Plaque depicting a scene from the Strange Tales from Liaozhai

The hair ornament of the woman next to the scholar behind his desk betrays that she is actually a fish. As a reward for his kindness, each night the fish assumes the form of a beautiful woman who keeps him company. The first owner of the plaque was Jean Theodore Royer (1737-1807), a Dutch sinologist and collector of Chinese objects. Whether he was familiar with the story behind the depiction is open to question.