A large famille verte 'Ladies' dish, Qing dynasty, Kangxi (1662-1722).

The story of the young scholar Zhang Sheng and Yingying’s love affair in the Romance of the Western Chamber had been a popular poetic subject throughout the Tang and Song dynasties, before being adapted for the stage in the Yuan (1271-1368). The play was then expanded by Yuan playwright Wang Shifu, and it is his enriched adaption of the romance that became the standard version. The play itself, though incredibly popular, was banned from the stage at various points during the Ming and Qing dynasties due to its suggestive descriptions and controversial perspectives. Visual depictions of scenes from the story were also very popular within ceramic and woodblock print design. Kangxi ceramic artists often used older illustrations of the play as source material; the elevated angle from which the viewer looks down at the scene on this plate, for example, is a typical device employed by narrative painters of the Song (960-1279).