A fine and rare famille-verte 'He Zhizhang' cup,Mark and period of Kangxi清康熙 五彩賀知章醉酒圖盃 《大清康熙年製》款delicately potted with deep rounded sides resting on a countersunk base, decorated on the exterior with He Zhizhang, one of the eight drunken immortals, in an advanced state of inebriation, wearing a loose green robe and black cap, seated precariously atop a yellow horse, his right arm supported by a bemused acolyte, with another acolyte behind them bearing a wine flask and books, the reverse inscribed with two verses from 'The Ballad of the Eight Drunken Immortals', followed by a square seal shang (appreciation), the base with a six-character mark within a double circled. 6.3 cm来源: Collection of Paul and Helen Bernat.Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 15th November 1988, lot 25.Sotheby's Hong Kong, 27th April 1999, lot 429.白納德伉儷收藏 香港蘇富比1988年11月15日，編號25 香港蘇富比1999年4月27日，編號429文学: Julian Thompson, The Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong, 2009, pl. 38.朱湯生，《中國瓷器：莊紹綏收藏》，香港，2009年，圖版38 拍卖专文: This cup belongs to a special group representing the stories of He Zhizhang, Li Jin, Li Shizi, Cui Zongzhi, Su Jin, Li Bai, Zhang Xu and Jiao Sui, narrated in the Ballad on the Eight Drunken Immortals (Yinzhong baxian ge), composed by the renowned Tang poet Du Fu (712-770). It describes the rambunctious overindulgence of each of the eight poets as they participate in revelry to escape from everyday concerns, transcend the material world and gain entrance to a realm of artistic inspiration. Although the subjects of this Tang dynasty poem were contemporaries, fellow scholars and poets, their elite literati status elevates them to the immortality of the title. This cup depicts the story of He Zhizhang (659-744), a prominent scholar-official who served in the court of Emperor Xuanzong (r. 713-756). He Zhizhang was known for his literary works, calligraphy, and fondness for drinking. He famously bartered a gold ‘turtle’ figure gifted by the Emperor for wine when the younger poet Li Bai (701-762) visited him in Chang’an. The inscription on the present cup is an excerpt from the beginning of the ballad, which Shigeyoshi Obata translated in 1921 as:Zhizhang rides his horse, but staggers As on a reeling ship. Should he, blear-eyed, tumble into a well, He would lie in the bottom, fast asleep. The ballad became a popular motif in porcelain during the Kangxi reign. Produced in sets of eight wine cups in either famille-verte enamels or blue and white, they were each painted with one of the immortals mentioned in the poem and inscribed with the relevant verses. Two famille-verte cups illustrating the stories of Li Jin and Li Shizhi are included in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pls 164-5. A similar cup painted with He Zhizhang from the collections of Edward T. Chow and T.Y. Chao was sold twice in our rooms, 25th November 1980, lot 149 and 18th November 1986, lot 119, together with another cup depicting Li Bai. A ‘Su Jin’ cup was sold three times at auction, twice in these rooms, 15th November 1983, lot 296, and 15th May 1990, lot 280, and a third time at Christie’s New York, 26th March 2010, lot 1397. For a blue and white cup of the same subject in the Palace Museum, Beijing, see Qing Shunzhi Kangxi qiao qinghua ci [Blue and white porcelains from the Shunzhi and Kangxi reigns of the Qing dynasty], Beijing, 2005, pl. 155.