Artist: Unknown

Date: Printed in 975, Five Dynasties (907-979)

Block printing

• Object Type：
  • CALLIGRAPHY
• Location：
  • The Painting and Calligraphy of Shanghai Gallery
• Tag：
  • sutra scroll leifeng pagoda regular script handscroll five dynasties 975 block printing

In the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, current Shanghai's major urban domain was part of the Wu-Yue State. Qian Chu, the King of the Wu-Yue State, commissioned the building of Huangfei Pagoda (present-day Leifeng Pagoda) on the south bank of the West Lake. After the pagoda's collapse in 1924, the scrolls concealed within its bricks were revealed. These scrolls were printed in the eighth year (975) of the Kaibao era. The poet Chen Zengshou acquired several scrolls. This scroll is one of such works. He amended the sutra scrolls with cinnabar ink and created paintings about the sutra. The scroll was circulated in Shanghai and Tianjin, where fellow literati were invited to inscribe poems and compose verses in response. They reminisce about the landscapes and customs of Zhedong and Zhexi (present-day Zhejiang province and southern areas of Jiangsu province) and praised the wisdom of Qian Chu's surrender of his territory to the Song dynasty so that the Wu-Yue State people were spared from the suffering of the war.