The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting, Second Series, 8 juan

Qing dynasty (1644�1911), Kangxi period (1662�1722)

Compiled by Wang Gai (1645�1707), Wang Shi (1649�1734), and Wang Nie (fl. late 17th�early 18th century)

Nanjing, Jiangsu Province: Jiezi yuan sheng guan, 1701

Illustrations printed in color; 9 columns per half folio of texts; 20 characters per column; white folding margin at center of folio; single-line borders; overall dimensions of volumes: 29.2 x 18.1 cm; block sizes of text: approx. 22.0 x 15.0 cm; stitched binding

Inventory number: 15817

The Jiezi yuan hua zhuan (Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting), issued in three series, was undoubtedly inspired by the earlier Shizhu zhai shuhua pu (The Ten Bamboo Studio Manual of Calligraphy and Painting) printed by Hu Zhengyan (1584�1674), but it was specifically designed as a pedagogical tool for aspiring painters, with a substantial amount of introductory text devoted to the basic principles of Chinese painting and subsequent sections that break down the elements of landscape painting so that figures, boats, trees, and rocks can be copied separately and mastered before the apprentice painter attempts to incorporate these elements into his own composition.

This second series of The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting has eight juan dealing with the subjects of orchids, bamboo, prunus, and chrysanthemums, greatly augmenting the original five juan of 1679, which were limited to landscapes.� The second series was enormously popular by virtue of its classical subject matter and superb visual quality.� It continued to be printed from the old woodblocks in Nanjing by the same Wang family for at least a century; editions from 1782 and 1800 are known to exist.