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There are two books on painting with the title Tiewang shanhu 鐵網珊瑚 "Nourishing pearls with an iron net" (a technique used by pearl producers), namely one by Zhao Qimei 趙琦美 (1563-1624), called Zhaoshi tiewang shanshu 趙氏鐵網珊瑚 and more important, and one by Du Mu 都穆 (1459-1525), called Dushi tiewang shanshu 都氏鐵網珊瑚.
Zhao Qimei 趙琦美, courtesy name Yuandu 元度, style Qingchang Daoren 清常道人, hailed from Changshu 常熟, Jiangsu, and inherited the post of his father as a director in the Ministry of Justice (xingbu langzhong 刑部郎中). He was a famous collector of his time and compiled the catalogue Maiwangguan shumu 脈望館書目.
His book Tiewang shanhu with a length of 16 juan was in earlier times believed to have been compiled by Zhu Cunli 朱存理 (1444-1513), while only the afterword (ba 跋) was proven as a text written by Zhao Qimei. In the postface, Zhao says that he once obtained two incomplete anonymous books on painting and calligraphy from the collection of Qin Silin 秦四麟, namely Shupin 書品, and Huapin 畫品, both with a length of 4 juan each. The same titles were in the possessions of the collector Jiao Hong 焦竑 (1540-1620) and allowed to reconstruct the original texts. Zhao used these two texts and enlarged them by information on further paintings and calligraphy artwork.
The final book discusses more than 400 pieces of calligraphies (10 juan) and paintings (6 juan) of various types, including stele inscriptions, prefaces (tiba 題跋) to paintings, and poems. Zhao quotes original texts and then discusses them according to content and artistic aspects. His commentaries are very helpful to learn techniques of discerning originals from forgeries, and to analyse different versions and copies.
In his edition from 1729, Nian Xiyao 年希堯 (1671-1738) alleges to own a 14-juan version that was Zhu Cunli's original text, but if such a book ever existed, it is lost. Zhu Cunli's book Shanhu munan 珊瑚木難 has nothing to to with Zhao's Tiewang shanhu.
The text is included in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書.
Du Mu, courtesy name Xuanjing 玄敬, style Nanhao 南濠 from Wuxian 吳縣 (today's Suzhou 蘇州, Jiangsu), is better known for his travel report Xishishi 西使記, his study on Chinese characters Jinxie linlang 金薤琳琅 or the poetry collections Nanhao shilüe 南濠詩略 and Nanhao shihua 南濠詩話. His art book of 20 juan length consists of three parts, the first of which (fascicles 1-4) consists of notes (ti-ba) on paintings and calligraphies, while the second one (5) is actually a book of its own, with the title Yuyibian 寓意編, in which the author noted down his observations on various artworks. The third and longest part (6-20) was actually written after Du Mu's passing away. It includes He Langjun's 何良俊 (1506-1573) Shuhua mingxin lun 書畫銘心錄 (6), while the rest consists of copies from various authors like Zhang Lun's 張掄 (fl. 1162) Shaoxing guqi ping 紹興古器評, Tang Yan's 湯鬳 Huajian 畫鑒, Zhao Xihu's 趙希鵠 (1170-1242) Dongtian qinglu 洞天清錄 or parts of Zhou Mi's 周密 (1232-1298) Yunyan guoyan lu 雲煙過眼錄.