Page 20 - Deydier VOL.2 Meiyintang Collection of Chinese Bronses

Amongst the collectors of the Qing dynasty, who collected, researched and then the Taiping Rebellion, a book on the collection was published only in
published with scientific rigour, the most famous were:
- Qian Daxin (錢大昕) (1728 – 1804), a polymath who was one of the
most prominent historians and linguists of the time and who served as
a commissioner of education and examinations in Guangdong province
during the Qing dynasty. Qian had a special interest in phonetics, etymology
and epigraphy. An expert in ancient inscriptions, he collected and owned
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) is a
kind of dictionary of bronze and stone inscriptions, which is still consulted
to this day.
- Zhu Yun (朱筠) (1729 - 1780), who 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), a great calligraphist in his
own right and 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 of
inscriptions.
- Wu Dongfa (吳東發) (1747 – 1803), who is well-known today for his paintings
and calligraphy, but also as a great specialist in textology, especially on
stone and bronze. 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)
- Ruan Yuan (阮元) (1764 – 1849), was the most famous scholar of the Qing
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 studied five hundred
and fifty inscriptions, with translations and notes, some contributed by
other contemporary scholars like Wu Dongfa, Zhu Yun, 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 in 1840 and
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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 and
Taiping Rebellion.
- 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), probably the greatest bronze vessel
collector of the Qing 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.
- Wu Dacheng (吳大澂) (1835 – 1902). One thousand and forty-eight
inscriptions from Shang and Zhou dynasties are recorded in his Kezhai
Jigulu (愙齋集古錄) which was published only in 1916.
- Duan Fang (端方) (1861 – 1911), whose book, the Taozhai Jijinlu ( 陶齋
吉金錄), published in 1908, was the first in China in which rubbings of
ancient bronze inscriptions were published using the then new technique
of ‘gravura reproduction’.
Modern studies
th
At the end of the 19 century an extraordinary discovery deeply influenced
and changed the course of all studies of ancient bronze inscriptions. In the late
1890s, what were called in ignorance “dragon bones” made their appearance
in a number of shops selling traditional Chinese herbal medicine, where they
were pounded into powder and made into medicine. Many of these ‘dragon
bones’ bore very unusual and, at the time, largely ignored inscriptions etched
in the earliest form of Chinese writing. This writing was later termed Jia gu
wen’ (甲骨文) ‘tortoise and bone writing’ in Chinese, since all these inscriptions
were written either on tortoise shells or on animal bones, and ‘oracle bone
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