FIVE ART CATALOGUES

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In a word, during the thousand years between the Sung and the Ch'ing dynasties, documentary records of calligraphies and paintings of past dynasties were never compiled by following editing principles other than these two: either joint or separate. Among the above listed Ch'ing art catalogues, five of them conformed with the separate principle, while eighteen others followed the joint principle. Thus from the ratio of 1:3.6 shown between the two groups, it is clear that although these two editing principles both made their appearance in the Sung dynasty, by the Ch'ing period, catalogues that conformed with the joint principle by far out-numbered those that followed the separate principle.

The Kwangtung Art Catalogues

II

The compilation of the catalogues for the five Kwangtung collections is, in fact, closely related to the above-mentioned editing principles: either joint or separate. For example, in his Fêng-man-lou shu-hua-lu (4 chuan, completed around the 20th year of the Tao Kuang era, 1840) Yeh Mêng-lung (1775-1832) adopted the principle of separating records of calligraphy and painting of past dynasties into two independent sections. However, in the other four catalogues, i.e., Wu Yung-kuang's (1773-1843) Hsin-ch'ou hsiao-hsia-chi (5 chuan, completed in the 21st year of the Tao Kuang era, 1841); Pan Chêng-wei's (1791-1850) T'ing-fan-lou shu-hua-chi (5 chuan, completed in the 23rd year of the Tao Kuang era, 1843) and supplement (2 chuan, completed around the 29th year of the Tao Kuang era, 1849); Liang T'ing-nan's (1796-1861) T'ing-hua-t'ing shu-hua-pa (4 chuan, completed in the 5th year of the Hsien Fêng era, 1855); and Kung Kuang-tao's (1832-1880) Yüeh-hsüeh-lou shu-hua-lu (5 chuan, completed in the 11th year of the Hsien Fêng era, 1861), the compilers all followed the principle of combining the records of calligraphy and painting together in one chronicle.

Thus, among the five art catalogues, only one was edited in accordance with the separate principle, and the other four all adhered to the joint principle. This ratio of 1:4 seems to be quite close to the 1:3.6 ratio shown between catalogues respectively edited by

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