A historic 95-minute bidding war – the longest ever recorded at Sotheby's Hong Kong – ended on 10 April with an ancient cursive script by the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) calligrapher Rao Jie hammering for HK$213.5 million after more than 200 bids, 21 times its pre-sale estimate. Including the buyer's premium, the final price reached HK$250 million (US$32 million), setting a new record as the most valuable Chinese calligraphy ever sold at Sotheby's.
Measuring nearly 10 meters in length, the handscroll bears over 100 collector's seals, tracing its journey through the hands of discerning connoisseurs over more than seven centuries. Most notably, it once belonged to the Qing imperial collection and is recorded in two prestigious imperial catalogues of painting and calligraphy compiled during the Qianlong reign (1736–1795). Long absent from public view, the work resurfaced only recently at Sotheby’s Hong Kong.
The winning bid came from a phone bidder with paddle number 6889, represented by Steven Zuo, Head of Sotheby’s Classical Chinese Paintings Department. The result provides a much-needed boost to the Chinese art market, which has seen a decline in nine-figure sales since the pandemic.
Auctioneer Xichu Wang took to the rostrum for the record-long auction
Lot 2528 | Rao Jie | Calligraphy in Cursive Script, ink on paper, handscroll
29.8 x 599.1 cm
Frontispiece by Emperor Qianlong and with one seal of his
Inscribed on the wooden box by Ishikawa Shuntai
Signed Huagaidong Jiushi
Colophon by Xiang Yuanbian, Dou Mu and Ishikawa Shuntai and with one to two seals of his
With seventy collectors' seals in total
Provenance:
- Property from a private Japanese collection
Estimate: HK$10,000,000 - 20,000,000
Hammer Price: HK$213,500,000
Sold: HK$250,100,000
Auction House: Sotheby's Hong Kong
Sale: Fine Classical Chinese Paintings
Date: 10 April 2025
The scroll opens with an inscription by Emperor Qianlong: “Divinely Transmitted Purity,” a phrase that captures the spirit of Rao Jie’s calligraphy — bold, spontaneous, and full of vitality.
Active during the late Yuan and early Ming periods, Rao Jie was a scholar and influential calligrapher working in an era of political and cultural transition. This scroll, the longest surviving example of his work, transcribes two literary classics from renowned literati: Han Yu’s Song Meng Dongye Xu (Farewell to Meng Dongye) (802), which explores themes of unrecognized talent, and Liu Zongyuan’s Zi Ren Zhuan (The Tale of the Carpenter) (798), a parable offering insights into governance and moral responsibility.
While Rao Jie’s choice of texts may reflect his own frustrations and introspection during a time of upheaval, his calligraphy transforms prose into visual experience. His brushwork pulses with rhythm and freedom, almost like a dance of ink breathing vitality. Each fluid, sweeping stroke carries emotional weight, creating not only writing but a kinetic expression of thought — a form of abstract visual art in its own right.
Emperor Qianlong’s inscription, meaning "Divinely Transmitted Purity"
At the far end of the scroll appear ti-ba — colophons added by later admirers. This tradition, especially prominent in Song-Yuan handscrolls, turns the piece into a living chronicle, with each generation adding its voice to the artwork’s evolving story.
The collector’s seals trace the scroll’s journey through the hands of eminent connoisseurs, including Xiang Yuanbian from the Ming dynasty, before it entered the Qing imperial collection under Emperor Qianlong.
There, it earned a place in the Shiqu Baoji (Collected Treasures of the Stony Moat), an imperial inventory documenting the emperor’s most prized artworks. Works recorded in this prestigious catalogue have long been highly sought after by generations of collectors, remain deeply revered even today.
In 1747, during the twelfth year of Qianlong’s reign, the emperor selected 236 masterpieces from the imperial collection — spanning the Three Kingdoms to the Ming dynasty — to be reproduced as stone rubbings for the renowned Model Books of the Three Rarities Hall. Rao Jie’s scroll was among them, cementing its place as one of the most treasured works in Chinese art history. Today, the rubbings are preserved in the Palace Museum in Taipei.
(Left) The present lot; (Right) Model Books of the Three Rarities Hall, collection of the Palace Museum in Taipei
(Left) The present lot; (Right) Model Books of the Three Rarities Hall, collection of the Palace Museum in Taipei
The scroll’s next royal steward was Prince Gong (1833–1898), who housed it in his opulent mansion in Beijing. After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, as political upheaval scattered countless imperial treasures, the scroll followed a different path.
His heir, Puwei (1880–1936), a cousin of the last emperor Puyi, sold it through Yamanaka & Co. in a desperate attempt to fund an unsuccessful effort to restore the Qing court. Many of the treasures sold during this time found their way to Japan, including this scroll, which became part of the collection of Ishikawa Shuntai (1842–1931), a renowned figure of Shin Buddhism in Japan. From there on, the scroll remained in Japan.