Li Liufang

Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden (芥子園畫傳, Jieziyuan Huazhuan), sometimes known as Jieziyuan Huapu (芥子園畫譜), is a printed manual of Chinese painting compiled during the early-Qing Dynasty. Many renowned later Chinese painters, like Qi Baishi, began their drawing lessons with the manual. It is an important early example of colour printing. The work was commissioned by Shen Xinyou (沈心友), whose mansion in Lanxi, Zhejiang province was known as Jieziyuan, or Mustard Seed Garden. Shen possessed the teaching materials of Li Liufang (李流芳), a painter of the late-Ming dynasty, and commissioned Wang Gai(王概), Wang Shi (王蓍), Wang Nie (王臬), and Zhu Sheng (诸升) to edit and expand those materials with the aim of producing a manual for landscape painting. The result was the first part of Jieziyuan Huazhuan, published in 1679, in five colours. It comprises five juan (卷) or fascicles. Li Yu, as the publisher, wrote a preface for this part. The first fascicle deals with the general principles of landscape painting, the second the painting of trees, the third that of hills and stones, the fourth that of people and houses, and the fifth comprises the selected works of great landscape painters. The volume also...