Shānhú mùnán 珊瑚木難
Coral and Difficult-Wood (a connoisseur’s notebook) by 朱存理 (Zhū Cúnlǐ, 1444–1513, 明, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
Zhū Cúnlǐ’s principal connoisseur’s notebook, in eight juàn, recording the calligraphies and paintings of the Sūzhōu Wú-school collections — chiefly those of Wén Zhēngmíng’s circle. The title alludes to the “coral net” of fishing the seabed for treasures and the “mùnán” (literally “difficult-tree,” a fragrant wood used for inkstones, here apparently echoing the Buddhist kalavīra difficulty). Zhū transcribes the inscriptions and colophons on each work, often along with the poetry and prose found on the painting or on attached cover sheets. The book is the principal source for the Wú-school painters’ textual record from the Chénghuà to the Zhèngdé decades, and contains numerous poems and prose pieces by figures of that circle (Shén Zhōu, Wú Kuān, Wáng Áo, Wén Zhēngmíng, Tāng Yìn, Zhù Yǔnmíng, Wén Líndé) that survive nowhere else.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Shānhú mùnán in eight juàn, edited by Zhū Cúnlǐ of the Míng. Cúnlǐ, zì Xìngfù 性父, of Chángzhōu 長洲. Zhū Yízūn’s Shīhuà says: “Cúnlǐ from young to old did not forget studies for a day; if anyone had a rare book he must seek it out — pursuit was his ambition. What he compiled ran to several hundred juàn. As he aged he did not weary; sitting in poverty with no means of self-support, his books too were dispersed.” The Jiāngnán tōngzhì says: “At the end of Yuán and start of Míng, of central Wú the Nányuán Hé-family, the Lìzé Yú-family, and the Lúshān Chén-family — books and bronze inscriptions abundant beyond the rest of the country; Cúnlǐ succeeded them and was the best of them.” This compilation comprises calligraphies and paintings he had seen, with the colophons; the previous men’s poetry and prose rarely seen elsewhere are also appended. At the head are the names Wén Zhēngmíng, Wén Jiā, Wáng Zhìdēng, Wáng Téng and Chéng Sì, all of whom were collectors of the family — Zhēngmíng and others all proud of their connoisseurship, so what they held was famous pieces. Cúnlǐ was also skilled at appraisal: in general his evaluations are sound, never to be put alongside the false-and-true-mixed kind. Only the book never had a cut edition; hand-copies have passed down and have many errors and omissions. We have collated and arranged it carefully, leaving uncertain matters as a notice. As to the world’s also-extant Tiěwǎng shānhú, this was compiled by Zhào Qímǐ; transmissions of it have mis-attributed it to Cúnlǐ, conflating the two books — itself further wrong. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 43 (1778), ninth month.
Abstract
Zhū Cúnlǐ 朱存理 (zì Xìngfù 性父, 1444–1513) was the central bibliophile-connoisseur of the early Wú-school generation, succeeding the great late-Yuán / early-Míng book and bronze collections of central Wú. His Shānhú mùnán is the principal source for the textual record (poems, colophons, prefaces) attached to the calligraphic and pictorial pieces in the Wú-school collections of the Chénghuà to Zhèngdé decades. Zhū’s role in the Wú-school cultural establishment was distinct from Wén Zhēngmíng’s: he was the great recorder of the surrounding textual paratext. The compilation is uniquely valuable for the survival of texts by minor Wú figures (e.g. Wén Líndé, Yáo Pán, Zhāng Yú) preserved nowhere else. The Sìkù editors emphasise that this work is distinct from the spurious KR3h0045 Zhàoshì tiěwǎng shānhú — the latter is actually compiled by Zhào Qímǐ 趙琦美 of Chángshú in the late Wànlì, not by Zhū Cúnlǐ at all.
Translations and research
- Clunas, Craig. Elegant Debts: The Social Art of Wen Zhengming, 1470–1559. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004 (uses Zhū extensively).
- Clunas, Craig. Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China. Cambridge: Polity, 1991.
- Cahill, James. Parting at the Shore: Chinese Painting of the Early and Middle Ming Dynasty, 1368–1580. New York: Weatherhill, 1978.
- No standalone Western-language monographic study. Used as a major reference in all Wú-school painting and connoisseurship scholarship.
Other points of interest
The Shānhú mùnán and the KR3h0045 Zhàoshì tiěwǎng shānhú — the two Sūzhōu-Wú-school connoisseur’s compendia attributed to Zhū Cúnlǐ in transmission — are in fact the work of two different hands (Zhū Cúnlǐ and Zhào Qímǐ), as the Sìkù editors’ philological reasoning demonstrates: a model case of late-Míng / early-Qīng connoisseurship attribution-correction.