Menghuanju huaxue jianming 夢幻居畫學簡明

Menghuanju huaxue jianming 夢幻居畫學簡明 "Concise treatise on painting from the Dream-Illusion Studio" is a book on painting written during the Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Zheng Ji 鄭績 (fl. 1866), courtesy name Jichang 紀常, from Xinhui 新會, Guangdong.

The book with a length of 5 juan specialises in manual on painting techniques and theory. It is divided into five volumes, covering the painting of landscape (shanshui 山水), persons (renwu 人物), floral subjects (huahui 花卉), birds (lingmao 翎毛), and beasts and domestic animals (shouchu 獸畜). The core aim of the book is to thoroughly establish a set of principles and structure, so that learners may advance step by step.

The first fascicle is devoted to landscape painting. It includes seventeen sections, covering a general discussion on landscape painting, historical precedents, form, concept, brushwork, ink usage, composition, meaning, texture strokes, trees, springs and streams, use of the ruler for architectural perspectives, colour application, dotting moss, distant mountains, inscriptions, and seals.

Because Zheng Ji regarded form and likeness (xing si 形似) as the foundation of the rules and structure in painting, he laid out detailed principles for landscape painting, with special attention to trees, compositional placement, springs and streams, and distant mountains.

Juan 2 focuses on figure painting. It contains eight sections with a total of 26 entries, covering a general discussion on figure painting, historical precedents, the detailed gongbi 工筆 style, the expressive freehand style (yibi 意筆), the mode of uninhibited brushwork (yibi 逸筆), proportionality, painting eyes, and capturing character or moral quality (xiaopin 肖品). The section on gongbi (meticulous figure painting) analyses various stylistic brush methods, such as the "flowing-cloud method" (liuyun fazhechai fa 折釵法), the "spinning-leek method" (xuanjiu fa 旋韭法), the light-outline method (danmiao fa 淡描法) or the "nail-head and mouse-tail methods" (dingtou chuwei fa 釘頭鼠尾法).

Judging from the structure of the book and the relative weight of each volume, it places landscape painting first, elaborating this skill in great detail on the brush and ink methods and texture strokes of various schools. In the following sections, each subject is addressed in just a few words, summarising its essential points and giving a complete outline of the art of painting. As a specialised manual on painting techniques, the Menghuanju huaxue jianming not only continues the traditional theories of Chinese painting but also places great emphasis on the importance of accurate form and likeness in painting. This characteristic may bear a historical connection with the later emergence of the Lingnan School of Painting in Guangdong (Lingnan huapai 嶺南畫派), which also valued realism and natural observation.

The text exists in a manuscript version of the Zhouyang'an Studio 周養庵藏 and is included in the series Hualun congkan 畫論叢刊.