Between tradition and modernity: 'Strange Fish of Different Species', 'Products of Wenzhou' by Zhao Zhiqian (1829--1884) and their relationship to the epigraphic studies of late Qing

Zhao Zhiqian's (1829--1884) main contributions to the Epigraphic movement can be summarized in three points. First, he was the earliest seal-carver who actively employed the aesthetics of newly discovered ancient materials such as bronzes, coins, and epitaphs to enrich his work. The jottings, remarks, and pictorial engravings on his seals create an artistic form, which was an innovation to the field. Second, his text Supplement to the Record of Visiting Stelae under the Heavens demonstrates an epigraphic scholar's empirical training in the application of philological knowledge to rectify ancient inscribed characters. Without the accumulated efforts of numerous Qing dynasty scholars, it would not be possible to decode the oracle bones of the Shang dynasty, offering a better understanding of early Chinese civilization. Finally, during his sojourn to the southeastern coast of China, he produced a series of paintings that were the crystallization of his pursuit of evidential studies (kaozheng). Although this type of "nature study" did not continue in his later paintings, it signifies a major step towards actualizing evidential research in a pictorial form.; Perplexingly, after accomplishing such a significant milestone in his career, Zhao abandoned his intellectual curiosity in nature and adopted a more calligraphic style for his paintings after 1863. Unlike the descriptive and precise style evident in his Strange Fish of Different Species and Products of Wenzhou of 1861, Zhao's later paintings display a strong awareness of epigraphy---especially Northern style calligraphy. Inevitably, a conflict arose between his early pursuit of precise pictorial representation and his later interest in creating a two-dimensional pictographic effect. The development of Zhao's painting testifies to the unique characteristics of Chinese painting, which espouses a fundamentally different concern regarding the nature of painting. When radical Chinese reformers of the early twentieth century claimed traditional Chinese painting needed "revitalization" and advocated the adoption of Western techniques such as perspective and chiaroscuro, they overlooked the fact that their proposal had been experimented with, and abandoned by Zhao Zhiqian fifty years earlier.