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| 132 Extensive research on this important documentary painting is available on request. |
A rare Imperial Court painting in ink and colour on silk which depicts a successful attack by the Qing Imperial Army on a Nianfei rebel encampment close to a walled city. A cavalry charge is led by two senior commanders, whose yellow jackets imply they hold princely rank, named as Senggelinqin (?-1865), popularly known as Prince Seng, and Heng Ling. The battle depicted is most probably Senggelinqin’s victory over the Nianfei in the Yingzhou area of Anhui province in the Spring of 1863. A total of 22 senior and middle-ranking officers are named and care has been taken to represent uniforms, standards and insignia with accuracy.
Circa 1860-5 On his death in battle in 1865, Senggelinqin was canonised under the title Zhong, honored in the Imperial Ancestral Hall and received the dignity of a temple in Beijing expressly built to commemorate him. For a discussion of another in presumably the same series of paintings, see Brown and Chou, Transcending Turmoil: Painting at the Close of China’s Empire 1796-1911, no. 5. |