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Shaoxing neifu guqi ping 紹興內府古器評

Mar 20, 2024 © Ulrich Theobald

Shaoxing neifu guqi ping 紹興內府古器評 is a book on the imperial collection of ancient objects, mainly bronze vessels, compiled during the Southern Song period 南宋 (1127-1279) by Zhang Lun 張掄, courtesy name Caifu 材甫, of whom not much is known. He was a good writer of lyric-metre poetry (ci 詞) and made some studies on the Classic Yijing 易經 "Book of Changes".

The catalogue of 2 juan length describes nearly 200 bronze objects from the Han period 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE) and earlier that were owned by the imperial household (neifu 內府). The descriptive text was not Zhang's own, but was copied from the catalogue Bogutu 博古圖, but arranged in a different way. Only a small number of vessels is not listed in the Bogutu.

A comparison with statements in the catalogue Guange xulu 館閣續錄 shows that not all objects can have been in the possession of the imperial household during the Shaoxing reign-period 紹興 (1131-1162). The vessels Shang Yi Fu Xin you 商冀父辛卣, Fu Xin ding 父辛鼎, Zhou Nangong Zhong ding 周南宮中鼎 and Zhou Ru ding 周女鼎 were only acquired in 1225. It can therefore be concluded that the transmitted version of Zhang's text is not the original, but must have been altered or supplemented during the Ming period 明 (1368-1644). In spite of this doubtful quality, it found entrance in Mao Jin's 毛晉 (1599-1659) series Jindai mishu 津逮秘書. It is also found in the series Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.

Source:
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文郁, ed. (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 2, 1854.