Túhuì bǎojiàn 圖繪寶鑑
Precious Mirror of Painting by 夏文彥 (Xià Wényàn, fl. 1365, 元, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
Xià Wényàn’s comprehensive late-Yuán biographical dictionary of Chinese painters, in five juàn, with a Míng Xùbiān 續編 in one juàn by Hán Áng 韓昻 (fùjiàn of the Qīntiānjiān) covering the early-Míng painters from the founding through Zhèngdé (1506–21). The work covers 1,500+ painters from Xuānyuán through to the Yuán present and also includes foreign painters. Each entry gives a short prose biography with critical evaluation. The book is the indispensable bridge reference between SòngYuán Chinese painting and the early Míng painting literature; the Xùbiān of 1519 by Hán Áng adds 107 Míng painters from the founding to Zhèngdé.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Túhuì bǎojiàn in five juàn, by Xià Wényàn of the Yuán. Wényàn, zì Shìliáng 士良, his clan-seat from Wúxīng 吳興 but he lived in Sōngjiāng 松江. He was fond of antiquities and refined in painting matters, and was praised by Yáng Wéizhēn. His house held many ancient pieces; and on what he had seen and heard he broadly searched and gathered all who could paint, ancient and modern, recording their names and adding critical estimations. From Xuānyuán to the Yuán, including foreign countries, 1,500+ persons. There are still some traditional errors not yet corrected, such as the entry for Fēngmù; and the entries within each dynasty are not strictly chronological, so that earlier and later are sometimes inverted — not all editorially refined. But the breadth is such that scarcely anything is missed, and it is rightly the most detailed and ample of all painting histories. Láng Yíng’s Qīxiū lèigǎo once said: “The Túhuì bǎojiàn records merely the names of past painters and whom they took as model; it should add a phrase as to how: e.g., for Dǒng Yuán, ‘mountains in mápí cūn (hemp-fibre stroke)’; for Mǎ Yuǎn, ‘mountains in dàfǔpī (great-axe stroke) combined with dīngtóushǔwěi (nail-head-and-mouse-tail) stroke’ — thus the two men’s rule-and-method is before our eyes and later readers find his paintings easier to identify.” — His point was that the book was incomplete and wanted supplementing. But Xià’s purpose was to set out family-traditions and source-currents — not the same thing as the brush-and-formula tracts in fù-form which discuss painting-formulae in detail. Cannot reasonably criticise it for sparseness on that ground. The Xùbiān in one juàn was compiled by the Míng Qīntiānjiān deputy Hán Áng, running from the start of Míng to Zhèngdé (1506–21), 150 years, gathering 107 persons; prefixed by the imperial autographs of Xuānzōng, Xiànzōng and Xiàozōng; completed Zhèngdé 14 (1519). Now: figures within such as Wén Péng, Lù Zhì, Qián Gǔ and others all extend to the Jiājìng era — so a later hand made further supplementation. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), sixth month.
Abstract
Xià Wényàn 夏文彥 (zì Shìliáng 士良, original clan-seat Wúxīng 吳興, resident in Sōngjiāng 松江, fl. 1365) was a late-Yuán painting connoisseur in the circle of Yáng Wéizhēn 楊維楨, the dominant Wú literatus of the period. His family held a substantial painting collection. The Túhuì bǎojiàn (1365) was the last major Yuán painting reference and immediately became the standard biographical dictionary of Chinese painters; it was reprinted continuously through the Míng and Qīng. Hán Áng’s 1519 Xùbiān extends the coverage through the early Míng. The work was substantively updated by Lán Yīng 藍瑛 and Xiè Bīn 謝彬 in their 1673 Túhuì bǎojiàn xùzuǎn (not in the Sìkù), which carries the coverage through the late Míng.
Translations and research
- Sirén, Osvald. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. 7 vols. London: Lund Humphries, 1956–58 (uses Xià extensively).
- Cahill, James. Hills Beyond a River: Chinese Painting of the Yüan Dynasty, 1279–1368. New York: Weatherhill, 1976.
- Wáng Bómǐn 王伯敏 (ed.). Túhuì bǎojiàn jiàoshì 圖繪寶鑑校釋. Beijing: Wenwu Chubanshe, 1981 (modern critical edition).
- No standalone Western-language monograph. Used as a reference work throughout the Western literature on Chinese painting.
Other points of interest
The Túhuì bǎojiàn’s inclusion of foreign painters — both Central Asian (Uighur, Western Hsia) and Korean / Japanese — makes it the principal Yuán East Asian visual-arts reference: it is, for example, the earliest Chinese systematic source for early-Korean painting and for Yuán-period Mongol court painters.