Zhou Mi's Record of Clouds and Mist Passing Before One's Eyes: An Annotated Translation.

• Author: Chou, Diana Yeongchau
• Position: Reviews of Books - Book Review

Zhou Mi's Record of Clouds and Mist Passing Before One's Eyes: An Annotated Translation. By ANKENEY WEITZ. Sinica Leidensia, 54. Leiden: BRILL, 2002. Pp. xiv + 398, illus. $115.

Of much importance is this thirteenth-century Chinese text composed by Zhou Mi, who is well known to modern scholars and art historians. However, his writings on art have not been fully studied. There has been limited study of Yuan-dynasty texts on art. Weitz's book is the first comprehensive study of a text on art from this period, and her contribution is invaluable. This is insightful and painstaking research and one of the few fully annotated text translations in Chinese art history. (Most notable among such translations are Alexander Soper's Kuo Jo-hsu's Experiences in Painting [American Council of Learned Societies, 1951], William Acker's Some T'ang and Pre-T'ang Texts on Chinese Painting [Brill, 1974], and Charles Lachman's Evaluation of Song Dynasty Painters of Renown [Brill, 1989].) Weitz engages scholars and art historians with an innovative and fresh way of looking at political, historical, social, and cultural aspects of the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1279-1368). Historians have perceived that the Mongols' invasion of China ignited anti-Mongol hatred among the Chinese literati and cultural elite. Weitz's study of the biography of Zhou Mi and of other contemporary collectors indicates that the anti-Mongol notion has been overstated in studies of Chinese history. She convincingly depicts the dynamic climate in art collecting and trading in thirteenth-century Hangzhou and broadens our scope in approaching Chinese art.

This book consists of three parts. Part 1, "Art Collecting in Early Yuan China," has three chapters: "Zhou Mi: His Life and Times," "The Social History in the Record," and "Zhou Mi's Texts on Art." Part 2 is dedicated to an annotated translation of Zhou Mi's Record of Clouds and Mist Passing Before One's Eyes. Part 3 offers six appendices, including an index of artworks in the Record, a catalogue of extant artworks, prices cited for artworks in early Yuan sources, categories of objects in the Record, the Chinese text of the Record, and handwritten symbols in the text of the Record.

In chapter one Weitz discusses the life, study, travel, and social status of Zhou Mi and his ancestors. Weitz begins in 1232, the year of Zhou Mi's birth and inheritance, travels with him during his twenties for a few years of idleness, and situates him at his first...