Huàjiàn 畫鑒
A Mirror of Painting by 湯垕 (Tāng Hòu, zì Jūnzài 君載, hào Cǎizhēnzǐ 采真子, fl. 1322, 元, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
Tāng Hòu’s connoisseur’s manual of painting, in one juàn. The book opens with Wú Cáo Fúxīng 曹弗興 of the Three Kingdoms, continues with Jìn (Wèi Xié, Gù Kǎizhī), Six Dynasties (Lù Tànwēi and others; the Sìkù note flags as inconsistent the editorial decision to begin a “Six Dynasties” section after Wú and Jìn), Táng and Five Dynasties, SòngJīnYuán (the Yuán figures restricted to Gōng Kāi 龔開 and Chén Lín 陳琳, since Zhào Mèngfǔ and other contemporaries were not yet posthumous), foreign painting, and zálùn miscellaneous discussions. The work’s character is plainly that of a Yuán-era refinement of Mǐ Fú’s KR3h0021 Huàshǐ — authenticating brush-and-ink rather than evidential textual investigation. An anonymous Yuán colophon explains that the book is Tāng Hòu’s manuscript reshaped by another hand (the colophon’s author): the rewriting and the title Huàjiàn are not original to Tāng. The Sìkù editors correct the long-standing mis-titling of Tāng as a Sòng remnant (the work openly calls Yuán the běncháo).
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Huàjiàn in one juàn, the old text titled as composed by “Tāng Hòu of DōngChǔ” of the Sòng, zì Jūnzài. At the end of the juàn there is a colophon-note: “Cǎizhēnzǐ is wondrously expert in evidential investigation. In the capital he discussed painting with the present Jiànhuà bóshì Kē Jūn Jìngzhòng [柯九思], and so composed this book — its intentions and execution are exact, with sources for every claim.” So Hòu is contemporary with Kē Jiǔsī; Jiǔsī served as Jiànhuà bóshì under Yuán Wénzōng’s Tiānlì 1 (1328). Reckoning from the writing of this book, the Sòng had fallen 53 years earlier and the Yuán would fall in another 39 — so Hòu cannot be a Sòng man. Furthermore, the book calls the Yuán “the present dynasty” (本朝) and the Sòng “the Sòng dynasty” (宋朝); to call the Yuán his and the Sòng theirs — he has no remnant-of-the-fallen-dynasty pretext at all. The old text is a longstanding mis-titling. The colophon further says: “Alas, there is still much in it that is sparse and abridged; I have therefore deleted, supplemented and re-arranged it, and titled it Huàjiàn. Later, men of high discernment will appreciate it. Cǎizhēnzǐ / Tāng Hòu / Jūnzài of DōngChǔ — these are the author’s self-designations.” So this book is in fact a re-polishing of Hòu’s manuscript — not only is it not Hòu’s original, but the very name Huàjiàn is not Hòu’s own. Only the colophon does not name its author, and we cannot identify him. The book discusses painters in order: it begins with Cáo Fúxīng of Wú; next Wèi Xié and Gù Kǎizhī of Jìn; next the Six-Dynasties masters from Lù Tànwēi on (note: Wú and Jìn already belong within the Six Dynasties, so to separate Lù Tànwēi as “Six Dynasties” is inconsistent — the original heading is here, but we have noted the error); next Táng and Five Dynasties; next SòngJīnYuán — though the Yuán has only Gōng Kāi and Chén Lín, because Zhào Mèngfǔ and the others were still contemporary and excluded. Next foreign painting; next miscellaneous discussions. Substantively similar to Mǐ Fú’s Huàshǐ, with authentication as the principal aim; the discussions all centred on brush, ink and qìyùn — not Dǒng Yōu’s evidential-investigation school. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), tenth month.
Abstract
Tāng Hòu (zì Jūnzài 君載, hào Cǎizhēnzǐ 采真子, of DōngChǔ 東楚 — i.e., the Huái river region) was an early-Yuán painting connoisseur, active in Yánjīng 燕京 (the Yuán capital) c. 1320–1330. His Huàjiàn (the surviving text actually a re-edited version by an anonymous later hand, as the Sìkù tíyào establishes) is one of the principal Yuán connoisseur’s manuals, in form a successor to Mǐ Fú’s KR3h0021 Huàshǐ. Tāng’s working principle — that connoisseurship begins from qìyùn 氣韻 and from the painter’s fēnggé 風格 (style-character), not from external evidential investigation — represents the literati-painting school’s mature theoretical statement and is in direct opposition to the kǎozhèng tradition of Dǒng Yōu KR3h0028 KR3h0029. The work’s restriction of the Yuán section to Gōng Kāi and Chén Lín reflects an early-Yuán composition (Zhào Mèngfǔ d. 1322).
Translations and research
- Bush, Susan, and Hsio-yen Shih, eds. Early Chinese Texts on Painting. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985 (selections).
- Cahill, James. Hills Beyond a River: Chinese Painting of the Yüan Dynasty, 1279–1368. New York: Weatherhill, 1976.
- McCausland, Shane. Zhao Mengfu: Calligraphy and Painting for Khubilai’s China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011.
- Vinograd, Richard. Boundaries of the Self: Chinese Portraits, 1600–1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992 (uses Tāng).