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controlled the central government of the late Ming period. However, due to the expansion of the military power of the Manchus, the central activity of this Association from 1640, turns into the intellectuals' Anti-Manchu Movement.41 The fact that Hsiao Yün-ts'ung has been a member of the Reconquering Association can certainly help us to understand more about his life and personality. Although we know nothing about Hsiao's Anti-Manchu activity, a description of him as, “taking up the life of a hermit, he devoted himself to poetry, essay-writing, scholarship, and painting” (p. 177) is at least not the entire picture of Hsiao Yün-ts'ung's life. He must have been patriotic and full of the spirit of justice at one time. More likely it was only because of the triumph of the Manchus that he was forced to live as a recluse for his last 30 years. Professor Li has tended to ignore this key point in Hsiao Yün-ts'ung's life.
To conclude, in the 20th Century, in the 60 years since Stephen W. Bushell (1844-1908) published his classic Chinese Art42, due to the stimulation given by the opening of museums, the growth of private collections and a developed new interest in studying things oriental, a good number of histories of Chinese art have been written by scholars of different nationalities. None of them, however, has attempted a Chinese art history based on a single private collection,43 like Thousand Peaks and Myriad Ravines. This appears to be the first book of this kind, and despite those problems that the reviewer has already pointed out, and some other minor disputable points44, it is not inappropriate to call this book the first such publication. It is one, too, that is associated with a unique and earlier feature of writing Chinese art history, the introduction.
The reviewer suggests that as a Research Curator of the Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum in Kansas, with its far better known collection, Professor Li should publish another such history of Chinese art, or history of Chinese painting, based on that renowned assemblage.
University of Hong Kong, 1976
FOOTNOTES
CHUANG SHEN
1 For instance, the well-known collection of Mr. K. Sumitomo, is described in the illustrated and descriptive catalogue Senoku Seisho ★A★T (The collection of old bronzes of K. Sumitomo) first edited by Prof. Kosaku Hamada∗ ∗ ∗ and others in 1911. After being revised by Prof. Sueji Umehara∗ ∗ ∗ it was reprinted in 1934 in Kyoto. The additional catalogue concerning Mr. Sumitomo's new acquisitions on ancient
BOOK REVIEWS
339
controlled the central government of the late Ming period. How- ever, due to the expansion of the military power of the Manchus, the central activity of this Association from 1640, turns into the intellectuals' Anti-Manchu Movement.41 The fact that Hsiao Yün- ts'ung has been a member of the Reconquering Association can certainly help us to understand more about his life and personality. Although we know nothing about Hsiao's Anti-Manchu activity, a description of him as, “taking up the life of a hermit, he devoted himself to poetry, essay-writing, scholarship, and painting” (p. 177) is at least not the entire picture of Hsiao Yün-ts'ung's life. He must have been patriotic and full of the spirit of justice at one time. More likely it was only because of the triumph of the Manchus that he was forced to live as a recluse for his last 30 years. Professor Li has tended to ignore this key point in Hsiao Yün-ts'ung's life.
To conclude, in the 20th Century, in the 60 years since Stephen W. Bushell (1844-1908) published his classic Chinese Arta12, due to the stimulation given by the opening of museums, the growth of private collections and a developed new interest in studying things oriental, a good number of histories of Chinese art have been written by scholars of different nationalities. None of them, however, has attempted a Chinese art history based on a single private collec- tion,43 like Thousand Peaks and Myriad Ravines. This appears to be the first book of this kind, and despite those problems that the reviewer has already pointed out, and some other minor disputable points44, it is not inappropriate to call this book the first such publication. It is one, too, that is associated with an unique and earlier feature of writing Chinese art history, the introduction.
The reviewer suggests that as a Research Curator of the Nelson Gallery and Altkins Museum in Kansas, with its far better known collection, Professor Li should publish another such history of Chinese art, or history of Chinese painting, based on that renowned assemblage.
University of Hong Kong, 1976
FOOTNOTES
CHUANG SHEN
1 For instance, the well known collection of Mr. K. Sumitomo, is described in the illustrated and descriptive catalogue Senoku Seisho ★A★T (The collection of old bronzes of K. Sumitomo) first edited by Prof. Kosuku Hamada * # # # and others in 1911. After being revised by Prof. Sueiju Umehara ✯✯ ✯✯ it was reprinted in 1934 in Kyoto. The additional catalogue concernig Mr. Sumitomo's new acquisitions on ancient
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