Qinghe shuha fang 清河書畫舫

Qinghe shuha fang 清河書畫舫 is a book on painting and calligraphy written during the late Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by Zhang Chou 張丑 (1577-1643), original name Qiande 謙德, courtesy name Shuyi 叔益 or Qingfu 青甫, style Mi'an 米庵 or Baomixuan 寶米軒, from Kunshan 昆山, Jiangsu. He was a famous collector and connoisseur and also wrote the books Qinghe huafang biao 清河書畫表, Zhenji rilu 真跡日錄, Fashu minghua jianwen biao 法書名畫見聞表 and Nanyang fashu biao 南陽法書表 (known was Zhangshi shuhua si biao 張氏書畫四表).

The title of the 12-juan-long book, "Qinghe River boat of calligraphies and paintings", was inspired by Huang Tingijan's 黃庭堅 (1045-1105) poem Mijia shuhua chuan 米家書畫船 "Barge of Master Mi's paintings and calligraphies", which goes back to Mi Fu's 米芾 (1051-1107) custom to take along his artwork on his many travels through the country.

Zhang Chou records and comments in his book a wide range of artworks of masters from the third century to the Ming period. He assures to have personally inspected all the paintings and calligraphies he describes. Zhang provides details not only on the biographies of artists, but also on details of artworks, like poems added, prefaces or afterwords (ti-ba 題跋), artists' notes like title and date (kuanzhi 款識) or seals of owners attached (yinji 印記). The book describes the skills and works of 49 calligraphers and 150 painters. The last fascicle of the book includes Zhang Chou's own "poems of the exemplary unity of past [masters' works]" (Jiangu baiyi shi 鑒古百一詩), with a total number of 101 poems.

The structure of the book imitates Zhang Yanyuan's 張彥遠 (early 8th cent.) Fashu yaolu 法書要錄, but Zhang Chou's scholarly methods are much more reliable. He critically corrects errors observed in older texts, not just books dedicated to arts, but also sources on artists, like Mi Fu's official biography in the official dynastic history Songshi 宋史. In spite of the great reliability of Zhang’s book, there are some artworks he did not personally inspect, but based his statements on other sources.

The book was finished in 1616. It is included in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Saoye Shanfang congchao 埽葉山房叢抄, Zhibuzuzhai congshu 知不足齋叢書 and Meishu congshu 美術叢書. Some editions include an appendix with Mi Fu's Baozhang daifang lu 寶章待訪錄 and parts of Zhou Mi's 周密 (1232-1298) Yunyan guoyan lu 雲煙過眼錄.