Les Fêtes nocturnes de Han Xizai

The story behind this handscroll is a piece of court espionage. In the 10th century Han Xizai was a gifted minister of the Southern Tang, a small kingdom in southern China, and his ruler Li Yu was thinking of promoting him but had heard the man spent his nights in wild parties. So the emperor sent his court painter, Gu Hongzhong, to attend one, watch closely, and rebuild the whole evening from memory as a report. What Gu produced reads right to left across five scenes: guests listening to a woman play the pipa, a kind of lute; a dance; a quiet rest; more music; a farewell. Han Xizai sits through it all in a tall black hat, watchful and withdrawn. The scroll now in Beijing is not the original but a faithful copy made under the later Song dynasty, a couple of centuries on, which is how the composition survives at all.