Déyúzhāi huàpǐn 德隅齋畫品
Painting Appraisals from the Déyú Studio by 李廌 (Lǐ Zhì, 1059–1109, 宋, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
A short one-juàn connoisseur’s notebook by Lǐ Zhì 李廌 (zì Fāngshū 方叔), the protégé of Sū Shì 蘇軾. The work appraises twenty-two named paintings that Lǐ examined in the official traveling box of Zhào Lìngzhī 趙令畤 during Zhào’s Xiāngyáng 襄陽 posting in Yuánfú 1 (1098). Each entry contains a brief preface-style description and a critical pǐntí 品題 (rank-and-evaluation). The prose belongs unmistakably to the SūHuáng circle: Yè Mèngdé’s Shílín shīhuà, comparing Lǐ to Kòu Guóbǎo 寇國寶, said Lǐ’s writing was “of the type that comes from the SūHuáng schoolyard.” The work is one of the earliest extant Northern Sòng connoisseur’s logbooks of a specific private collection.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Déyúzhāi huàpǐn in one juàn, by Lǐ Zhì of the Sòng. Zhì, zì Fāngshū, a man of Yángdí 陽翟; he was while young known to Sū Shì for his writing. Later when Shì served as zhī jǔ (controller of examinations), Zhì failed to obtain the jìnshì and died in poverty. Shì’s poem with the line “all my life I idly spoke of ancient battlefields / before my eyes I am dazzled by the five-coloured sun” — still circulating as a fixed anecdote — was written for Zhì. This compilation records twenty-two famous paintings, each with a preface-description and rank-evaluation. Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí records that in Yuánfú 1 (1098), Zhào Lìngzhī, holding office at Xiāngyáng, had Fāngshū appraise the paintings in his official travelling box — this is the present book, but with the title “Déǒutáng” 德偶堂 rather than “Déyúzhāi” 德隅齋. Examining Dèng Chūn’s Huàjì KR3h0030, it reads “Lǐ Fāngshū’s Déyúzhāi huà…” — so Chén’s record is in error. Zhì was originally good at composition, and so his words are all refined; the eddies and intents are each subtly inside the reasoning. Yè Mèngdé’s Shílín shīhuà on the poetry of Kòu Guóbǎo describes [Kòu] as “of the type that comes from the SūHuáng schoolyard” — Lǐ also fits this. Only in the entry on “Huáng Jiān’s Hánguī chūbào tú” [Watchful Tortoise Sunning], there appears a line “recently in the house of Prime Minister Yóu I saw a Huáng Jiān Tortoise” — but examining the Yuányòu and Shàoshèng eras, no prime minister had the surname Yóu; presumably a transmission error. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 45 (1780), third month. Chief compilers: Jì Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì.
Abstract
Lǐ Zhì (1059–1109; zì Fāngshū, of Yángdí 陽翟 in Hénán) was the prominent protégé of Sū Shì, hailed in Shì’s praise as a youth but unable to obtain the jìnshì and dying in poverty. His paintings appraisals come from one specific occasion: Zhào Lìngzhī 趙令畤 (1051–1134; zì Déluò 德麟, an imperial clansman in the orbit of Sū Shì) was at Xiāngyáng in 1098 and asked Lǐ to appraise the works in his official travelling collection. The text’s diction reflects the high SūHuáng (Sū Shì – Huáng Tíngjiān) prose style, and the work is a primary source for understanding how the Yuányòu-era literati circle appraised painting. The Sìkù editors corrected Chén Zhènsūn’s misnaming of the studio (Déǒutáng for Déyúzhāi) on the strength of Dèng Chūn KR3h0030; they also flagged a transmission error in the “Yóu” attribution under the Huáng Jiān entry, as no Yuányòu / Shàoshèng prime minister bears that surname.
Translations and research
- Bush, Susan. The Chinese Literati on Painting: Su Shih (1037–1101) to Tung Ch’i-ch’ang (1555–1636). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971 (treats Lǐ as a Sū-school witness).
- Egan, Ronald C. Word, Image, and Deed in the Life of Su Shi. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994 (on Lǐ in Sū’s circle).
- No standalone monographic study located. Collated in Yú Jiànhuá 俞劍華, Zhōngguó gǔdài huàlùn lèibiān, vol. 2.