Double-gourd vase with fish

The sand-tempered base and rough surface of the glaze on this work suggest that it was made at a peripheral kiln. The double-gourd shape of Jiajing-Wanli wucai wares sometimes appeared with a square lower portion, symbolically representing the cosmic belief that tianyuan difang ("heaven is round, earth square"). For the border on the lip and the shoulder, blue was used, while the lotus and fish on the body were rendered in red, green, yellow, brown, and lavender. Typically, vases of this type expressed Daoist ideology. Here, for example, the gourd shape is associated with Li Tieguai, one of the Eight Immortals (ZGM Quanji 1988 vol. 3: pl. 113).