39 cm.（15 3/8 in.）diam.

Decorated on a primarily turquoise-blue ground to the center of the interior with a Daoist scene of gentleman scholar，possibly Zhuangzi，one of the founders of Taoism，and two youthful attendants standing on a terrace below pine and rockwork and pointing to a vision of a Taoist palace in the clouds to the centre of the interior，the sides curving and rising from this scene and decorated with slender chilong and scrolling lotus below a slightly upward-angled rim with ascending and descending writhing dragons amidst cloud scrolls edged in copper，the exterior decorated in a dense design of scrolling multi-coloured lotus heads.
For a larger basin of identical shape and decorated on the exterior with the same lotus design and also showing a Daoist scene at the centre（Xiwangmu，the Queen Mother of the West），see Christie's New York，18 September 2014，Lot 601. For other basins with figural and Daoist scenes，see Beatrice Quette（Ed.）Cloisonné：Chinese Enamels from the Yuan，Ming and Qing Dynasties，New York，Paris，New Haven and London，2011，pp.135-139，figs. 7.10，7.14 and 7.18. The last illustrated was later sold at Christie's Hong Kong，1 June 2011，lot 3593.
Zhuangzi is the second great figure of the early Taoist school（along with Laozi）. He shares with Laozi the central concept of Tao as the principle underlying and governing all existence. However，he is not so much concerned with the Tao as a guide to life but as a way to transcend human life，which has a supreme value in itself. A philosophy of acceptance，Laozi teaches the Way of the world and the virtues of survival：humility，gentleness and non-striving. Zhuangzi，on the other hand，is indifferent to human society. He seeks neither to reform things nor to keep them as they are，but to rise above them. Zhuangzi ‘s central concern may be described as the finding of absolute happiness of transcending the distinction between one's self and the universe by perfect union with the Tao.

Price estimate:
HKD: 220,000 - 320,000
USD: 28,500 - 41,400

Auction Result:
HKD: 330,400