Shūhuà jiànwén biǎo 書畫見聞表
Tabular Register of Calligraphies and Paintings Eyewitnessed and Heard-of by 張丑 (Zhāng Chǒu, 1577–1635, 明, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
A short tabular complement to Zhāng Chǒu’s KR3h0057 Qīnghé shūhuà biǎo, modelled on Mǐ Fú’s 米芾 Bǎozhāng dàifǎng lù KR3h0023 — which itself sorts pieces into “eyewitnessed” (目覩) and “to be sought out” (待訪) categories. Zhāng converts that scheme to tabular form: column 1 records the dynasty, column 2 the pieces personally seen (mùdǔ 目覩), column 3 the pieces only heard-of (díwén 的聞), and column 4 the dynasty-running totals captioned huìjì 會計 (“balance-sheet”). The grand totals are 155 named artists, 188 calligraphies and 356 paintings. At the end of the table Zhāng appends Gù Kǎizhī’s 顧愷之 Xià Yǔ zhìshuǐ tú 夏禹治水圖 and Wáng Xíxī’s 王羲之 Xíngráng tiè 行穰帖 (both marked jiàn 見 = eyewitnessed), and Yú Shìnán’s 虞世南 copy of Zhāng Zhī’s 張芝 Píngfù tiè 平復帖 and Yán Zhēnqīng’s 顏真卿 Lùpú tiè 鹿脯帖 (both marked wén 聞 = heard-of) — these latter four were apparently added after the table had already been completed.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Shūhuà jiànwén biǎo in one juàn, by Zhāng Chǒu of the Míng — modelled on Mǐ Fú’s Bǎozhāng dàifǎng lù, but converted to tabular form. The table has four columns: column one is the time-period, column two the eyewitnessed pieces (mùdǔ), column three the pieces only heard-of (díwén), column four the dynasty-running totals captioned huìjì (“balance-sheet”). 155 artists in all; 188 calligraphies, 356 paintings. At the end are appended Gù Kǎizhī’s Xià Yǔ zhìshuǐ tú and Wáng Xíxī’s Xíngráng tiè — annotated “jiàn” (seen); and Yú Shìnán’s copy of Zhāng Zhī’s Píngfù tiè and Yán Zhēnqīng’s Lùpú tiè — annotated “wén” (heard-of) — apparently added after the table was made. Chǒu has a separate Nányáng shūhuà biǎo, so the head of this table notes that pieces already seen in the latter are not entered here. He further says: “Pieces I have only impressions or association of, I have not entered.” But the artists named as eyewitnessed do not consistently agree with the named-piece registers in the Shūhuà fǎng KR3h0055 and the Zhēnjī rìlù KR3h0056 — could it be that this set of tables was drafted before those two books? Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), twelfth month.
Abstract
The Shūhuà jiànwén biǎo is the second of Zhāng Chǒu’s two tabular registers (the first being KR3h0057 Qīnghé shūhuà biǎo). It applies Mǐ Fú’s epistemic distinction between pieces seen and pieces reported to a much wider range of SòngYuánMíng material than was available to Mǐ Fú in the Northern Sòng. As the Sìkù editors note, the named-pieces in the eyewitnessed column do not always agree with the detailed records in Zhāng’s two narrative connoisseurial works, which probably implies that the Biǎo preserves an earlier draft from before the Shūhuà fǎng and Zhēnjī rìlù — that is, from before 1616 — or alternatively, that the Biǎo records pieces Zhāng saw but did not deem worth full discussion in the longer works. Either reading is consistent with the catalog meta’s silence on a precise date; the dating range is bracketed by Zhāng’s general publication activity in the 1610s–1630s. The book is a short reference register rather than a substantive connoisseurial treatise.
Translations and research
- No substantial secondary literature located specifically on the Shūhuà jiànwén biǎo. Treated alongside the Shūhuà fǎng in standard surveys (Clunas, Cahill, Wáng Liánqǐ).