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CHUANG SHEN
tion of old merits found in the Ming period art catalogues — the recording of quality and format of paintings, as well as inscriptions and colophons that appeared on them — and innovations of his own — the recording of measurements and seals — could be said to be the first complete art catalogue in the history of development of art catalogue editing systems. Later on, even the Shih-chü pao-chi
*** (The first part was completed in the 10th year of the Chien Lung era, 1745; the second part, in the 58th year of the Chien Lung era, 1793, and the third part, in the 22nd year of the Chia Ching era, 1817), an art catalogue of the Ch'ing imperial household, followed exactly the editing methods introduced by Pien.
It can thus be said that before the Wan Li era of the Ming dynasty, the editing methods of Chinese art catalogues were mainly descriptive, whereas after the Wan Li era, the stress was shifted to documentary. The Ming compilers' contribution to the compilation of art catalogues lay in their inauguration of recording colophons and inscriptions on paintings, as well as the quality and format of all paintings. The Ch'ing compilers' contribution, on the other hand, was the introduction of records of seal text on the painting, as well as the measurements of all paintings. It was only when such essential elements as inscriptions and colophons, seals, quality, size, and format etc. were all fully recorded that an art catalogue could be said to have possessed all the necessary requirements.
Although Pien Yung-yü's Shih-ku-t’ang shu-k’ao and Shih-ku-t’ang hua-k’ao, both completed in the 21st year of the K'ang Hsi era, were the most perfect works in the history of development of art catalogue compilation, some other art catalogues that were completed after the publication of Pien's works still adhered to the traditional editing methods used before the Wan Li era. For instance, there were Tso Lang's San-wan-liu-ch'ien-ch'ing-hu-chung hua-ch'uan-lu
*# (completed in the 60th year of the Chien Lung era, 1795); Shêng Ta-shih's ★± Ch'i-shan wo-yu-lu A4 (first completed in the 21st year of the Tao Kuang era, 1833); and Huang Ch'ung-hsing's
Tsao-hsin-lou tu-hua-chi ******* in which no record
* There is no date of completion. However, according to Tan Ting-hsien's ### preface dated in the 27th year of the Kuang Hsü era ✰✰ (1901), he was an old friend of Wang Ch'ung-hsing. Thus, it can be deduced that both were active during the Tung Chih and Kuang Hsü eras.