Shūhuà bábá 書畫跋跋
Colophons upon Colophons by 孫鑛 (Sūn Kuàng, b. 1542, Wànlì jiǎxū 1574 jìnshì, posthumous title Wénjiǎn 文簡, 明, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
Sūn Kuàng’s six-juàn (3+3) running commentary on Wáng Shìzhēn 王世貞’s Shūhuà bá — colophons on Wáng’s colophons. The title’s reduplication marks the genre: Wáng wrote bá (colophons), Sūn wrote bá on those bá, hence bábá. The work circulates as three juàn (mòjī 1, bēikè 1, huà 1) and xù (continuation) three juàn (the xùbá version has mòkè for bēikè — a minor textual difference). The Sìkù editors took the trouble to extract Wáng’s original colophons and distribute them under Sūn’s responses, also adding contemporary Míng letters illuminating the dialogue. The work circulated only in manuscript from the late Míng through Qiánlóng gēngshēn (1740), when Rén Lánzhī cut the first printed edition; the manuscript history runs through the Hángzhōu Máo Xiānshū 毛先舒 family and from there to Zhào Diànchéng 趙殿成 (Sūn’s son-in-law), who passed it back to Sūn’s sixth-generation descendants. The book is the principal late-Míng response to Wáng Shìzhēn’s connoisseurship.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Shūhuà bábá in three juàn, xù in three juàn, by Sūn Kuàng of the Míng. Kuàng, zì Wénróng 文融, hào Yuèfēng 月峰, of Yúyáo 餘姚. In Wànlì jiǎxū (1574) jìnshì; rose to Nánjīng Bīngbù shàngshū; posthumous title Wénjiǎn. Book titled “Shūhuà bábá” because Wáng Shìzhēn had earlier composed Shūhuà bá, and Kuàng colophoned the colophons — duplicated text revealing meaning. From the Míng onwards never printed; only a hand-copy was in the house of Máo Xiānshū at Réhé 仁和, later passing to his fellow-countryman Zhào Diànchéng. Diànchéng was Sūn’s son-in-law, so Kuàng’s six-generation descendants Zōngpǔ and Zōngliǎn obtained it again from Diànchéng. In Qiánlóng gēngshēn (1740) it was first cut; Rén Lánzhī wrote a preface for it. Initially Zōngpǔ and the others, since Kuàng’s book was written depending on Shìzhēn’s text, judged that without the originals Kuàng’s text would be unintelligible — so they took Shìzhēn’s various colophons and distributed them under each entry. The relevant Míng letters supporting Kuàng’s discourse and identifying the occasions of his remarks were also appended. Mòjī one juàn; bēikè one juàn; huà one juàn; the xùbá arranged similarly — only it titles bēikè as mòkè, an accidental discrepancy not affecting the major matter. Zhānshì’s Xiǎobiàn says: “Wáng Yuánměi [Shìzhēn], though not titled a calligrapher, was the only one of the Wú men to know the fǎgǔ (ancient method)”; the Shūshǐ huìyào says: “Wáng Shìzhēn’s calligraphic learning was not yet expert, yet his judgements were flowing and the brush-method classical.” The Yǒngchuáng xiǎopǐn says the same. He was apparently “clumsy at the brush but skilled at distinguishing the ancients.” Kuàng was famed in his time for examination zhìyì; he is also not transmitted as a calligrapher or painter. But his discussions sometimes contain a refined logic, and his strengths and weaknesses match precisely with Wáng’s. Combining the two house’s views and preserving them is what the connoisseurs ought to take as evidence. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), twelfth month.
Abstract
Sūn Kuàng (b. 1542, jìnshì 1574, Nánjīng Bīngbù shàngshū) was a leading late-Míng official and literatus; his late-life retreat to scholarship produced this critical commentary on Wáng Shìzhēn 王世貞’s colophons on calligraphy and painting. The work is one of the central late-Míng scholarly dialogues on connoisseurship and the principal source for understanding Wáng Shìzhēn’s connoisseurship as it was received and assessed in the generation after his death (1590). The work’s transmission history — manuscript-only until 1740, descending through WǎnHángzhōu literati to Sūn’s own descendants and finally cut by Rén Lánzhī — is itself a fascinating case in the history of late-imperial bibliographic preservation. The Sìkù editors’ editorial decision to interleave Wáng’s bá with Sūn’s bábá — turning the work into a true scholarly dialogue — restored its intelligibility.
Translations and research
- Clunas, Craig. Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China. Cambridge: Polity, 1991 (background on Wáng Shìzhēn).
- Clunas, Craig. Pictures and Visuality in Early Modern China. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.
- No standalone Western-language study of this specific work. Used in scholarship on late-Míng connoisseurship.