Scholars › Historian
Zhang Yanyuan
Late Tang art historian whose Record of Famous Painters of All Dynasties is the first systematic history of Chinese painting.
In an archive hall, tall wooden shelves hold scrolls and bound books with small tags, and one person climbs a ladder with their back turned; a long table in front holds an unrolled river map, a bronze lamp and a copper jug, with a city wall seen through the window.
Also known as Zi Aibin
- Roles
- Historian
Zhang Yanyuan, courtesy name Aibin, from Yishi in Puzhou, belonged to a family that produced chancellors for three generations and held a great art collection; he rose to Chief Minister of the Court of Judicial Review. In 847 he completed the ten-chapter Record of Famous Painters of All Dynasties, which surveys the origins, techniques and connoisseurship of painting and gives biographies of painters. He also compiled the Essentials of Calligraphy, and the story of Zhang Sengyou 'dotting the dragon's eyes' appears in his Record.
Life and times
Dates Dates unknown; active in the late Tang (c. 847–879 CE)