Ancient Plum Spectra

The research of this thesis focuses on the painting manuals with the theme of "plum". They are the painting techniques consisting of three types:techniques, paintings, and the combination of them.The plum manuals date from the Song dynasty. There were Fangcun Mei Pu (the plum manual of Fan village), Meihua Xishen Pu (the plum book), and Mei Pu (a book written by Zhao Mengjian). Their images or words laid a foundation for the later creation. Songzai Mei Pu (the plum manual) of the Yuan dynasty was a collection of pale-dark plum art of the13th-14th centuries, reflecting the theoretical level of the mature period of painting plum. There were numerous plum manuals during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The potpourri of plum manuals appeared in the Ming dynasty. In the Qing dynasty, the plum manuals absorbed the western esthetics, such as the perspective and image, showing us that the writers of plum manuals adopted many ways.This thesis is divided into two parts. One focuses on plum literature, horticulture and plum paintings. The other focuses on plum manuals in the past dynasties. I tried to view the plum manuals in each historical period with broad vision, and systematically elaborate the interaction between art and culture and plum manual writers that makes the plum manual form its own style. Also I explored the features and development of plum manuals in each historical period as well as excerpts among some plum manuals. I found that some of them were bogus manuals.