AN INSIDE PAINTED AGATE 'BUTTERFLY AND CARP' SNUFF BOTTLE By Wang Xisan, signed and dated renxu, corresponding to 1982 Of ovoid shape, the agate finely painted on the inside on one side with five butterflies, inscribed die wu (butterfly dance), signed renxu qiuyue Wang Xisan zuo yu Yihuzhai (Made at the One Bottle Studio by Wang Xisan in Autumn of the renxu year, corresponding to 1982), the reverse with carps swimming among aquatic plants, accompanied by the inscription yuyou qiandi (fish swimming in the shallows) and similarly signed. 6cm high, stopper (2). Footnotes: 壬戌年（1982）　王習三作瑪瑙內畫「蝶舞」及「魚游淺底」鼻煙壺 「王習三作」款 Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 2 May 1996, lot 1292 來源： 香港蘇富比，1996年5月2日，拍品編號1292 The painting of butterflies and fish on this bottle together evokes two of the Zhuangzi's most celebrated philosophical images. The butterflies recall the famous 'butterfly dream' story, in which Zhuangzi wakes from dreaming he is a butterfly and asks whether he is a man who dreamed of being a butterfly or a butterfly now dreaming of being a man - a parable of fluid identity, the relativity of perspective, and the Daoist embrace of transformation. The fish speak to several passages, most memorably the debate on the Hao River bridge, where Zhuangzi intuits the happiness of fish in the water, asserting a mode of knowing that transcends logical disputation and serving as a reminder to release conceptual tools once understanding is reached. Held together on a single object, the two motifs form a quietly coherent program: be willing to dissolve the fixed self, and move through the world with the unselfconscious ease of a creature perfectly at home in its element. 壺身一側繪彩蝶翩飛，題「蝶舞。壬戌秋月王習三作於一壺齋」，另一面畫錦鋰暢泳海澡間，書「魚游淺底。一壺齋主人」。彩蝶配游魚，暗中附和莊子的道家哲理，不禁讓人想起《齊物論》中「不知周之夢為胡蝶與，胡蝶之夢為周與？」以及《秋水》中「子非魚，安知魚之樂？」等句，折射壺主對周莊逍遙自在、物我雙忘之嚮往。 For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing