty official.
Van Gulik was a polymath with broad interests and expertise. Aside from his interests in the guqin and traditional Chinese culture, van Gulik was a writer of Detective fiction. His 'Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee' (first published in Tokyo in 1949, with illustrations by himself) was based on the 7th century statesman and detective Di Renjie. Based on this, his earned a reputation as an expert on Imperial Chinese jurisprudence. His other pioneering scholarly works were in sexuality and his Sexual Life in Ancient China and Erotic Colour Prints of the Ming Period are still major reference works in the field. Van Gulik was also an enthusiast of gibbons and kept them as pets as well as writing a study of them: The Gibbon in China.
Although van Gulik is most well known as a musician of the guqin, he was interested in Chinese music and musical instruments in general. The pipa, or Chinese lute, was introduced from Central Asia during the Han dynasty, and gradually evolved within different areas of China since the Tang dynasty. The term 'pipa' describes two original playing motions of the plectrum held in the performer's right hand: pi is 'to play forwards' (towards the left), and pa, 'to play backwards' (towards the right). The pipa was originally held horizontally, and its twisted silk strings were plucked with a large triangular plectrum until the end of the Tang dynasty when musicians began using their fingernails to perform the more exuberant music; see for example, the painting The Night Revels of Minister Han Xizai, attributed to Gu Hongzhong (10th century), in the Palace Museum, Beijing, which shows a lady holding the instrument horizontally with a plectrum. To make it easier to use fingers, the instrument began to be held in an upright position which slowly became the beipa (northern pipa).
However, the concept of early horizontally-held pipa was preserved in Nanyin music. Nanyin, also Nanguan, literally 'southern pipe' music, is popular in the Minnan area (southern Fujian Province) from whence it spread to Taiwan and other Southeast Asian countries. Minnan musicians are tempted to assign the origins of Nanyin music to the Tang and Song dynasties, which to a certain degree can be supported by the the survival of many archaic features, such as the tradition of horizontally held pipa. The music today is seen by academics as primarily part of an amateur tradition with ancient historical roots, that is played both for the musicians' own entertainment and occasionally for ritual practice and storytelling. the present lot's relatively small size may indicate that it is a Nanyin pipa.
Pipa is the leading instrument in Nanyin music, accompanied by pai (wood clapper), erxian (two-stringed fiddle), sanxian (three-stringed lute), and xiao (vertical flute, also called dongxiao). Although a Nanyin pipa preserves some features of types of pipa from the Tang dynasty, its modern form appears to have been finalised no later than the Ming dynasty. Compare with a pipa in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, late 16th/early 17th century, illustrated by J.K.Moore, J.K.Dobney and B.Strauchen-Scherer, Musical Instruments: Highlights of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2015, pp.48-49, fig.II.
The backs of pipa are usually plain since it is unseen by an audience, but the extraordinary pipa in this lot is decorated and has an inscription, which reads as:
予家小築小溪灣，漁父村西指顧間。
竹槿編篱依綠水，柴荊成戶對青山。
有時□釣歸明月，盡□看雲坐翠鬟。
倘肯杖藜過曲徑，新茶堪煮荀堪刪。
吳趨陳衷並書
Which may be translated as:
My little hut is built on the bay of the creek, the fishermen live only a stone-throw away to the west.
The bamboo and hibiscus woven into the fence is by the green waters, the gate formed by firewood trees faces the green hills.
Occasionally, I come back from fishing accompanied by the moon, and watch the clouds curling up on the verdant hills like ladies' hair buns.
If you could walk through the winding road on a crutch (to my home), the fresh tea could be boiled, and bamboo sprouts could be chopped for you.
Written by Chen Zhong of the land of Wu
The seal reads: 字能坦, 'Courtesy name Nengtan.'
Chen Zhong (陳衷), courtesy name Nengtan (能坦), was a scholar active in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Very little is known about him. However, the inscription alludes to many of the eremitic ideals of the literati including a life away from the perils of the Court and dedicated to fishing, tea, and meeting with friends.
Compare with a related black lacquer and mother-of-pearl-inlaid pipa, late Ming/early Qing dynasty, which was sold at China Guardian, Beijing, 7 June 2021, lot 5184.