FIVE ART CATALOGUES
91
editing method. In it, Wang not only accepted the method introduced by Chu Ts'un-li by recording faithfully all the inscriptions and colophons that appeared on each painting; but more than that, he also entered details about the quality and format of each painting, which were things Chu had overlooked.
In early Ch'ing, Pien Yung-yü's Shih-ku-t’ang hua-k’ao was the more significant in terms of editing methods. To begin with, Pien not only conformed with Chu Ts'un-li and Wang Ko-yü in entering details of the quality and format, as well as the inscriptions and colophons of a painting, but also recorded all the seals stamped on or outside it. It should be noted here that although the use of seals could be traced back to the T'ang dynasty, it seems that its common use by artists started only in early Ming. In particular, after Ho Chên's Wan School took over the place of the Chê School (founded by Wên Chia, compiler of the Chin-shan-fang shu-hua-chi) and engraved a large number of seals for the scholars during the transitional period of the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, the use of seals became so popular that it surpassed all such practices in the past. It is very likely that in view of the growing importance of seals, Pien Yung-yü began to record the seals that appeared on old paintings. His ways of recording seals are as follows:
(1) keeping to the original order of the seal text, he rearranged them by recording the transcriptions in the regular script. (2) he denoted the original shape of the seals by enclosing the transcriptions recorded in the regular script in squares or rectangles.
(3) beneath the seals, he added explanatory notes in small characters to indicate the method used in carving the seal (The characters carved in relief are called chu-wên and the incised ones are called pai-wên).
Another major contribution made by Pien Yung-yü in the matter of methods employed in the compilation of art catalogues was the recording of sizes of paintings and calligraphies. Although Wang Ko-yü had already recorded the quality of paintings in his San-hu-wang hua-lu, nevertheless he had neglected the importance of the measurements. This problem, overlooked by art catalogue compilers in the Ming dynasty, was not given full attention until Pien Yung-yü compiled the Shih-ku-t'ang shu-k'ao and Shih-ku-t'ang hua-k'ao in early Ch'ing. Therefore Pien's work, a combination...
FIVE ART CATALOGUES
91
editing method. In it, Wang not only accepted the method introdu- ced by Chu Ts'un-li by recording faithfully all the inscriptions and colophons that appeared on each painting; but more than that, he also entered details about the quality and format of each paint- ing, which were things Chu had overlooked.
In early Ch'ing, Pien Yung-yü's Shih-ku-t’ang hua-k’ao A†† was the more significant in terms of editing methods. To begin with, Pien not only conformed with Chu Ts'un-li and Wang Ko-yü in entering details of the quality and format, as well as the inscrip- tions and colophons of a painting, but also recorded all the seals stamped on or outside it. It should be noted here that although the use of seals could be traced back to the T'ang dynasty, it seems that its common use by artists started only in early Ming. In particular, after Ho Chên's Wan School ✯ took over the place of the Chê School ** (founded by Wên Chia, compiler of the Chin-shan- fang shu-hua-chi) and engraved a large number of seals for the scholars during the transitional period of the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties, the use of seals became so popular that it surpassed all such practices in the past. It is very likely that in view of the grow- ing importance of seals, Pien Yung-yü began to record the seals that appeared on old paintings. His ways of recording seals are as follows:
(1) keeping to the original order of the seal text, he rearranged them by recording the transcriptions in the regular script. (2) he denoted the original shape of the seals by enclosing the transcriptions recorded in the regular script in squares or rectangles.
(3) beneath the seals, he added explanatory notes in small characters to indicate the method used in carving the seal (The characters carved in relief are called chu-wên ✯ ✯ and the incised ones are called pai-wên x).
Another major contribution made by Pien Yung-yü in the mat- ter of methods employed in the compilation of art catalogues was the recording of sizes of paintings and calligraphies. Although Wang Ko-yü had already recorded the quality of paintings in his San-hu-wang hua-lu, nevertheless he had neglected the importance of the measurements. This problem, overlooked by art catalogue compilers in the Ming dynasty, was not given full attention until Pien Yung-yü compiled the Shih-ku-t'ang shu-k'ao and Shih-ku- l'ang hua-k'ao in early Ch'ing. Therefore Pien's work, a combina-
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