Emperors' treasures : Chinese art from the National Palace Museum, Taipei / edited by Jay Xu and He Li ; with contributions by Jay Xu, Fung Ming-chu, Ho Chuan-hsin, Alfreda Murck, Tianlong Jiao, He Li, and curators from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.
"North Clarendon, VT : Distributed by Tuttle Publishing (North America, Latin America & Europe)”

“Published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name, co-organized by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and held at the Asian Art Museum, June 17-September 18, 2016, and at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 23, 2016-January 22, 2017. (Verso of title page)”

“All catalogue entries were contributed in Chinese by authors from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and translated into English by a team of researchers and scholars from the United States"--Authors and translators, page 243.

"Emperors' Treasures features artworks from the renowned National Palace Museum, Taipei. It encompasses paintings, calligraphy, bronzes, ceramics, lacquer ware, jades, and textiles exemplifying the finest craftsmanship and imperial taste. The Chinese art book book explores the identities of eight Chinese rulers--seven emperors and one empress--who reigned from the early 12th through early 20th centuries. They are portrayed in a story line that highlights artworks of their eras, from the dignified Song to the coarse yet subtle Yuan, and from the brilliant Ming until the final, dazzling Qing period. Emperors' Treasures examines each ruler's distinct contribution to the arts and how each developed his or her aesthetic and connoisseurship"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 244-248) and index.

Chronology of dynastic China -- Emperors of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties -- Imperial art collections and transitions in China / Ho Chuan-hsin -- Exceptional emperors : the antiquities collections of Huizong and Qianlong / Tianlong Jiao -- A millennium of imperial collecting and patronage / Alfreda Murck -- Catalogue of the exhibition. Song Dynasty (960-1279) : a great patron leads China's renaissance / He Li ; Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) : Mongol rule captures a rustic aesthetic / He Li ; Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) : rulers restore a bright (Ming) culture / He Li ; Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) : Manchu emperors and an empress attain extravagant art / He Li -- Authors and translators.

Possessing the past : treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei / Wen C. Fong, James C.Y. Watt ; with contributions by Richard M. Barnhart [and others].

Includes bibliographical references (pages 610-624) and index.

Title device: 中華瑰寶.

目錄  · · · · · · 大洋彼岸的“玉”華天寶 -- 加拿大皇家安大略博物館藏中國玉器觀感 -- 館藏中國古代玉器選粹 -- 新石器時代 -- 商周時期 -- 春秋戰國時期 -- 漢魏晉南北朝時期 -- 隋唐宋遼金元時期 -- 明代 -- 清代 -- 館藏中國古代玉器概覽 -- 捐贈者名單.

The National Palace Museum : a history of the collection / Chang Lin-sheng -- Chinese art and cross-cultural understanding / Wen C. Fong -- Jade ; The Bronze Age and the first empires / James C.Y. Watt -- The imperial cult ; Some cultural prototypes ; Monumental landscape painting ; Sung imperial portraits ; The scholar-official as artist / Wen C. Fong -- The Imperial Painting Academy / James Cahill -- Some Buddhist images / Wai-kam Ho and Wen C. Fong -- Antiquarianism and naturalism / James C.Y. Watt -- The orthodox lineage of Tao / Wen C. Fong -- Imperial portraits of the Yüan Court / Wen C. Fong and Maxwell K. Hearn -- Reunification and revival ; The artist as hero / Maxwell K. Hearn -- Imperial portraiture of the Ming Dynasty / Wen C. Fong -- The return of the academy / Richard M. Barnhart -- The literati artists of the Ming dynasty ; The expanding literati culture ; Creating a synthesis / Wen C. Fong -- Official art and commercial art / James C.Y. Watt -- The orthodox school of painting ; The individualist masters / Wen C. Fong -- The antique-elegant / James C.Y. Watt -- Imperial patronage of the arts under the Ch'ing / Wen C. Fong.

Only two major exhibitions from the fabled Chinese Palace Museum collections have been seen in the West - the first in London in 1935-36 and the second in the United States in 1961-62. These two exhibitions provided an extraordinary stimulus to the study of Chinese culture, revolutionized Asian art studies in the West, and opened the eyes of the public to the artistic traditions of Chinese civilization. Possessing the Past: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei is the publication that accompanies the third great exhibition of Chinese masterworks to travel to the West. Written by scholars of both Chinese and Western cultural backgrounds and conceived as a cultural history, the book tells the story of Chinese art from its foundations in the Bronze Age and the first empires through the rich diversity of art produced during the Sung, Yuan, Ming, and Ch'ing dynasties, contrasting China's absolutist political structure with the humanism of its artistic and moral philosophy. Synthesizing scholarship of the past three decades, the authors present not only the historical and cultural significance of individual works of art and analyses of their aesthetic content, but a reevaluation of the cultural dynamics of Chinese history, reflecting a fundamental shift in the study of Chinese art from a focus on documentation and connoisseurship to an emphasis on the cultural significance of the visual arts. National treasures passed down from dynasty to dynasty, the works of art that now form the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, originally constituted the personal collection of the Ch'ien-lung emperor, who ruled China from 1736 to 1795. Two centuries after Ch'ien-lung ascended the dragon throne, when the Japanese invaded China in 1937, the nearly 10,000 masterworks of painting and calligraphy and more than 600,000 objects and rare books and documents - which had earlier been moved from Peking to Nanking following the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in 1931 - were packed in crates and evacuated to caves near the wartime capital, Chungking. It was not until after World War II that the crated treasures were moved to their present home in Taiwan, where today they represent a major portion of China's artistic and cultural legacy.

Zhongguo wenwu jinghua 中國文物精華 = Gems of China's cultural relics = Chūgoku bunbutsu no sui 中囯文物の粋 (1993) / Zhongguo wenwu jinghua bianji weiyuanhui bian 中國文物精華編輯委員會編.
Chinese, English & Japanese.
Gift of PRC President Zhang Zemin 江澤民.

Released as serial annually in 1990- Irregular?