CHINE - Fin Dynastie MING (1368 - 1644)
Ink and colors on silk, representing Confucius and his four students in a pavilion looking at a qilin representing the legend "xi shou huo lin". (Misses and restorations)
Size at sight : 94 x 58 cm
Framed
In the spring of 481 B.C., the man who managed the mountains for the ruler of the state of Lu captured a strange beast. He thought the beast was an omen and killed it. When Confucius saw it, he said, "It is a qilin, such a benevolent beast. It will only appear in the Golden Age, why did it appear now?"
After saying this, he hid his face and wept, so sad that he could not write the Annals of Spring and Autumn that he was working on, and Confucius died of depression about a year later.
