Research on "Records of Famous Paintings Through the Ages" - (Volume 66)

Author: None
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Features: Since the 20th century, the Japanese have been the earliest to conduct research on The Record of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties, and have maintained an international leading position for a long time. This group of scholars, represented by Ono Katsuyoshi, Tetsuo Tanimura, Kazumasa Okamura, Shigefusa Nakamura, and Shujiro Shimaguchi, not only focused on fundamental research such as textual criticism and textual collation but also explored the author Zhang Yanyuan, the process of its compilation, and explained many important theoretical issues. However, due to an incomplete understanding of the book's manuscript situation, the organization and research by Japanese scholars also had unavoidable errors. In the first half of the 20th century, a large number of works on ancient Chinese art history by Chinese scholars emerged, which promoted the development of specialized research. In the 1930s and 1940s, works such as Fu Booshi's Theories of Chinese Painting, Wang Shixiang's Studies on Chinese Painting Theory, and Li Changzhi's The System of Chinese Painting Theory and Its Criticism appeared. These three works on painting theory aimed to organize ancient Chinese painting literature and each had its unique characteristics. The excerpt of a text by Zong Baihua in this collection echoes the lingering influence of Li Changzhi, almost serving as the finale of 20th-century Chinese research on The Record of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties and at the same time the prelude to research in the second half of the 20th century. Meanwhile, when discussing The Record of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties, Yu Shousong and Yu Jiaxi both directed their attention to the Qing Dynasty's Four Treasuries Academy officials and Zhou Zhongfu. Yu Shousong, in his Annotations on Book Catalogs of Calligraphy and Painting, first revealed that The Record of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties was a historical work, viewing it as the "ancestral book of the 'Four Histories'." The text by Yu Jiaxi included in this collection is from his Dialectical Exposition of the Four Treasuries Catalogue, where he cites two passages from The Record of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties: one summarizes the content of the book, and the other discusses its compilation process. Here, Yu completely agrees with Zhou Zhongfu's views without interruption.