Historical Significance of Famous Paintings in Past Dynasties

Some biographies of painters and related materials in Stories of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties occupy a large space in the book. Recorded painters include those from ancient times to the author's life (84 1 the first year of Huichang, Tang Wuzong). The most important is a period of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties. The materials preserved in this book include historical records, comments of people in the Southern Dynasties, the painter's own works and paintings still in the Tang Dynasty, which has become the only basis for future generations to study the history of ancient painting. However, there are also serious shortcomings, that is, the lack of historical materials for painting in the Northern Dynasties leads to the inappropriate concept that painting art is only in the Southern Dynasties.

As for the collection, the historical development of calligraphy and painting collection, the situation of collection in Tang Dynasty (such as the market price of purchase, aggressive behavior, etc. ), identification and verification of important seals in collection work, mounting and copying of shafts in collection work, etc. It can be seen that the traditional appraisal of calligraphy and painting in China has reached a certain scientific level in the Tang Dynasty, and the annotations in Notes on Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties have been formally sorted out and recorded.

Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties is China's first systematic and complete general history of painting art. Before his works appeared, according to the materials he provided, we know that there were the following works: On Painting, in the late Wei Dynasty, Qi Sheikh, Chen, Sui Shaman Yan Brown, Tang Lizhen, Liu Zheng, Gu Kuang and others all commented on painting, Pei recorded on Zhenguan's public and private painting, and Dou Meng recorded on painting. Most of these books are still there. Besides, the author can also focus on the whole process of painting creation and appreciation, including description, collection, circulation, price and even mounting, so as to put forward a complete system for the study of China's painting history. This book has long been regarded as the complete painting history of ChinaNo. 1 system, and it also has the nature of "encyclopedia" of painting at that time. It is an unparalleled milestone in the history of China painting.

This book has compiled a wealth of historical materials of painting, and the sources of information include a large number of historical books, novels and anthologies besides those of the previous generation. Historical books such as Shi Ben, Xu Jin and Yang Qiu, Hou Weishu; Novels such as Shuo Yuan, A Tale of Two Cities, Continuation of Qi and Harmony; Wang Kun Collection, Xie Zhuang Collection and other collections; Draw history books, such as Sun Chang.

In the theory of painting, the book not only inherits the knowledge of predecessors, but also expounds it, such as On Six Methods of Painting; We also summarized new experiences and discussed new problems. For example, it is pointed out that the function of painting is not only to "guard against the virtuous and foolish", but also to "please the feelings", and that "painting and calligraphy are the same as the law"; It advocates "nature" and classifies painting skills with "nature, agility, delicacy, precision and fineness".