Dish depicting The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, anonymous, c. 1730 - c. 1745
The decoration on this dish depicts the story of The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, the romance between Niulang and Zhinu. It also refers to a classic Chinese proverb: ‘men plough, women weave.’ This applies not only to the practical male-female division of labour, but also to the place of women in society as a whole