Ink, one of a set of 16

Boxed sets of ink sticks were often commissioned to commemorate historic events and special occasions. One of these sticks bears an inscription recounting the emperor Qianlong's (r.1736-95) visit to West Lake in Zhejiang province in 1757. While there, he inspected and renumbered a set of sixteen lohan paintins that had survived since Tang times. Upon his return to Beijing, he commissioned the court painter Ting Kuang-peng to create a set of sixteen lohan paintings based on the earlier model. Each of these ink sticks bears an image of a lohan based directly on one of Ting's paintings. Each stick also bears an inscription enumerating the numerical order of each lohan existent from Tang times and the new numbering system imposed by the emperor. Each ink stick also includes two seals of the Qianlong emperor and a poem in the emperor's writing style.