# Children at Play

- By: Xia Kui (Chinese, active c. 1405–1445)
- Date: 1508
- Medium: hanging scroll; ink and color on silk
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Painting: 62.5 x 113.7 cm (24 5/8 x 44 3/4 in.); Overall with knobs: 214 x 137 cm (84 1/4 x 53 15/16 in.)
- Culture: China, Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
- Credit line: Gift of Charles L. Freer
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1915.110)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1915.110/1915.110_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Sixteen children engage in scholarly, religious, and military activities, representing the popular “one hundred boys” theme expressing the wish for abundant, successful male offspring. Such paintings conveying auspicious wishes were often displayed during the New Year festival season.

Two older boys wear small crowns with red tassels. Another child with a mask holds a brush in one hand, a rice measure in the other. He stands on a low table imitating Kuixing, the God of Examinations and servant to the God of Literature.