FIVE ART CATALOGUES
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The next catalogue completed soon after the Fêng-man-lou shu-hua-lu and Hsin-ch'ou hsiao-hsia-chi was Pan Chêng-wei's T'ing-fêng-lou shu-hua-chi. One paragraph in the preface is of particular importance here,
It was Tu Mu's Yü-i-pien which initiated the practice of selecting paintings and calligraphies belonging to masters of past dynasties, and cataloguing them in one chronicle. After that, the most distinguished works were Chu Ts'un-li's San-hu mu-nan and Chang Ch'ou's ## Ch'ing-ho shu-hua-fang **★✰★ · In our period, there was Sun Ch’êng-chê's Kêng-tzu hsiao-hsia-chi, in which in addition to his own collection, Sun also included records of other people's collections. Then there was Kao Shih-ch'ï's Chiang-ts'un hsiao-hsia-lu in which Kao entered details such as the material used (whether paper or silk), the format (album or scroll), the measurements (the length and breadth) of paintings that he had seen, and a full record of all his colophons was also given. Recently the minister Wu Yung-kuang has edited a catalogue entitled Hsin-ch'ou hsiao-hsia-chi in which he adopted the system set down by Sun Ch'êng-chê and Kao Shih-ch'i. He has also selected a few items from my own collection and included them in his work. Moreover, he urged me to compile a catalogue for my own collection and have it published. Thus, following his way, I edited this book.
In this preface by Pan, there are a few points worth our notice: Firstly, among the art catalogues compiled in the Ch'ing dynasty, he had only mentioned Sun Ch’êng-chê's Kêng-tzu hsiao-hsia-chi and Kao Shih-ch'i's Chiang-ts'un hsiao-hsia-lu. Based on this fact, either Pan was entirely ignorant of Pien Yung-yü's Shih-ku-t'ang hua-k'ao or at least he must have held it in low esteem. This attitude is no different from that shown by Wu and Yeh.
Secondly, although Pan Chêng-wei humbly admitted that the compilation methods of his T'ing-fan-lou shu-hua-chi followed that of Wu Yung-kuang's Hsin-ch'ou hsiao-hsia-chi, in fact, this was only a polite remark made by him. In the opening part of the Hsin-ch'ou hsiao-hsia-chi, it has been clearly stated that this catalogue was compiled by Wu Yung-kuang, but was collated jointly by his brother Wu Mi-kuang ✯ ✯ Ł. Ch’ü Shu-ch’ên # and Pan Chêng-wei. This means that in the course of compiling the Hsin-ch'ou hsiao-hsia-chi, Wu Yung-kuang had consulted Pan Chêng-wei.