Shíqú bǎojí 石渠寶笈
Precious Repertoire of the Stone Canal Pavilion by 張照 (Zhāng Zhào, 1691–1745, 清, fèngchì zhuàn 奉敕撰) and 梁詩正 (Liáng Shīzhèng, 1697–1763, 清, fèngchì zhuàn 奉敕撰)
About the work
The imperial catalog of secular calligraphy and painting in the Qīng court collection, in 44 juàn, compiled under Qiánlóng 9 (1744) per the shàngyù of Qiánlóng 9 / 2 / 10. The Shíqú takes its name from the Hàn imperial Stone Canal Pavilion library, signifying the highest level of court literary curation. The work is the companion volume to KR3h0062 Mìdiàn zhūlín (the Buddhist-Daoist catalog) and registers the secular calligraphy and painting holdings of the inner-palace — accumulated to more than 10,000 zhǒng. Compilation was led by the same team as the Mìdiàn zhūlín: Zhāng Zhào 張照, Liáng Shīzhèng 梁詩正, with Lì Zōngwàn 勵宗萬 and Zhāng Ruòǎi 張若靄. The catalog opens with the chénhàn 宸翰 (imperial-hand calligraphies and paintings) of the four-emperor lineage (Shùnzhì 順治, Kāngxī 康熙, Yōngzhèng 雍正, Qiánlóng 乾隆), arranged by class and topical category rather than year; thereafter all other pieces are arranged chronologically by dynasty (QínHàn, Six Dynasties, Five Dynasties, Táng, Sòng, Yuán, Míng, Qīng), with attribution-uncertain pieces classed under “no signature” (wúkuǎn 無欵) at the end of their dynasty. The grading distinguishes shàngděng (top — full transcription of dimensions, paper-and-silk type, all colophons and seal impressions) from cìděng (next — only the artist’s own signature and a brief notice of which third parties have colophonated). Pieces are stored across four palace locations — Qiánqīnggōng 乾清宮, Yǎngxīndiàn 養心殿, Chónghuágōng 重華宮 and Yùshūfáng 御書房 — each with its own collection seal (Qiánqīnggōng jiàncáng bǎo, etc.); top-grade pieces additionally receive the Qiánlóng jiànshǎng, Sānxītáng jīngjiàn xǐ, and Yízǐsūn triple-seal sequence. The catalog was followed by a xùbiān 續編 of Qiánlóng 58 (1793) under Wáng Jié 王傑, Dǒng Gào 董誥 and others, and a sānbiān 三編 of Jiāqìng 21 (1816) under Yīnghé 英和, Wáng Yìzhī 王懿之 and others, extending the catalog to the late-Qiánlóng and Jiāqìng holdings.
Tiyao
No tiyao block in source — the WYG _000 file contains only the header. The shàngyù of Qiánlóng 9 / 2 / 10 (1744; entered as juàn 1) serves as the authorising preface: “The three reigns’ imperial brush-traces stored in the golden chest are radiant and dignified, truly exceeding the ancients. Whenever I take them up and observe them, my long-yearning increases; they must be respectfully wrapped and handed to my descendants. Further, the calligraphies and paintings stored by the inner archive across the successive dynasties have accumulated to more than 10,000 zhǒng — the silk scrolls are many, and genuine and false are not all sorted. Lately we have edited the Buddhist and Daoist canons into one collection, the Mìdiàn zhūlín — apart from these, we should also carefully distinguish the rest, select the best, and gather them into a compilation. In my youth I dabbled in calligraphy and painting; since ascending the throne I have whenever leisure permits — old habit not yet forgotten — taken up the brush, gradually accumulating piece by piece into volumes. These too should be classed and inscribed by date. As for the calligraphies and paintings successively presented by ministers and others which have entered the imperial archive — these too often have items worth viewing, and ordering them is in keeping with the elegance of the arts-grove. And the ink-treasures left behind by our successive sage-emperors — even fragments of old paper or silk — provide testimony for evidential research. At my leisure I open them and take pleasure in mind, deepening my consideration: ‘left picture, right history’ — the ancients are not so distant. Respectfully presented.”
Abstract
The Shíqú bǎojí is the most ambitious catalog of any premodern Chinese imperial art collection, registering more than 10,000 secular calligraphies and paintings held in the four principal storage locations of the Qīng inner palace at the beginning of the Qiánlóng reign. Together with KR3h0062 Mìdiàn zhūlín, it documents the full extent of the imperial collection in 1744. The compilation methodology — chronological-by-dynasty arrangement with strict signature-and-seal protocols, two-grade quality marking, and explicit storage-location tagging — established the model for all later imperial inventory catalogs. The work is the principal reference for tracing the imperial provenance of any major Chinese painting or calligraphy in the post-Sòng tradition: Mǐ Fú’s autograph Bǎozhāng dàifǎng lù KR3h0023, Wáng Xíxī’s Píngfù tiè and Lántíng tradition, the Wáng Wéi Wǎngchuān tú, the Gù Hóngzhōng Hánxīzǎi yèyàn tú, the Zhāng Zéduān Qīngmíng shànghé tú — the provenance of all such pieces in the eighteenth century is traceable through this catalog. Subsequent supplements (1793 and 1816) carry the inventory forward through the Qiánlóng and into the Jiāqìng reign, but the original Shíqú bǎojí of 1744 remains the foundational document.
Translations and research
- Hearn, Maxwell K. How to Read Chinese Paintings. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2008.
- Stuart, Jan, and Evelyn S. Rawski. Worshiping the Ancestors. Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 2001.
- Wáng Yàotíng 王耀庭 (ed.). Mìdiàn zhūlín, Shíqú bǎojí xù-biān, sān-biān suǒyǐn. Taipei: National Palace Museum, 1989.
- Yáng Rénkǎi 楊仁愷. Guó-bǎo Chén-fú lù 國寶沉浮錄. Shenyang: Liáoníng huà-bào chū-bǎn-shè, 1991. [The standard study of the Shíqú bǎojí corpus’s twentieth-century dispersal.]
- Liú Jīnkù 劉金庫. “Cóng Mìdiàn zhūlín, Shíqú bǎo-jí tán Qīng nèi-fǔ shū-huà shōucáng” 從《秘殿珠林》《石渠寶笈》談清內府書畫收藏.
- Numerous National Palace Museum (Taipei) and Palace Museum (Beijing) exhibition catalogues use Shíqú bǎojí as primary provenance reference.
Other points of interest
The Shíqú bǎojí compilations (original 1744; xùbiān 1793; sānbiān 1816) constitute the basis for the modern division of the imperial collection between Beijing’s Palace Museum and Taipei’s National Palace Museum — pieces traced through these catalogs are foundational to the modern provenance literature on Chinese painting.