Rice Culture, or Sowing and Reaping

Rice Culture, or Sowing and Reaping

Unidentified artist

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rice Culture depicts China's most fundamental economic activity: the cultivation and harvesting of rice. It is based closely on a set of texts and illustrations first created by the Southern Song court painter Lou Shou (1090–1162). The scroll, which preserves the final nine scenes from this series, bears an inscription, dated 1353, by a Mongolian named Hugechi that states that, after he acquired this painting, he had it remounted and presented it to the Grand Preceptor as a resource for establishing policy. The work not only documents the continuation of the Song-style court painting tradition but demonstrates how Mongol officials, in spite of their nomadic heritage, had come to appreciate both the fundamental nature of agriculture in Chinese society and its importance in sustaining the fiscal health of the dynasty.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rice Culture, or Sowing and ReapingRice Culture, or Sowing and ReapingRice Culture, or Sowing and ReapingRice Culture, or Sowing and ReapingRice Culture, or Sowing and Reaping

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.