BOOK REVIEWS
"A THOUSAND PEAKS AND MYRIAD RAVINES, by CHU-TSING LI, Zurich Artibus Asiae, 1974 (Vol. 1, pp. xi + 319, Vol. 11, 104 plates, signatures and seals, maps)
In studying the history of Chinese art, particularly that of painting, Professor Chu-tsing Li of the University of Kansas is an active scholar. Formerly his main field of study was the Yuan Dynasty (1280-1368); and for this period his thorough studies on Chao Meng-fu (1254-1322), Tsao Chih-po (1272-1355) and Hsueh Ch'uang (active ca. mid-14th century), as well as a general, but extensive, study about a group of artists active in the late Yüan period in Soo-chou area, are all highly regarded. However, in studying the history of Chinese painting, he seems now no longer to confine himself to individuals of the Yuan Dynasty but has begun to focus on other aspects of the later periods of Chinese art history, c.f. his latest monographs on Ting Yun-peng and Chin Nung (1687-1765). Following this, his latest publication; A Thousand Peaks and Myriad Ravines, a voluminous work in two volumes, deals, with the exception of one painting by a late Yüan artist, many different types of Chinese paintings of either Ming or the Ch'ing Dynasties. It was published in 1974.
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Beginning from the late 19th century, when private collecting of Chinese art reached its climax, in the East as well as the West, a detailed illustrated catalogue, more commonly edited by a specialist in the field rather than by the collector himself, was published. A few examples for ancient Chinese bronzes are those essential works contributed by Professors Kosaku Hamada,1 Yoshito Harada,2 and Sueji Umehara3 in Japan, and those works by Professors Bernhard Karlgren,4 Gustav Ecke, and Chen Meng-chia in America or other countries; all well-edited bronze catalogues on private collections. For archaic Chinese jade, the catalogue produced by Professor Alfred Salmony is also well known. In addition to those cited which always deal with a specific subject of Chinese art, there are also some catalogues characterized by dealing with more than two branches of Chinese art in the one publication, or separately devoted to Chinese art and art objects in another Asiatic country. For the former, the over-sized catalogues about the famous collection