Page 174 - Deydier UNDERSTANDING CHINESE ARCHAIC BRONZES

which were housed in the Ningshou Palace 寧壽宮 within the
Beijing Imperial Palace 北京皇宮.
Amongst the antiquarians of the Qing 清 dynasty, who collected,
researched and published with scientific rigour, the most famous were:
■ Qian Daxin 錢大昕 (1728 – 1804), a polymath who was one of the
most prominent poets, epigraphists, historians and linguists of
the Qianlong 乾隆 and later periods. Qian had a special interest
in phonetics, etymology and epigraphy. An expert in ancient
inscriptions, he amassed a collection of more than two thousand
rubbings of inscriptions on bronze and stone. He wrote many books,
one of which, the Jinshi Wenzi Mulu 金石文字目錄, a dictionary of
bronze and stone inscriptions, is still consulted to this day.
■ Zhu Yun 朱筠 (1729 – 1780), a great scholar, collector of antique
books and connoisseur of ancient styles of calligraphy. Zhu
considered himself to be the first bronze inscription specialist and
worked closely with Ruan Yuan 阮元.
■ Qian Dian 錢坫 (1741 – 1806), the nephew of the Qing polymath and
expert in ancient inscriptions, Qian Daxin 錢大昕 (1728 – 1804) and
an eminent Qing dynasty scholar of the Shuowen 說文 and a great
calligraphist in his own right, as well as an avid collector of ancient
bronze vessels. His collection of 49 bronzes was published in 1796
under the title Shiliu Changle Tang Guqi Kuanshi Kao 十六長樂堂
古器款識考 in which he included drawings and measurements of
each of the 49 vessels, together with transcriptions and translations
of inscriptions.
■ Wu Dongfa 吳東發 (1747 – 1803), who is well-known today not
only for his paintings and calligraphy, but also as a great expert
in textology and on ancient stone and bronze inscriptions. He
wrote the Shang Zhou Wenzi Shiyi 商周文字拾遺 (Compendium of
Surviving Shang and Zhou Writing).
■ Kong Guangsen 孔廣森 (1752 – 1786), a seventieth generation
descendant of Confucius and a great scholar, especially on the
Chunqiu 春秋 period (circa 770 – 476 B.C.) and on the Da Dai Liji
大戴禮記. In his books Chunqiu Gongyang Tongyi 春秋公羊經傳
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通義 and Da Dai Liji bu shu 大戴禮記補注 he made frequent use of
bronze inscriptions to support and prove his theses.
■ Ruan Yuan 阮元 (1764 – 1849), the most famous scholar of the
Qing 清 dynasty. In his book the Jiguzhai Zhongding Yiqi Kuanshi
積古齋鐘鼎彝器款識, with its preface dated 1804, he recorded
and commented on five hundred and fifty inscriptions, providing
translations and notes, some of which were contributed by other
contemporary scholars like Wu Dongfa 吳東發, Zhu Yun 朱筠, etc.
■ Xu Tongbo 徐同柏 (1775 – 1854), a great Qing dynasty scholar and
collector of bronzes. His collection included many archaic vessels,
but because of the chaotic conditions created by the outbreak of
the Opium War 鴉片戰爭(1840 – 1842 A.D.) and then the Taiping
Rebellion 太平天國 (1851 – 1864 A.D.), a book on the bronzes and
inscriptions in his collection was published only in 1906, long after
his death, under the name Conggutang Kuanshixue 從古堂款識學.
■ Wu Shifen 吳式芬 (1796 – 1856), who prepared a compilation of one
thousand, three hundred and thirty-four inscriptions entitled the
Jungu Lu Jinwen 攈古錄金文, which was not published until 1895,
after his death, also because of the chaotic conditions caused by the
Opium War 鴉片戰爭 (1840 – 1842 A.D.) and Taiping Rebellion 太
平天國 (1851 – 1864 A.D.).
■ Fang Junyi 方濬益 (died 1899), who wrote a book entitled
Zhuiyi Zhai Yiqi Kuanshi Kaoshi 綴遺齋彞器款識考釋 in which
one thousand, three hundred and eighty-two inscriptions were
recorded, but the book was not published until 1935.
■ Chen Jieqi 陳介祺 (1813 – 1884), one of the greatest bronze vessel
collectors of the Qing 清 dynasty, who personally owned about 130
to 140 vessels. He wrote a catalogue entitled Fuzhai Jijinlu 簠齋
集金錄 which included one hundred and eighty-eight inscriptions,
but which was published only in 1918.
■ Pan Zuyin 潘祖蔭 (1830 – 1890), a famous official from the Qing
Court, calligrapher and avid collector of archaic bronze vessels.
Pan had in his collection several hundred archaic bronzes. His
catalogue of fifty of the bronzes in his collection, entitled Pangulou
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