and portraits”(衣冠物像略無中都儀形). It appears that Weï-ch'ï I-söng did not meddle with Chinese subjects at all, but merely painted exotic things in a style utterly different from that of his rival Yen Li-pön, who also painted Foreign subjects, though in the traditional native style.

a

Besides the pictures of the Imperial Museum we know the title of a scroll preserved during the Sung dynasty in the private collection of a rich amateur Chau Tu-ch'öng (), relation to the Imperial family of Sung, an abridged catalogue of whose rubbings and picture-scrolls has been preserved in Chóu Mi's work Yün-yen-kuo-yen-lu (R, 13. century). Among these Wei-ch'ï I-söng is represented by a painting entitled Kiu-tzï-wu-nü (), i. e. "Dancing Girls of Kiu-tzi, or Kutcha, in Eastern Turkestan". (S. Ts'ing-ho-shuhua-fang, chap. 1, p. 14).

We know further that as late as the year A.D. 1629 a painting, representing the "Tién-wang" (E) or "Heavenly Kings" (Devaradja?), covered by numerous seals and endorsements testifying its being the genuine work of Weï-ch'ï I-söng, existed. Among the seals is that of the Emperor Hui-tsung's Museum, although in the Catalogue no such title as "Tién-wang" is registered. Among the dozens of seals said to have been impressed on the scroll the latest is that of Hiang Tzï-king, known as Mo-lin-tau-jön (), whose endorsement bears the above date (Ts'ing-ho-shu-hua-fang,

, chap. 3, p. 33 seqq.). I am not able at present to trace the picture any further, but imagine, it has not been preserved to a much later period.

To all intents and purposes Weï-ch'ï I-söng was a Foreign element in Chinese art. Although it is, in the absence of any specimens in the shape of originals, or even copies, now im

possible to form an exact opinion about his style, it may be surmised that his work resembled the kind of art lately discovered in the sand-buried cities of Eastern Turkestan, with other words that it represents the Indian type, blended to a certain extent with Hellenistic influences. Dr. Stein (op. cit., p. 441) justly draws attention to "the very close affinity in style and most details in execution revealed with the so-called Graeco-Buddhist sculptures of the Peshawur valley and the neighboring region". "Whether that sculptural art, mainly of classical origin, had been brought direct from the Indus or from Bactria, there can be no further doubt, in view of these discoveries [regarding which cf. Dr. Stein's illustrations of pp. 436 seqq. of his book], that at an early date it found a true home and flourished in Khotan". Although these works of art were not backed by any epigraphical data, the Chinese bronze coins of the Han dynasty discovered in connection with some of them point to a period lying by centuries back of the period when the two Weï-ch'ïs, father and son, introduced their native art into China.

The reason why I attach so much importance to this painter is, because he may have been the founder of a school which has become the basis of pictorial art in Korea, and since the Japanese are said to have received some of their first inspirations from that quarter, the Indian character in the early art of Japan may be accounted for, if we look upon the Khotanese artist as the mediator. I base this view on a passage in the T'u-huipau-kién (chap. 5, p. 19), which says: "The Koreans paint portraits of Kuan-yin (Avalōketēshvara) and are very industrious; the origin of this art comes from Wei-ch'ï I-söng, whose style has been adopted there in its very detail" (NG 像甚工其原出尉遲乙儈筆法流動而至於

⇓). The same passage is quoted with slight variants from the Hua-kién, published in A.D. 1330 (s. Shu-hua-p'u, chap. 12, p. 33), but we may some day discover that the quotation is much older than it would now appear to be.

24. Li Ssi-sün (), a relation of the Imperial house of the Tang Dynasty, who, like several other members of his family, excelled in landscape-painting, was born in A.D. 651 and died in 716, according to some in 720. In 713 he had been appointed field-marshal (ta-tsiang-kün), for which reason his pictures are spoken of as "Marshal Li's Landscapes" (

U). He was looked upon as the best landscapist of the period, his reputation being chiefly due to his coloristic efforts. His paintings had a chrysochlorous shine about them (*). This was his specialty and was much imitated by later masters. It was on this account that he was looked upon as having furnished the pattern for landscape work as far as colors are concerned. His originality in the coloring of his pictures has caused later art historians to describe him as the founder of a school, and Tung K'i-ch'ang, the great art critic at the end of the Ming Dynasty (died A.D. 1636), called this "the Northern School" (pei-tsung,

"the Southern School" (nan-tsung,

as opposed to represented by Wang

Weï, the poet, who cultivated black and white painting. It appears that the difference between the two schools is not so much the style as the material used, the Southern School being the one confining its work to ink, the Northern one using colors, and the adherence to both schools by the same artist is, of course, not excluded. As being prominent representatives of the Northern School, however, Tung Ki-ch'ang mentions, besides Li Ssï-sün, his celebrated son, to whom should be added his brother Li Ssï-hui (), two sons of the latter, one of

whom was the celebrated statesman Li Lin-fu (, 8. Giles, Chin. Bibl. Dict., N° 1170) and a nephew of Lin-fu's, all of whom were landscapists in Li Ssï-sün's style. This style was further eagerly cultivated by certain prominent landscapists of the Sung period, especially Chau Kan (, who lived at the court of the pretender Li Yü of Nanking, died A.D. 978, and who probably reaches into the first generation of the Sung), the two painters of Imperial blood Chau Po-kü (1a 駒) and Chau Po-siau (趙伯驌) down to Ma Yüan (馬 and Hia Kui (). S. Giles, p. 41 seq.

25. Li Chau-tau (), the son of Li Ssï-sün, of whom Chang Yen-yüan says that, while perpetuating the style of his father, he even surpassed him in his work. In distinction from "the Great Marshal", his father, he was called "the Little, or Junior, Marshal Li" (Siau Li-tsiang-kün,

). His work was not confined to landscapes, though, "birds and beasts" being mentioned as another category in which he excelled. 26. Siẻ Tsi (, also called Ssï-t'ung,), a native of Fön

yin in Shan-si, was a celebrated calligraphist and painter. He was minister in the Board of Ceremonies under the Empress Wu-hóu about A.D. 700. He is considered the creator of the representations of the crane in various positions, which were imitated by later masters and may possibly be the prototype of the thousands of cranes standing, walking, flying, etc., we now find in works of art all over the Far East, the "Sié Cranes" () having become proverbial in Chinese literature, both in prose and poetry (cf. P'eï-wön-yün-fu, chap. 99 p. 157). His crane models enjoyed a reputation during the T'ang period similar to that of Han Kan as the creator of horse-pictures. S. a. Giles, p. 41.

27. Wu Tau-tzi (4), also called Wu Tau-hüan (