Nephew’s manuscript, 28.3 cm long and 75.5 cm wide, The first year of Tang Qianyuan (758), 234 characters, National Palace Museum, Taipei
Artist’s name: Yan zhenqing
Title: Nephew’s Manuscript
Date: The first year of Tang Qian yuan (758)
Origin: China
Material: Paper
Size: Length 28.3 cm, width 75.5 cm
Current location: Taipei National Palace Museum
Portrait of Yan Zhenqing
Creative Background
In the fourteenth year of Emperor Xuanzong’s Tianbao (755), An Lushan rebelled, and the “Anshi Rebellion” broke out. Yan Zhenqing, the prefect of Pingyuan, contacted his elder brother Yan Gaoqing, the prefect of Changshan, to attack the rebels. In the first month of the following year, the rebel army Shi Siming captured Changshan. Yan Gaoqing and his youngest son Jiming were arrested and killed successively. More than 30 members of Yan’s family were killed. In the first year of Qianyuan (758) of Emperor Suzong of Tang Dynasty, Yan Zhenqing ordered people to go to Hebei to search for Ji Ming’s skull and bring it back. When he wrote the composition, he couldn’t help it with grief and indignation, and finished this manuscript in one go.
Art appreciation:
The knot “Manuscript of the Sacrifice of Nephews” breaks the ethereal characteristics of Juanxiu with dense knots and slightly longer glyphs since the Jin and Tang Dynasties, forming an open posture