The Biography of Ku K\u27ai-chih, contained in the fifth volume of the Li Tai Ming Hua Chi (Notes on Famous Artists of Respective Periods), states that he wrote the Wei Chin Ming Ch\u27ên Hua Tsan (Eulogies on Portraits of Eminent Persons of the Wei and Chin Dynasties) in which he discussed on the subject in great details, and that he also wrote the Lun Hua (Discussions on Painting) to explain how to copy old masterpieces; this Biography ends with a paragraph beginning with an introductory sentence: “K’ai-chih, in his Wei Chin Shêng Liu Hua Tsan, said as follows.” (Ming Ch\u27ên and Shêng Liu are the same in meaning.) The Lun Hua and the Wei Chin Shêng Liu Hua Tsan mentioned here seem confused in appearance, for the former lists and criticizes ancient paintings while the latter discribes about the attitude of mind, the materials and the techniques required in copying old works. An attempt was therefore made to interchangesettle the apparent contradiction between their titles and their contents (KIMBARA, Shōgo: “Studies on Art Criticism in Ancient China). However, the Wei Ching Shêng Liu Hua Tsan by Ku K\u27ai-chih existed separately, and was different from what was quoted in the Li Tai Ming Hua Chi. Portions of this Hua Tsan are found quoted in annotations on the Shih Shuo Hsin Yü (a collection of Chinese annecdotes) and in annotations by Li Shan on the Wên Hsuan (a collection of old Chinese writings). Judged from these scattered segments, the original form of the Hua Tsan by Ku K\u27ai-chih appears to have been modelled after the Hua Tsan written by Ts\u27ao Chih in the Wei Dynasty: that is to say, it probably was a versified writing consisting of four-character lines preceded by an introductory paragraph. This is the real Wei Chin Shêng Liu Hua Tsan, or the Wei Chin Ming Chên Hua Tsan “in which he discussed in great details” according to the Li Tai Ming Hua Chi. The discussions in the Wei Chin Shêng Liu Hua Tsan are not on the characteristics and value of the paintings as works of art, but are on the personalities of the figure subjects depicted therein. They are notes, not on the paintings themselves but on their subject matters. This was the case even with Ku K\u27aichih, who was an artist and art critic of a very creative mind. This fact may be understood to represent an aspect of the characteristic Chinese term of view on art. The portion entitled Wei Chin Shêng Liu Hua Tsan in the Li Tai Ming Hua Chih is nothing but a part of the Lun Hua. It explains the mental and material preparations necessary in copying old paintings, while the portion entitled Lun Hua comments on the styles of old masters in order to tell what are important in copying their works. The two are parts of the same writing, Lun Hua, giving instructions for copyists. The present writer is inclined to think that a careless editor in a later period gave the title Wei Chin Shêng Liu Hua Tsan to the second half of what had been recorded as Lun Hua in the Li Tai Ming Hua Chi, simply because a mention of the Hua Tsan is found in a previous paragraph of the Biography
