Collection and Research in the Song and Qing Dynasties
2 min readA lot of ancient bronze ware was unearthed in the Song Dynasty.The imperial court collected most of the bronze objects，and some by private collectors.In addition，quite a few manufacturers copied ancient bronze ware.This situation largely advanced the study of inscriptions or epigraphy，known as Jin Shi science.Jin means bronze ware，and Shi stands for inscriptions and portrait stones.
Scholars in the Song Dynasty recorded bronze ware collected by the imperial court and private collectors，made textual research，and identified inscriptions.The resulting research led to such compilations asArcheological Drawings by Lu Dalin，Bogu Drawings revised by the Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty，and Continued Archeological Drawings written by an unknown person.Bogu Drawings is the most important one.The book recorded 839 bronze ware articles in 20 categories.
Scholars in the Song Dynasty created the catalogue system for bronze articles.Each category of the objects in the book is accompanied by an overview，with each item copied in a three-dimensional outline，and the inscription on the article is reproduced.An explanation and textual research is provided.The size，capacity and weight of each part of the article are recorded in detail.Unfortunately，some of the copied inscriptions are distorted，and some explanations and textual research are subiective.
The number of collected bronze ware pieces in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties is smal.Until the early period of the Qing Dynasty，the number of bronze ware pieces displayed in palaces and collected by the imperial court increased significantly.In the 14th year of the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty，Emperor Qianlong ordered records of bronze ware collected by the imperial cout be based on the form of Bogu Drawings.The records were compiled in Xi Qing Gu Jian in 40 volumes.The book recorded 1，529 pieces of bronze ware.Later，Ning Shou Jian Gu and Xi Qing Xu Jian were published.However，these books recorded many fake works，and had many mistakes in the various categories，naming and chronology.Researchers put too much emphasis on the textual research of inscriptions and failed to grasp the general features of bronze ware.
In the late period of the Qing Dynasty，many books concerning bronze ware research and catalogues were compiled，and quite a few were better than Xi Qing Gu Jian in identification and publication quality.
