Huàshǐ huìyào 畫史會要
Essentials of the History of Painting by 朱謀垔 (Zhū Móuyīn, fl. 1631, 明, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
Zhū Móuyīn’s five-juàn biographical history of painting from highest antiquity through the Míng — the painting complement to Táo Zōngyí’s earlier KR3h0043 Shūshǐ huìyào (which covered calligraphy only). Completed in Chóngzhēn xīnwèi (1631), the work gathers painters’ names and biographies and appends a Huàfǎ (technical methods) section in its final juàn. The Sìkù editors fault the work for some editorial errors: the JīnYuán order is muddled (Jīn placed before Yuán); the Míng emperors Tàizǔ and Xuānzōng are placed after the foreign painters (preserving an old organisational quirk); the mùlù and the actual text disagree on the placement of Northern and Southern Sòng. Yet the work is the principal Míng biographical reference for SòngJīnYuán and early-Míng painting, and the Kāngxī Pèiwénzhāi shūhuà pǔ draws extensively on it.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Huàshǐ huìyào in five juàn, by Zhū Móuyīn of the Míng. The book was completed in Chóngzhēn xīnwèi (1631). Because Táo Zōngyí had a KR3h0043 Shūshǐ huìyào that did not cover painters, [Zhū] gathered painters from high antiquity to the Míng to form this compilation, also appending a Huàfǎ in one juàn — entirely following Zōngyí’s editorial pattern, and so the title corresponds. But Zōngyí’s book stops with the Yuán, so what Móuyīn supplemented for the Míng could be separately put as one juàn after the Foreign section. This book was personally edited by Móuyīn: placing the Jīn before the Yuán, slightly displacing the sequence; placing the famous Míng emperors Tàizǔ and Xuānzōng after the Foreign section — overly pedantic to old categories, jolted and dislocated. The mùlù puts the Sòng as juàn 2, JīnYuán and Foreign as juàn 3; but the actual text has Northern Sòng as juàn 2, Southern SòngJīnYuán and Foreign as juàn 3, and drops the “Southern Sòng” label, using only “Capital Qiántáng” three characters as the chapter-head — irregular all the more so. At the end of Míng, shìdàfū delighted in writing books, and were rabid Chán enthusiasts, taking carelessness and abbreviation as superior, no longer regarding care and refinement as a serious matter; Gù Yánwǔ’s Rìzhī lù says: “Books written after Wànlì all turn ‘liúzéi Liúqī’ into ‘zéiqī’, cut ‘zhuàngyuè shuò’ into ‘mǔdān shuò’” — though his critique is too sharp, it has its causes. We have here corrected the prose and noted the original errors as above. Although the gathering is not abundant, with many gaps and omissions, the SòngJīnYuánMíng painters do depend on this for surviving traces. So the imperially commissioned Pèiwénzhāi shūhuà pǔ KR3h0061 painter-biographies draw on it as evidence — those who would speak of the colour-arts cannot lightly set it aside. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), tenth month.
Abstract
Zhū Móuyīn 朱謀垔 (also written 朱謀堙; zì Yīnzhī 隱之, hào Yīnxiánzhě 隱閒者) was a late-Míng imperial-clansman scholar of the Níngfán branch (descended from Zhū Quán 朱權, the Yǒng-lè-era Níngwáng). The clan was based at Nánchāng 南昌. Zhū Móuyīn was an enormous compiler: in addition to the Huàshǐ huìyào he produced numerous lèishū-style reference works and historiographical studies. The painting Huàshǐ huìyào is one of the principal Míng painting reference works and a major source for the Kāngxī KR3h0061 Pèiwénzhāi shūhuà pǔ. The Sìkù editors’ criticism, citing Gù Yánwǔ’s KR3j0107 Rìzhī lù, is part of the wider Qīng critique of late-Míng Chán-influenced scholarly sloppiness.
Translations and research
- Bai, Qianshen. Fu Shan’s World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2003 (late-Míng context).
- Cahill, James. The Distant Mountains: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming Dynasty, 1570–1644. New York: Weatherhill, 1982.
- No standalone Western-language study of the Huà-shǐ huì-yào.