National TreasureCommentary on the Military Strategy Chapter of The Great Brilliance of Huainan

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  • Ink on decorative paper
  • 24.0x842.4
  • Tang dynasty/7-8th century
  • Tokyo National Museum

This text stretches across the reverse of the second through nineteenth sheets of paper of the scroll Autumn Bushclover Anthology (J. Akihagi-jô). Huainan zi is a collection of twenty-one philosophical essays, largely inspired by Daoist thought, compiled during the Former Han dynasty (206 B.C.- A.D. 8) under the direction of Liu An (d. 122 B.C.), the prince of Huainan. Honglie is a special title used to show respect for Huainan zi. This decorous, standard-style text was copied out in Tang-dynasty (618-c. 907) China. Although the Autumn Bushclover Anthology is now seen as the front, the poems that comprise it were originally copied onto the back of Huainan zi. The fact that Emperor Fushimi (r. 1288-1298) brushed his colophon at the seams between each of the papers that make up this composite scroll indicates that he cherished this piece.

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