Par 3 Insects and Flowers, part 1

what follows is an overview of the origins of the initial printing of this book of block prints. It is not known whether these prints were of Chinese or Japanese publication, or when.

Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden (Jieziyuan huazhuan), sometimes known as Jieziyuan huapu, is arguably the most influential painting manual produced during the Qing Dynasty. Many renowned Chinese painters, like Qi Baishi (1864-1957), began their drawing lessons with the manual.

The work was commissioned by Shen Xinyou, son-in-law of the famous playwright Li Yu, whose mansion in Jinling (now Nanjing) was known as Jieziyuan or Mustard Seed Garden. Shen possessed the teaching materials of Li Liufang (1575-1629), a painter of the late-Ming Dynasty, and commissioned Wang Gai (ca.1645-ca.1710) to edit and expand those materials with the aim of producing a manual for painting. The result was the first part of Jieziyuan Huazhuan, which, published in 1679, comprises five juan or volumes. The first volume deals with the general principles of landscape painting, the second the painting of trees, the third that of hills and rocks, the fourth that of figure and houses, and the fifth comprises the selected works of great landscape painters. Two more parts, which deal with the painting of flora and fauna, were produced by Wang and his two brothers in 1701. Shen promised a forth part on figure painting, but never published one. In the early 19th century, it was produced by some quick profit-seeking publisher. Chao Xun (1852-1917), dissatisfied with the low quality of this sequel, produced his own version, as well as carefully reproduced the first three parts. Today the reprint of the manual is usually based on Chao’s version.