Research On The Existence Of The Imperial Art Academy Before The Song Dynasty

When compare the ancient documents about Chinese history of paintings in the past dynasties and the works of Chinese painting history which written by Chinese contemporary fine arts historians, the writer of this paper found that Chinese contemporary painting historians do research on painting history not accurately. This phenomenon led to there are some mistakes in many current textbooks concerning painting history. For example, from the beginning of last century to now, almost all the works concerning painting history consider that there was an imperial art academy set up in Western Shu which was the start of the imperial art academy in Chinese painting history. Especially from the late 1980s it has almost been the historical fact universally acknowledged in the circle of fine arts history in China. But when consults the original works concerning the history of fine arts in Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty, the writer of this paper could not find the exact records about this so-called historical fact, and not only there are no references of the sources of historical facts, but also the inference was not given reasons in those works which put forward such "historical fact" clearly. In such condition, the writer of this paper began to doubt the so-called historical fact. In thesecond chapter of this paper the author questions this matter.During surveys the above-mentioned historical fact, the writer of this paper notices that the words are still not clear when the contemporary historian of fine arts describe the imperial art academy in Tang Dynasty and Southern Dynasty. For instance, was there an imperial art academy in Tang Dynasty on earth? How went the court painters in Tang Dynasty (including what were their task? how were they organized? how were their official positions promoted?) All these problems are ignored in the circle of fine arts history in China for a long time. So the author answers these questions and researches on them in the first chapter.As for the research on the imperial art academy in Southern Tang Dynasty in the circle of fine arts history in China, there are mistakes, too. Through the careful study of the settled conclusion about imperial art academy in Southern Tang Dynasty that made by the historian of fine arts in the contemporary and present age, the author finds that the matter concerning the imperial art academy in Southern Tang Dynasty was exaggerated. Hence the author clears up this matter in the third chapter.Sum up the above expounding, what the author wants to do is to remedy or further recognize the matterconcerning the imperial art academy before hanlin fine arts academy in Song Dynasty. Naturally, the title of this paper is research on the imperial art academy before the Song Dynasty. In this paper, the main objective of the author is to clear up the historical truth about the above matters by the attitude of seeking truth in research. Finally, what should be explain is that the above words are written in the author's train of thought, that is to say, the author notices the imperial art academy in Western Shu firstly, then gets interest in research on the imperial art academy in Tang Dynasty and Southern Tang Dynasty.