The wisdom in the wood

The extravagant lifestyle of the Jia family in the great 18th-century novel Dream of the Red Chamber comes vividly to life in its descriptions of feasting, dressing, travel, and domestic spaces.

One chapter recounts the lavish gifts presented for the 80th birthday of Granny Jia, the family's emotional anchor and center of power. Among them is a 12-panel folding screen of exceptional craftsmanship, decorated with pictorial designs created using the costly kesi (cut-silk) tapestry technique. Granny Jia orders that the screen be carefully stored and not moved.

When reading the novel, one can only imagine what such a screen might have looked like. Granny Jia calls it "of the finest quality".

Today, visitors to the Tsinghua University Art Museum in Beijing can see a screen of a similar size and comparable magnificence.