FIVE ART CATALOGUES BY 19TH CENTURY KWANGTUNG ART COLLECTORS
CHUANG SHEN*
Introduction: Chinese Paintings and the Compilation of Art Catalogues
Although wall painting is the most historic form of Chinese painting, few of them survive today. With regard to other types of painting, Ku K'ai-chih's "Admonition of Court Ladies" (Nu-shih-chen t'u), a work executed in the fourth century Chin dynasty, is the earliest in date and exists in the form of a small handscroll. In the sixth century Sui dynasty, there appeared Chan Tzu-chien's "Spring Outing" (Yu-ch'un t'u), which is a large horizontal hanging scroll. During the seventh to ninth centuries T'ang dynasty, screens (both p'ing, unmovable; and chang, movable) were widely used.
Viewing these in terms of practicality, no matter whether the format is a horizontal handscroll, or a vertical hanging scroll, or even a folding screen, they are all paintings with a portable form. Due to this portability and their much smaller size in comparison with wall painting, there has appeared ever since the fourth century a large number of art collectors in China.
After the T'ang and the Sung dynasties, collecting ancient paintings became very popular; and when their collections grew to be quite sizable, art collectors began to feel a need to compile catalogues. According to documentary materials that are now known to us, the earliest painting catalogue is Pei Hsiao-yuan's "History of Imperial and Private Painting Collections in the Chen Kuan Era" (Chên-kuan kung-ssu hua-shih). This title, apparently dating from early T'ang, indicates that there was no clear-cut distinction between imperial and private collections, both being considered together for cataloguing purposes. However, by the Sung dynasty, we find this is no longer the case.
* Mr. Chuang Shen (S. C. Chuang) is BA (Taiwan) and MA (Princeton) and Lecturer in the Chinese Department of the University of Hong Kong.