Incense Burner Featuring Twenty-four Filial Exemplars

Creation background
Filial piety has been one of the most valued virtues in the Chinese culture. There have been many literary classics praising and promoting this virtue in ancient China. The Confucius classic The Twenty-four Filial Exemplars (二十四孝) is an important one among them. Starting from the structure of the Chinese character of filial piety “孝”, this book explains that this character itself is a perfect elaboration on the relations between parents and children as it has “老” meaning parents above and “子” referring to children below. Another Chinese literary classic The Book of Songs (诗经) also states that the kindness parents give to children is enormous as they’ve done their best to breed, care for and educate their children.
By combining the craftsmanship of sliver inlaying on black copper with the most valued virtue of the Chinese people, the artisan hopes to further promote the virtue of filial piety that has been practiced by the Chinese in the past 5000 years.

Interpretation
With a beautiful clear-cut outline, this item has the so-called “elephant legs”, “crane ears” and a “gourd lid”, presenting an optimal combination of decorum and liveliness. When it comes to decoration, there is a clear distinction between main and subordinary patterns. The main motifs of the twenty-four filial exemplars on a foundation of 卍 patterns, coupled with fret patterns and auspicious motifs of clouds and the “Covert Eight Immortals”, namely, the eight treasures belonging to the eight immortals in Chinese mythology. As the largest item in the history of silver inlaying on black copper, this piece of artwork has witnessed breakthrough on techniques of assembling silver-inlayed pieces.