Why Did This Ancient Chinese Handscroll Break Auction Records?

After a heated bidding battle that went on for a record-breaking 95 minutes, a 700-year-old handscroll fetched over $32 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong last Thursday, April 10, considerably surpassing presale estimates that had projected the work to sell for up to $1.29 million (20,000,000 HKD).

Created by 14th-century calligrapher Rao Jie, the handscroll saw more than 200 offers before the hammer went down during a sale of classical Chinese painting. Steven Zuo, the department’s head for Sotheby’s Asia, told Hyperallergic that a private collector who bid via telephone snagged the work, which is now the most valuable piece of Chinese calligraphy that the auction house has sold. (The buyer’s name has not been made public.)

But what was behind the bidding frenzy to begin with? As it turns out, the answer stretches back centuries, as Rao’s calligraphy has long captured the attention of art collectors. 

A native of the southeast Jiangxi province, Rao lived and worked amid the tumultuous transition between the Yuan and Ming dynasties. His style draws from a combination of both the classical style associated with the “Two Wangs” — the fourth-century “calligraphy sage” Wang Xizhi and his son Wang Xianzhi — and the energetic speed that defines the Wild Cursive tradition of the Tang Dynasty, as pre-modern Chinese calligraphy scholar and Indiana University assistant professor Yan Weitian explained.

“The styles of the Two Wangs are best known for their fluent, spontaneous, and highly gestural movements of brushstrokes,” Yan told Hyperallergic. 

The scroll’s contents contain transcriptions of two Tang dynasty-era essays — Song Meng Dongye Xu (Preface on Seeing off Meng Jiao) (801–2) by scholar Han Yu and Zi Ren Zhuan (Biography of a Carpenter) (798) by philosopher Liu Zongyuan. Yan explained that the reproduction of famous writings is a common practice among Chinese calligraphers.

“It is basically a way for calligraphers to borrow established literary work to express themselves,” Yan said. 

But content aside, the handscroll features more than 100 added postscripts, which historically offer individual assessments of a given work and, by extension, add to its overall cultural significance. Postscripts, otherwise known as colophons, can also provide valuable insight into a work’s provenance, which in this case traces across the imperial collections of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and includes one of China’s most significant art collectors, Qianlong Emperor. 

The fourth and longest living ruler of the Qing dynasty, Qianlong Emperor was known for his passion for painting and calligraphy, exhibited not only in his personal art practice but also in his vast holdings, which today comprise the majority of paintings and calligraphic works in the collections of the Palace Museum in Beijing and the Taipei Palace Museum.

For this handscroll, the emperor not only added a postscript, but also created a distinguishable frontispiece for the work and documented it in his catalogues, “an honor reserved only for Qianlong Emperor’s most cherished calligraphy,” Zuo said.

Michele Matteini, an art historian specializing in late imperial China, told Hyperallergic in an email that these details “jack up the appeal of the piece (and the price) in the eyes of buyers.” 

Following the ownership of Qianlong Emperor, the handscroll passed through the holdings of 19th-century Qing dynasty ruler Prince Gong. It later landed in the collection of Japanese Shin cleric Ishikawa Shuntai, where it remained hidden for more than a century, Zuo said.

Last week’s auction of classic painting and calligraphy followed the success of an October sale that totaled $11.47 million. The latter, which also drastically exceeded the high end of its $4.28 million pre-sale estimate, centered on 113 imperial painting and calligraphy works. The star was an undated gold paper fan leaf that sold for $648,700 (5,040,000 HKD).

“We have also observed a growing number of young collectors this season, drawn by a deep reverence for their cultural heritage,” Zuo added, noting that last year across Sotheby’s auction centers, in particular Hong Kong, 32% of bidders were 40 years old and younger. 

“This season’s Classical Chinese Paintings sales further underscore the trend, with the number of young buyers more than doubling compared to last season,” Zuo said. 

But the success of the record-breaking handscroll may have more to do with the current moment. Collectors, Matteini said, have recently been expressing increased interest in works affiliated with the Chinese imperial courts.

“There’s a peculiar nostalgia for court life fueling the imagination of buyers these days,” Matteini said.