Túhuà kǎo 圖畫攷
Investigations on Painting by 盛熙明 (Shèng Xīmíng, fl. 1330–1349, 元, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
A late Yuán theoretical-historical compendium on painting, in seven juàn, presented to the throne (likely under Shùndì). The work is the companion-volume to Shèng’s KR3h0040 Fǎshū kǎo (eight juàn, on calligraphy) and was produced as part of the same project of imperial reference. The chapters as listed in the SBCK Mokuroku: juàn 1 Xùgǔ 敘古 (sources of painting, including Shùyuán 述原, Xīngfèi 興廢, Guījiàn 規鑒, Túmíng 圖名, Shīzhuàn 師傳); subsequent juàn cover technical methods, materials, and exemplars. Shèng’s own preface explains the work as a systematisation of the painting tradition, drawing on the precedent of the TángSòng masterpieces and on imperial patronage from Shāng Gāozōng’s portrait-search down to the Yuán Jiànshūhuà bóshì.
Tiyao
Abstract
Shèng Xīmíng 盛熙明 (active Zhìzhèng 1340s) was a Yuán court literatus of Central Asian (probably Khotanese) descent, fluent in multiple languages of the Yuán court and well known for his unusual cultural-bridging position. His KR3h0040 Fǎshū kǎo (in 8 juàn) is the better-known companion volume; the Túhuà kǎo in 7 juàn is its painting counterpart. The two together constitute the most systematic late-Yuán imperial reference works on the visual arts, designed as practical manuals for the imperial Jiànshūhuà office. Where the Sòng KR3h0017 Túhuà jiànwén zhì and KR3h0030 Huàjì gather painters chronologically by reign, Shèng works topically: he provides separate dedicated chapters on origins, transmission, materials, ranks, technique. The work is the earliest such fully-systematic Chinese painting reference and the model for the comprehensive imperial compendia of the Míng and Qīng.
Translations and research
- Cahill, James. Hills Beyond a River: Chinese Painting of the Yüan Dynasty, 1279–1368. New York: Weatherhill, 1976.
- Allsen, Thomas T. Culture and Conquest in Mongol Eurasia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001 (background on Yuán cultural-bridging figures).
- No standalone Western-language monograph on the Túhuà kǎo. Treated briefly in McCausland, Zhao Mengfu (2011) and in Yú Jiànhuá’s Zhōngguó gǔdài huàlùn lèibiān.
Other points of interest
The Túhuà kǎo and Fǎshū kǎo are the earliest Chinese visual-arts reference works compiled by a Central Asian author for the multi-cultural Yuán court — a unique testimony to the cosmopolitan character of late-Yuán imperial patronage.