Nüshizhen 女史箴

Nüshizhen 女史箴 "Admonitions to the court ladies", known as the "Admonitions Scroll", is an educational text with moral prescriptions or exhortations (zhen 箴) compiled by Zhang Hua 張華 (232-300) during the early Jin period 晉 (265-420).

The text is most famous in its illustrated shape in the horizontal scroll Nüshizhen tu juan 女史箴圖卷 painted by Gu Kaizhi 顧愷之 (c. 346-c. 407). It demonstrated the ideal behaviour of females with the help of ancient stories. Of the original 11 illustrations of the scroll, only nine are preserved. The received painting, going back to a Tang period 唐 (618-907) copy of the original, was in 1900 robbed by the British army and brought to London, where it is today kept by the British Museum.

The text is also known from a calligraphy written by Zhao Ji 趙佶 (i.e. Emperor Huizong 宋徽宗, r. 1100-1125, of the Song dynasty 宋, 960-1279) and Xiang Yuanbian 項元汴 (1525-1590) from the Ming period 明 (1368-1644).

The painting of Gu Kaizhi is mentioned in quite a few ancient books on painting, like Huashi 畫史, Xuanhe huapu 宣和畫譜, Qinghe shuhua fang 清河書畫舫, Nigulu 妮古錄, Shigutang shuhua huikao 式古堂書畫彙考, Daguanlu 大觀錄, Peiwenzhai shuhua pu 佩文齋書畫譜, Molü huiguan 墨綠彙觀 or Shiqu baoji 石渠寶笈.

Another surviving Nüshizhen text was compiled by Pei Wei 裴頠 (267-300). Longer than this one, but shorter then Zhang Hua's Nüshizhen is Huangfu Gui's 皇甫規 (104-174) Nüshizhen 女師箴 from the Later Han period 後漢 (25-220 CE).

A translation of Zhang Hua's text can be found in Shane McCausland (2003), First Masterpiece of Chinese Painting: The Admonitions Scroll (London: British Museum Press).