Wu Changshuo Painting Collection (Imitation Ancient Handmade Luxury Bound Color Illustration Version, Volumes 1 and 2) (Imitation Ancient Handmade Luxury Bound Color Illustration Version)

Author: Wu Changshuo
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-01-01
Features: Wu Changshuo (1844-1927) lived in an era of great turmoil and transformation in China. Four years before his birth in 1840, the Opium War broke out, and the cannons of imperialism shattered the doors of ancient China, bringing profound suffering to the Chinese people while also igniting a surge of heroic and tenacious anti-imperialist struggles among the masses. At the same time, due to the relentless encroachment of imperialist economic power, the socio-economic foundation of China underwent changes, gradually transforming from a feudal society into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. When Wu Changshuo was seven years old (1850), the largest peasant uprising in Chinese history—the Taiping Rebellion—erupted. The revolutionary wave swept across the nation, including his hometown. Later, after the Second Opium War, the Sino-French War, and the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government suffered repeated defeats. This was followed by successive territorial cessions and indemnities, creating a perilous situation where imperialism sought to carve up China. Thus, the Chinese people engaged in a relentless and self-started anti-imperialist struggle at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Although the Xinhai Revolution seemingly achieved victory, the fruits of the revolution still fell into the hands of the feudal landlord class, leading to a situation of northern and southern warlord feudal division and prolonged civil strife, plunging the nation into chaos and hardship. It wasn’t until several years before Wu Changshuo’s death that the May Fourth Movement occurred, when the Chinese working class stepped onto the political stage. Shortly after, the Communist Party of China was founded, and the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolutionary struggles of the Chinese people received correct leadership, marking the beginning of the fiery and passionate New Democratic Revolution. In the very year of his death, the Second Civil War broke out, further deepening the development of the Chinese revolution. During this period, due to the rapid transformation of the socio-economic foundation, the superstructure based on it—such as China’s cultural science, literature, and arts—underwent significant changes as well. Among these, the development of academic research in fields like textual criticism and epigraphy also had a considerable impact on literature and art at the time.