| The Night Revels of Minister Han Xizai is believed
to have originally been painted by the Southern Tang artist Gu Hongzhong for the
emperor Li Yu of that dynasty. Its purpose was to admonish one of
the leading ministers,
Han Xizai, who, though an able official, was nevertheless recalcitrant in
his duties, failing to appear on several occasions for his early morning
audiences with the emperor. It got to be common knowledge that this
was due to an excess of revelry with singsong girls and banquets held in
his own private apartments. The emperor, seeking to shame the
wayward minister into exhibiting greater decorum, assigned a painter to
attend the night-long parties as a secret informant, and to afterwards
recreate on silk the untoward behavior he had witnessed among the
officials present. It is said that Minister Han Xizai, after being
confronted with his misdeeds recorded in detail in the painting,
disregarded this tactful reprimand and continued his escapades up until
the fall of the Southern Tang to Song forces.
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