Mengyuan shuhua lu 夢園書畫錄

Mengyuan shuhua lu 夢園書畫錄 "Calligraphies and paintings of Dream Garden" is a book on calligraphy and painting written during the late Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Fang Junyi 方濬頤 (1815-1889), courtesy name Zizhen 子箴, style Mengyuan 夢園, from Dingyuan 安徽, Anhui.

The 25-juan-long book is a collection of model calligraphy and famous paintings that Fang Junyi acquired over many years during his official travels. He invited his friends Xu Feng'en 許奉恩 (d. 1878), and Tang Shihou 湯世厚 to compile the work following the format of Gao Shiqi's 高士奇 (1645-1703) Jiangcun xiaoxia lu 江村銷夏錄. The author presents descriptions and comments of 471 artworks from the Liang 梁 (502-557) to the Qing period.

The inclusion of complete transcriptions of calligraphic works varies depending on their content. While some are transcribed in whole, other works are only selectively transcribed. This editorial choice is because some calligraphic texts are either lost to history or have already been published in literary collections. At the same time, others are extant and also included in published compilations. By omitting large amounts of text that would be redundant or of limited value, the book achieves a sense of conciseness. It avoids overwhelming the reader with excessive or repetitive content. Although the Mengyuan shuhua lu is relatively well-organised in structure and provides fairly detailed records, the majority of the works it includes are from the Ming and Qing periods, and many of these works are of relatively low quality. As a result, its breadth of use falls short when compared to other catalogues such as Moyuan huiguan 墨緣彙觀, Daguanlu 大觀錄, and Shigutang shuhua huikao 式古堂書畫彙考. Nevertheless, as a calligraphy and painting catalogue, it still offers relatively complete information and serves as a useful reference. For this reason, it should not be overlooked by researchers in the field of art history.

The work was printed in Chengdu in 1877.