May You Soon Bear Noble Sons
This luxurious print contains a rebus, or visual pun. The jujube tree (zaozi 棗子) evokes the phrase “May you soon bear noble sons” (zao sheng guizi 早生貴子), an auspicious wish for a newly married couple. Prints like this were hung in the home for special occasions and often discarded after a single use, so very few survive. This is one of over one hundred examples recently acquired by The Met, a trove that provides a rare glimpse into eighteenth-century print culture.
Artwork Details
- 清乾隆 早生貴子圖 版畫
- Title: May You Soon Bear Noble Sons
- Period: Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Qianlong period (1736–95)
- Culture: China
- Medium: Hanging scroll; woodblock print; printed in black outline with printed and hand-painted color
- Dimensions: Image: 40 15/16 × 21 1/4 in. (104 × 54 cm)
Overall with mounting: 67 × 25 5/16 in. (170.2 × 64.3 cm)
Overall with knobs: 67 × 28 1/4 in. (170.2 × 71.8 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Purchase, Gift of Mrs. Samuel T. Peters, by exchange, 2025
- Object Number: 2025.358
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
Attributed to Leng Mei (Chinese, active 1677–1742)
1793
ca. 1700
Accession Number: 2025.417
Accession Number: 2025.385
Wang Duo (Chinese, 1592–1652)
dated 1649
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please contact us using the form below. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.