Description
Book SynopsisShows how a world of social meaning is evident in the literary subgenre of painting manuals, and provides insight into the links between art history, print culture, and social history
Trade Review"This is a scholarly investigation into a subject that has many fascinating aspects – artistic, social, and economic. Park’s extensive research, evident in the careful treatment of the material, is a welcomed addition to the relatively new field of scholarship of Ming cultural history."
-- Patricia Karetzsky * Frontiers of History in China, Vol. 8, No. 3 *
"This study of pioneering, late-Ming dynasty painting manuals by Zhou Luijing reveals how access to cultural knowledge played out in the dynamic social world of the late Ming dynasty. Recommended."
* Choice *
"To date, there are few detailed studies of huapa in English, which makes Park’s book a welcomed addition to the literature. His book serves to introduce an important and still controversial aspect of late Ming artistic theory and production."
-- Anne Burkus-Chasson * Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies *
"[Art by the Book] is a meticulously researched social history of the content and function of painting manuals published during the forty-year period between 1580 and 1620. . . . The book is most absorbing when Park traces the intimate connections of the manuals not only to the social pleasures of performing with brush and ink, but also to the more private emotions generated by the process of learning to use the brush well and fluidly."
-- Lisa Claypool * The Journal of Asian Studies *
"Well-researched and eloquently written, and the joy to read is enriched by the extensive use of high-quality illustrations. . . . It is warmly recommended for readers interested in Ming cultural and social history, print and book culture, as well as visual culture."
-- Hang Lin * Asiatische Studien/ Etudes Asiatiques *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Chronology of Chinese Dynasties
Introduction
William Shakespeare, a Great Painter?
1. Genre and Biography
2. Words without Images
3. Portraits of the Characteristic
4. Icons of Love and Marginality
5. The Art of Being Artistic
Coda: The Late Ming at the Crossroads
Appendix 1 | Locations and Editions of Late Ming Painting Manuals
Appendix 2 | Lost Manuals and Albums of the Ming Dynasty
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
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