Xuanhe Huapu

Author: Yue Renzhu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-04-01
Features: This is the first systematic book in Chinese history to rank and evaluate courtly paintings. The book is divided into ten categories: Taoist and Buddhist paintings, figures, palace scenes, ethnic minorities, dragons and fish, landscapes, animals, birds and flowers, ink bamboo, and vegetables and fruits. It widely collects various painting theories and historical records, combining the scrolls stored in the imperial collection, and ranks painters chronologically. The preface to the Xuanhe Huapu states: "This collection includes 231 famous painters from the Jin and Wei dynasties to the present, totaling 6,396 scrolls, which are divided into ten categories and ranked according to their historical order." While there have been many works ranking and evaluating paintings before, none are as detailed and comprehensive as this book. Moreover, ranking such a large number of painters and scrolls has never been done before. One striking feature of this book is its rich historical evidence. The painters ranked in the book are all represented in the imperial collection, with the least having one scroll, the most having several, ten, dozens, or even over two hundred. Paintings that are not considered masterpieces are not ranked, and those not stored in the imperial collection are certainly excluded. The author avoids vague or speculative discussions. Clearly, the author not only thoroughly historical critiques of painters but was also very familiar with the secret imperial collection of scrolls under Emperor Huizong of Song. This reminds one of the Tang Dynasty book critic Zhang Huaiquan, who wrote the Shu Duan. Zhang served as a Hanlin Academician under Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and could have had access to the imperial library. However, in the Shu Duan·Commentary, he lamented: "Zhang Huaiquan regrets not being able to visit the imperial library to view famous works, only toiling over what he had not heard of and yearning for what he had not seen." This shows that he wished to see the imperial collection but could not. In contrast, the author of this Huapu has no such regrets. They ranked painters based on the secret imperial collection of scrolls.