Essential Criteria of Antiquities

The Gegu Yaolun (Essential Criteria of Antiquities) is a three-juan treatise on the connoisseurship of antiquities written by Cao Zhao of the Ming dynasty. Cao Zhao, courtesy name Mingzhong, was a native of Songjiang, and the work was completed in the twentieth year of the Hongzhen reign. It is divided into thirteen sections: ancient bronzes, ancient paintings, ancient calligraphy, ancient steles and model-letter rubbings, ancient qin zithers, ancient inkstones, rare treasures, gold and iron, ancient ceramics, ancient lacquerware, brocade and silk, exotic woods, and exotic stones. Each section is further divided into items, the longest running to thirty or forty entries and the shortest to five or six. In distinguishing the genuine from the counterfeit and the superior from the inferior among famous curios and implements of past and present, the work analyzes them with minute precision; it is also thoroughly versed in literary and historical allusions, tracing every origin and development with perfect clarity, so that the book has been much valued by connoisseurs. Lang Ying, in his Qixiu Leigao, once argued that after its discussion of the qin it should have included the ancient sheng and guan, that after the Chunhua model letters it should have included a juan of genealogies, that the section on precious treasures omits Chu mulu and shengtie, that the exotic-stones category omits Dali xiangu, that the exotic-woods category omits jialan incense, that among ancient bronzes it omits cloth-knife and other coins, that among ancient papers it omits scripture paper, and that after rare treasures there should be a section on feathers and hides, such as fox and raccoon dog, peacock and kingfisher, leopard and rhinoceros, while the study of literary miscellany should likewise not go undiscussed. Though these remarks seem reasonable, the book is no more than a record of its author's own observations, intended as material for later antiquarian inquiry, and its format is fundamentally different from that of encyclopedic works arranged by topic; one cannot, on the strength of a single item or two that happen to be incomplete, hastily condemn it as deficient.