28 THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 



who can ignore such resemblance becomes what Ssu-ma Ch'ien was among 

 prose writers and Tu Fu among poets" — an artist of the very front rank. 



The "Hsiian ho hua p'u" gives the titles of 249 of his pictures in the 

 Imperial collection (twelfth century), all of birds, fruit, flowers, and fishes. 

 Herbert A . Giles. 



CHAO CH'ANG. Sung Dynasty. Eleventh Century. 



Among painters of flowers and fruit, Chao Ch'ang, known to the Japanese 

 as Cho-sho, holds a very high place. In his youth, at the beginning of the 

 eleventh centiu-y, he wandered about a good deal in modem Ssiich'uan, 

 and left behind him many of his " traces, ' ' as the Chinese call them ; but late 

 in his life he went back and bought up as many of them as he could obtain, 

 so that his pictures became rare in the market. " Other artists," says one 

 critic, "produce an accurate resemblance of the flowers they paint; but the 

 art of Chao Ch'ang not only produces an accurate resemblance, but hands 

 over to you the very soul of the flower along with it." " Every morning, 

 before the dew had gone, he would walk around the garden and examine 

 some flower carefully, turning it over and over in his hand. Then he would 

 prepare his paints and paint it. He called himself Draw-from-Lif e ; but 

 people in general declared that his flowers were dyed, and not produced 

 by colour laid on. This in fact is a test of their genuineness: If when 

 rubbed with the hand no colour comes off on the fingers, the flowers are 

 indubitably from the brush of Chao Ch'ang." 



The "Hstian ho hua p'u" gives the title of 154 of his works in the Im- 

 perial collection, all in the lines indicated above. Herbert A. Giles. 



CHANG S^NG-YU. Liang Dynasty. 



The Liang dynasty lasted from A. D. 479 to 557, and produced about 

 16 painters whose names have been handed down. 



The list opens with three Imperial princes, and we are told that one of 

 these used to dash off likenesses of his guests in the banquet hall, which 

 were easily recognized by children on whom their resemblance was tested. 



But before proceeding, it is worth while to mention that, according to Lo 

 Pin-wang, a poet of the seventh century, wall paintings were first introduced 

 under this dynasty. The new departure, as will be seen, was obviously in 

 response to a desire on the part of Buddhists for ornamentation in their 

 temples, from which the custom very naturally spread to the Imperial 

 Palace and the mansions of wealthy individuals. 



Fourth on the list stands one of China's really great painters, Chang Seng- 

 yu, known to the Japanese as Cho-so-yu, whom Anderson alludes to as the 

 next artist after Ts ao Pu-hsing, "concerning whom any precise information 

 is attainable." As a matter of fact, the information concerning Chang 

 S^ng-yu is not precise as that which is obtainable concerning many painters 

 of much earlier times. We do not know the dates either of his birth or 

 death. We hear of him first of all about A. D. 510, employed as keeper of 

 tlie pictures under one of the Imperial princes. The reigning Emperor, a 



