BOOK REVIEWS
237
on the one hand, as a tool-reference for the understanding of the developments of styles of seal-carving in China, and on the other hand, ensure their capability to differentiate the forgeries from the genuine seals, so contributing to a real connoisseurship in a specialized knowledge affiliated to Chinese painting.
The Seals of Chinese Painters and Collectors of the Ming and Ch'ing periods, first published in 1940 in Shanghai entitled Maler und sammler-stempel aus der Ming-und-ch'ing Zeit, jointly edited by a German scholar, Victoria Contag, and a Chinese specialist in Chinese painting, Chi-ch'ien Wang, from the above mentioned viewpoint, happens to be the earliest tool-reference of this kind ever published in this century.
As regards the practical aspects of this book, edited by scholars of two nations, the following are worth noting. Firstly, it contains 9,000 selected seals, an amount which has never been collected by others in any book of this nature. Secondly, names of artists and collectors are arranged in alphabetical order as well as by Chinese stroke system, thus giving ready access to European or Chinese readers. Thirdly, each seal is clearly numbered and deciphered. Finally, a brief but sufficient information about each artist or collector is provided bilingually by German and Chinese texts.
There remain some minor disputable questions; see my other book review on the same work in Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol. IX, No. 2 (1971, Hong Kong University Press). But despite being overshadowed by a later compilation of a similar nature; Seals and Signatures of Artists, Calligraphers and Connoisseurs since the Tsin Period, a publication of the Kai-fa Co. Ltd., 1964, Hong Kong, still it serves as a most useful tool-reference for not only students of Chinese painting but also museum curators and private collectors.
CHUANG SHEN
University of Hong Kong, 1975.
BALLAD OF THE HIDDEN DRAGON, by M. Dolezelová-Velingerová and J. I. Crump, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1971. 128 pp., introduction, dramatis personae, text, survey of editions, appendix, bibliography, glossary, £3.50.
Much of the original texts of Chinese novels and dramas have lately been translated from Chinese into either English or other
BOOK REVIEWS
237
on the one hand, as a tool-reference for the understanding of the developments of styles of seal-carving in China, and on the other hand, ensure their capability to differentiate the forgeries from the genuine seals, so contributing to a real connoisseurship in a specia- lized knowledge affiliated to Chinese painting.
The Seals of Chinese Painters and Collectors of the Ming and Ch'ing periods, first published in 1940 in Shanghai entitled Maler und sammler-stempel aus der Ming-und-ch'ing Zeit, jointly edited by a German scholar, Victoria Contag, and a Chinese specialist in Chinese painting, Chi-ch'ien Wang, from the above mentioned view- point, happens to be the earliest tool-reference of this kind ever published in this century.
As regards the practical aspects of this book, edited by scholars of two nations, the following are worth noting. Firstly, it contains 9,000 selected seals, an amount which has never been collected by others in any book of this nature. Secondly, names of artists and collectors are arranged in alphabetical order as well as by Chinese stroke system, thus giving ready access to European or Chinese readers. Thirdly, each seal is clearly numbered and deciphered. Finally, a brief but sufficient information about each artist or col- lector is provided bilingually by German and Chinese texts.
There remain some minor disputable questions; see my other book review on the same work in Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol. IX, No. 2 (1971, Hong Kong University Press). But despite being overshadowed by a later compilation of a similar nature; Seals and Signatures of Artists, Calligraphers and Connoisseurs since the Tsin Period, a publication of the Kai-fa Co. Ltd., 1964, Hong Kong, still it serves as a most useful tool-reference for not only students of Chinese painting but also museum curators and private collectors.
CHUANG SHEN
University of Hong Kong, 1975.
BALLAD OF THE HIDDEN DRAGON, by M. Dolezelová - Velingerová and J. I. Crump, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1971. 128 pp., introduction, dramatis personae, text, survey of editions, appen- dix, bibliography, glossary, £3.50.
Much of the original texts of Chinese novels and dramas have lately been translated from Chinese into either English or other
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