Supplement to Famous Paintings of the Five Dynasties

刘道醇Jul 2024

Rating 4.0
Word count
6.2K words
Chapters
3

Tags

Literary Appreciation Portrait GallerySlow ReadingTraditional AestheticsEclectic ReadingCultural Change

Summary

Traditional Chinese thought has a long history, marked by a high degree of originality, inventiveness, and literary quality. Its early intellectual forms are highly distinctive: religious theology, classical texts of Chinese medicine, ancient military strategy, Confucian, Daoist, Buddhist, and Hundred Schools thought, feng shui and metaphysics, the Twenty-Four Histories, and customs and geographical records—all vast and profound. This series, "Essence of the Chinese Classics: Original Texts," preserves the original appearance of each work, with emphasis on preserving and transmitting traditional Chinese thought and culture. By reading the literary essence left by the ancient sages, readers cultivate their temperament and subtly come to appreciate the classics of Chinese learning.

Editor's review

Supplement to Famous Paintings of the Five Dynasties is a work of painting history by Liu Daochun of the Northern Song, one of the more specialized works in the traditional Chinese literature on art. The book continues earlier records of the deeds of Five Dynasties painters, adding accounts of painters and painting events and providing valuable textual clues for understanding the painting scene of the Five Dynasties today. For those studying the history of ancient Chinese art, the connoisseurship and collecting of painting and calligraphy, and Five Dynasties culture, the value of such a primary text lies not in the completeness and fluency of its narrative but in the primitiveness and specificity of its historical sources. This edition preserves the original appearance of the work and is suited to consultation and close study rather than to reading as popular narrative. It should be read against the historical background of the Five Dynasties and in reference to other works of painting history in order to appreciate its documentary significance. General readers are advised to begin with an introduction or relevant scholarship and then return to the original text, so as to avoid feeling shut out by the density of personal names, official titles, and painting titles. Overall, this is a classical art-historical source suited to slow reading, consultation, and topic-specific study.

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the publisher's note or preface to understand the structure and sources before turning to the main text.
  2. Keep relevant reference works at hand and check personal names, official titles, and painting titles as they arise.
  3. Read in comparison with works of painting history such as Record of Famous Paintings of Successive Dynasties, cross-checking one against another.
  4. Read in installments by painter entry, a small amount at a time, making brief notes.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 提要
  3. 五代名画补遗

FAQ

Is this book suitable for readers with no grounding in classical Chinese? Not really. The book preserves the original appearance of the text, whose main body is in classical Chinese and which involves a great many personal names, official titles, and records of painting events; readers without experience of classical Chinese will find it hard going. If genuinely interested, they are advised first to read relevant scholarship or an introduction, then attempt the original text with reference works at hand.
What background knowledge is needed to read this book? It is best to have a basic framework of Five Dynasties history and to know the general course of regime change at the time; it also helps to be familiar with the conventions of traditional works of painting history and to know how biographies of painters and evaluations of painting works were written. With this background, reading will be much smoother.
Can this book be read as a comprehensive history of Five Dynasties painting? No. It is a supplementary work of painting history, focused on adding records of painters and painting events, and is not a systematic, complete history of painting. For a comprehensive understanding, read it alongside modern scholarly works on art history and use it as a primary source, which is the more appropriate approach.

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About the author

刘道醇 Author

Liu Daochun is an important author in the field of ancient Chinese art history and painting theory. His birthplace, dates of birth and death, and other biographical details are not clearly recorded, and available public information is limited. Two works attributed to him survive: Songchao Minghua Ping (Evaluations of Famous Painters of the Song Dynasty) and Wudai Minghua Buyi (Supplement to Famous Painters of the Five Dynasties), both centered on evaluating painters and recording their works. The former classifies painters by genre, comments on Song dynasty artists one by one, and includes anecdotes and observations on technical strengths and weaknesses; the latter supplements accounts of Five Dynasties painters and preserves much art-historical information that would otherwise be lost. Both are concise in style and clear in grading, valuing both artistic lineage and brushwork style. They are basic sources for studying the transmission of painting and critical concepts between the Tang and Song periods, and are therefore often classified under Eastern philosophy and literary appreciation.