Bǎozhāng dàifǎng lù 寶章待訪錄
A Record of Precious Calligraphies Awaiting a Visit by 米芾 (Mǐ Fú, 1051–1107, 宋, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
Mǐ Fú’s earliest formal connoisseur’s catalogue, completed in Yuányòu 1 (1086, bǐngyín). The book records calligraphic models held in the private collections of contemporary scholar-officials, arranged into two strict categories: mùdǔ 目睹 (“seen with one’s own eyes,” 54 entries headed by Wáng Xīzhī’s Xuěqíng tiè) and díwén 的聞 (“reliably heard of,” 29 entries beginning with Huáisù’s autograph preface). The work was presented in response to Tàizōng’s policy of having absorbed the works of the various conquered Five-Dynasties kingdoms into the imperial collection while leaving residual treasures in private hands — Mǐ’s purpose, as his preface states, was to record these dispersed treasures for future imperial fǎngqiú (search-and-acquisition).
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Bǎozhāng dàifǎng lù in one juàn, by Mǐ Fú of the Sòng. It records all the JìnTáng manuscripts in the hands of contemporary scholar-officials; completed in Yuányòu 1 (bǐngyín, 1086). The Shūlù jiětí gives “Bǎomò dàifǎng lù, two juàn” — divergent from this; we suspect Chén Zhènsūn is in error. The preface says: “Tàizōng absorbed the false kingdoms; the pictures and books were gathered in, yet among the people some still hold them; fearing the long passage and the loss of memory, I have made this in order to await visitation.” Two categories: mùdǔ and díwén. Mùdǔ begins with Wáng Xīzhī’s Xuěqíng tiè — 54 items; within these, Zhāng Zhī and Wáng Yì’s two pieces are annotated “not genuine,” apparently in the train of another piece held by Zhāng Zhíqīng. Díwén begins with the Táng-monk Huáisù’s Zìxù — 29 items. The general matter overlaps with the KR3h0022 Shūshǐ: the Shūshǐ is more detailed, this work is briefer. For example, on Wáng Xīzhī’s Láixì tiè, this book records “the Dīngs pawned it for 10,000 [cash] to Liáng Zǐzhì of Yùnzhōu”; the Shūshǐ records “pawned to the next-door great surname Jiǎ for 20,000, and after 15 years is still with the Jiǎ”; on the three Huáisù pieces, this book records seeing them in An Shīwén’s house, while the Shūshǐ records “in Yuányòu wùchén (1088), Gōngān brought them to my house and they stayed over a month — now they belong to Mr. Zhāng Dūn.” The dates of these reports all lie after the present book was completed — so the Shūshǐ is later and consequently more detailed. Yet some details — such as the Xiè Yì / Xiè An / Huán Wēn three pieces, on which the Shūshǐ records only Dòu Méng’s adjudication-seal, while this book also records a Zhōng Shàojīng-script seal — and the Chén Zhìyǒng colophon on the Guītián fù, where the Shūshǐ gives Kāichéng of a particular year and this book gives Kāichéng 5 — are mutually corrective. We therefore record both together for collation.
Abstract
The Bǎozhāng dàifǎng lù is Mǐ Fú’s earliest formal connoisseur’s catalogue and the more orderly companion to the rangier KR3h0022 Shūshǐ. Its bipartite arrangement — mùdǔ / díwén — established a model that Northern Sòng and later cataloguing literature adopted as a standard. Its dating to 1086 (Yuányòu 1) makes it the first Sòng catalogue to record the private dispersal of calligraphies from the imperial collections of the southern kingdoms after the Sòng consolidation. The Shūshǐ updates its data on specific items some 10–20 years later, allowing modern scholars to chart the movement of individual pieces between collections in the late Northern Sòng. Chén Zhènsūn’s Shūlù jiětí gives the title as Bǎomò dàifǎng lù in two juàn; the Sìkù editors regarded the one-juàn title Bǎozhāng dàifǎng lù as authoritative.
Translations and research
- Ledderose, Lothar. Mi Fu and the Classical Tradition of Chinese Calligraphy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979.
- Sturman, Peter Charles. Mi Fu: Style and the Art of Calligraphy in Northern Song China. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.
- Cao Baolin 曹寶麟. Mǐ Fú píngzhuàn 米芾評傳. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press, 1997.
- No standalone Western-language monograph. Treated in all the major Mǐ Fú studies.