Meishu congshu 美術叢書

Meishu congshu 美術叢書 "Collectanea of books on fine arts" is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) compiled by the Republican-period scholars Deng Shi 鄧實 (1877-1951) and Huang Binhong 黄賓虹 (1865-1955) and published in 1936. It includes 257 books and treatises on various aspects and objects of Chinese art, from painting and calligraphy to woodcarving, jade and porcelain. Books on painting and calligraphy cover the largest part of the series.

Most books deal with the higher arts painting and calligraphy, while the "lesser arts” and crafts play a subordinated role. The collection was divided into four series (ji 集), divided into 10 sub-collections (ji 輯) each. Most books date from the Qing period 清 (1644-1911), but earlier books are also to be included. The arrangements of the collections is not very strictly geared to themes, and there are even a few books to be found that are not directly related to arts, like a biography of the calligrapher Wang Xizhi 王羲之 (303-361). The various texts are also not grouped thematically but present a very heterogenous picture of the whole collection.

The books included in the collection are quite rare – there are almost none of the great treatises on art included, with a few exceptions like Mi Fu's 米芾 (1051-1107) Shushi 書史 and Huashi 畫史, or Xie He's 謝赫 (6th cent.) Gu huapin lu 古畫品錄. This circumstance makes the Meishu congshu a very precious series.

The first three series of the Meishu congshu were originally published in 1913 by the Shenzhou Guoguang She 神州國光社 in Shanghai. A reprint was published in 1936 by the same publishing house. The fourth series was published in 1947. In 1963 the Guangwen Press 廣文書局 in Taibei published a new edition of the Meishu congshu, and in 1975 the Yiwen Yinshuguan 藝文印書館 also republished the series, enlarged by a fifth and sixth series compiled by Yan Yiping 嚴一萍 (1912-1987). In 1993, the whole series was republished by the Guoji Wenhua Chuban Gongsi 國際文化出版公司 in Beijing under the title Zhongguo gudai meishu congshu 中國古代美術叢書.