Research In Late Qing Dynasty (1840-1911) Scholar Connoisseur Activities

In Qing Dynasty, with the prosperity of textology and the revival of epigraphy, it was verycommon that scholars and intellectuals collect antiques and precious objects widely by certifyingand replenishing the history, interpreting famous works. The activities of appreciating andcollecting were more and more frequent, and reached the peak in Jiajing period. With the declineof country state after the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods, the antiques collection activities bygovernment were less than before, while the private collection were getting more and moreflourishing. As the main part of private collection in the Late Qing Dynasty, scholars played anmagistral role in antiques appreciation and collection who had influence on the other social strata,thus forming the social fashion of advocating antiques, playing with antiques, appreciatingantiques, collecting antiques and inheriting antiques. In the periods after Daoguang and Xianfeng,Internal revolt and foreign invasion were aggravating constantly. Facing the upheaval of thecountry, the befall, costom and mind state of scholars were more complicated than the ones inany other periods in history, their antiques appreciation and collection activities were alsodifferent from the activities in the other historical periods. This paper take the appreciation andcollection activities of scholars in the Late Qing Dynasty(1840-1911) as an entry point,collection of refined writings and entertainment were surrounded to discuss. This paper aims atclearing the appreciation and collection activities development and evolvement, clarifying themain mode of appreciating and collecting, exploring the basic characteristics ot appreciating andcollecting, and open out the inner factors of advocating antiques, playing with antiques,appreciating antiques and the aesthetic taste and spiritual pursuit, trying to rebuild theappreciation and collection ecology with scholars as main body at “troubled times”.This paper contains three parts:Part one, the study of appreciation and collection activities by the following two kinds ofCollection of refined writings: article meeting and forming association.Part two, the study of appreciation and collection activities by bazaar entertainment andother entertainments.Part three, the exploration about the effects of appreciation and collection activities on artcreation, academic research, art market and clutural lives at that period.This paper makes up a deficiency to the research on art appreciation, art marketdevelopment at some extent in the Late Qing Dynasty. With the review on the art history in theLate Qing Dynasty with the angle of art appreciation and collection, this paper is hoped topromote the futher development of researches on art history and related fields.