One Hundred Boys

A riotous profusion of boys fills a garden setting, play-acting the activities of adult scholar-officials but clearly in a raucous way. A procession of boys on hobby horses and a qilin parade through the center of the picture, representing a set of three brothers who have garnered the top three positions in the imperial examinations. At bottom left, boys scrutinize an ink painting of bamboo. A pavilion at the right holds a group of boys immersed in the recondite game of weiqi (go). Throughout, one can sense the joyful clamor as these young would-be scholars act out their ideal futures.

The theme of “one hundred boys” has a long history in Chinese auspicious imagery, bringing to mind abundance, fecundity, and the prosperous continuation of the family line. For this reason, it frequently appeared in art both vernacular and elite. This fine example, printed in multiple colors from multiple woodblocks, comes from the height of the print industry in eighteenth-century Suzhou.