Shānhú wǎng 珊瑚網
The Coral Net by 汪砢玉 (Wāng Kěyù, 1587–1645, 明, zhuàn 撰)
About the work
A vast 48-juàn late-Míng connoisseur’s compendium by Wāng Kěyù 汪砢玉 of Jiāxīng 嘉興, completed in Chóngzhēn guǐwèi 崇禎癸未 (1643), one year before the Míng dynasty’s collapse. The book is in two halves of 24 juàn each: fǎshū tíbá 法書題跋 (24 juàn of calligraphy with colophons) followed by mínghuà tíbá 名畫題跋 (24 juàn of paintings with colophons). The arrangement is more orderly than Zhāng Chǒu’s KR3h0055 Qīnghé shūhuà fǎng and KR3h0056 Zhēnjī rìlù: each section first records the colophons, then appends discursive notes (lùnshuō 論説). The work is the principal source for the painting collection of Wāng’s father Wāng Àijīng 汪愛荊, a major Jiāxīng collector who built the Níngxiá gé 凝霞閣 in collaboration with Xiàng Yuánbiàn 項元汴 and amassed one of the great Wàn-lì-era private collections. Although Wāng’s connoisseurship of stone-inscriptions and stele-tradition is uneven (the Sìkù critics flag several misidentifications), his cataloging of SòngYuán painted handscrolls is exceptionally rich and became the principal source for the later compilations of KR3h0068 Biàn Yǒngyù’s Shìgǔtáng shūhuà huìkǎo 式古堂書畫彙考 and KR3h0069 Lì È’s NánSòng yuànhuà lù 南宋院畫錄.
Tiyao
We have respectfully examined: Shānhú wǎng in forty-eight juàn, by Wāng Kěyù of the Míng. Kěyù has the Gǔjīn cuólüè 古今鹺畧, already entered (under “Government Treatises”). This book was completed in Chóngzhēn guǐwèi (1643): 24 juàn of calligraphy with colophons, 24 juàn of paintings with colophons. Zhū Yízūn’s 朱彝尊 Jìngzhìjū shīhuà says: “Kěyù paid attention to authorship; his collected Shānhú wǎng runs alongside Zhāng Chǒu’s Qīnghé shūhuà fǎng and Zhēnjī rìlù. Zhāng’s family had four generations of connoisseurial collecting — his great-uncle Wéiqìng, great-grandfather Zǐhé, grandfather Yuēzhī, and father Màoshí; Kěyù likewise has the example of his father Àijīng’s friendship with Xiàng Yuánbiàn of Jiāxīng, the building of the Níngxiá gé for housing calligraphy and painting, and a collection rich enough to lead all in its generation. Their inheritances being roughly equal, both could amass and edit substantial volumes. Zhāng’s two books, however, have no clear chronological arrangement either before or after; this book of Kěyù lists colophons first and appends lùnshuō second — compared with Zhāng, its outline and detail are orderly.” Yet what it records of fǎshū contains both eyewitnessed and merely-heard-of items, all entered in the same way without distinction, no labelling — somewhat undifferentiating. The originals’ full texts are sometimes recorded and sometimes not, with no settled principle. Saying that the Táng-cut Dìngwǔ Lántíng has two stones, and that the Jiāoshān yìhè míng has three stones — this fails to distinguish genuine from spurious. Mistaking Lǐ Yōng’s calligraphy on the Yúnhuī jiāngjūn Lǐ Xiù bēi for the Lǐ Sīxùn bēi; mistaking a Sòng-period cut of the Línjiāng tiè for a Táng rubbing — these evidential identifications are not all completely careful. But what it records of mínghuà — the inscribed-by-heart absolute-best-pieces of the Sòng and Yuán masters — is most fully recorded, the silk holdings exceptional. Later works such as Biàn Yǒngyù’s Shìgǔtáng shūhuà kǎo KR3h0068 and Lì È’s NánSòng yuànhuà lù KR3h0069 in fact all built on this book — better than its calligraphy-section. As for the calligraphy-colophon section being followed by miscellaneous extracts of shūzhǐ and shūpǐn and the painting-colophon section followed by Huàjì and Huàpíng — these are miscellaneous extracts of old texts, hanging-by-one-thread and missing ten thousand; ramified, like the sixth finger and conjoined toe; the same in both halves: but since the original has them, we leave them in. Respectfully collated, Qiánlóng 46 (1781), twelfth month.
Abstract
The Shānhú wǎng is, together with Zhāng Chǒu’s KR3h0055 Qīnghé shūhuà fǎng and KR3h0056 Zhēnjī rìlù, one of the three principal late-Míng connoisseurial compendia. Wāng Kěyù 汪砢玉 (zì Yùshuǐ 玉水, hào Lèqīng 樂卿; 1587–1645) was a major Jiāxīng connoisseur, son of Wāng Àijīng, whose collection (housed in the Níngxiá gé) ran alongside that of Xiàng Yuánbiàn. The Sìkù tíyào’s evaluation accurately identifies the work’s two complementary strengths and weaknesses: it is more systematic in arrangement than Zhāng Chǒu, but weaker on stone-inscription connoisseurship; on the painting side, however, it preserves the colophons and provenance of an exceptionally rich SòngYuán handscroll holding, and is the principal source for the construction of Biàn Yǒngyù’s KR3h0068 Shūhuà huìkǎo and Lì È’s KR3h0069 NánSòng yuànhuà lù. The 1643 completion date — one year before the fall of the Míng — makes this book a terminal moment in Míng connoisseurship, recording many pieces that did not survive the MíngQīng transition or whose provenance was thereafter scrambled.
Translations and research
- Clunas, Craig. Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China. Cambridge: Polity, 1991.
- Cahill, James. The Distant Mountains. New York: Weatherhill, 1982.
- Wáng Liánqǐ 王連起. Sòng-dài shūhuà jiànbié yánjiū. Shanghai: Shanghai Shuhua Chubanshe, 2003.
- Zhèng Yínshū 鄭銀淑. Xiàng Yuánbiàn zhī shūhuà shōucáng yǔ yìshù. Taipei: Wén-shǐ-zhé chū-bǎn-shè, 1984.
Other points of interest
The Shānhú wǎng is the principal source for the contents of the Níngxiá gé collection. Its completion date of 1643, on the eve of the dynastic collapse, makes it a terminal record of Jiāngnán private connoisseurship before the dispersal of SòngYuánMíng holdings during the MíngQīng transition.