The Lost Jin Empresses Scroll: Xiang Li’s Art Reborn

October 2, 2025 · Tripti Gore Chandorkar

The Creation of the Jin Empresses Scroll

In 2017, artist Xiang Li embarked on one of the most ambitious projects of her career. Invited by a patron to work in a southern Chinese city, she was given a private apartment that doubled as her studio, household support so she could focus entirely on painting, and complete creative freedom.

Over a year of dedicated work, Xiang Li brought to life an extraordinary vision: a monumental watercolor scroll depicting the long-forgotten empresses of China’s ancient Jin Dynasty.

When finished, the scroll measured an astonishing 12 meters long and 1.5 meters high. It was a breathtaking symphony of color, intricate costume detail, and storytelling—an homage to women whose stories have often remained untold in mainstream history. Each brushstroke became part of a daily ritual of devotion and creativity, transforming an unassuming apartment into a sanctuary of art.

Explore the Jin Empresses collection here.

The Vanishing

After the project ended, the completed scroll remained stored in the same apartment. But only months later, Xiang Li discovered the unimaginable: the scroll was gone.

Was it stolen? Misplaced? Hidden away in an underground art market or a private collection? No one knows. What Xiang Li does remember vividly is the heartbreak—the weight of realizing that a year of patient work and her deeply personal artistic offering had vanished.

In her grief, she phoned her daughter, Fei Wu, who was then living in the United States. Fei listened quietly and offered simple but life-anchoring wisdom:

“Mama, do not mourn too long. It is only a painting. What matters most is your health—and I’m relieved this call isn’t about that. Health is wealth.”

Those words became a lifeline. The loss was painful, but the artist chose to move forward.

A Glimpse Preserved

Thankfully, Xiang Li and Fei had arranged for professional photographs of the scroll before its disappearance. Those images are now priceless—they allow us to experience the scroll’s magnificence even though the original is lost.

Through them, the Jin Empresses still speak. Their robes shimmer with color; their stories unfold across painted palace halls and moonlit courtyards. Prints of these photos now give collectors and admirers a way to hold onto a piece of the vanished masterpiece.

Imagining Its Fate

Eight years have passed since the scroll disappeared. Its fate remains an unsolved mystery:

Was it sold quietly into the hidden channels of the global art market?
Does it hang in a private home, quietly treasured yet unseen by the world?
Or is it still rolled away somewhere, forgotten, waiting to be rediscovered?

We may never know. Yet this uncertainty has only added to the scroll’s legend.

A Second Birth

Loss did not silence Xiang Li’s creative spirit. Earlier this year, she set herself a new, daunting challenge: to recreate the lost scroll. Guided by memory, the surviving photographs, and a renewed sense of purpose, she began once again to paint the empresses of the Jin Dynasty.

For six intense months, her studio in Massachusetts filled with the quiet sound of brush against silk. Slowly, a new scroll emerged—an echo of the past, smaller in size yet entirely fresh, shaped by resilience and love.

Now complete, this reborn scroll is more than a replacement. It is a testament to the idea that art— like other acts of creation—even when stolen or lost, can be reborn stronger, deeper, and more infused with meaning.

The new, recreated watercolor scroll of Jin Empresses in Xiang Li’s studio in MA

Looking Ahead

To honor this extraordinary journey, Fei Wu and Xiang Li’s team would like to plan a reveal celebration and art exhibition. It will not only showcase the new scroll but also pay tribute to the courage and devotion behind it.

For me, this story is about more than a painting. It’s about endurance, healing, and the way beauty survives even in the face of loss. Once created, true art never fully disappears—it transforms, inspires, and finds its way back into the light.

(This article is based on stories and personal reflections shared by artist Xiang Li and her daughter, Fei Wu.)