May 07 2007
Chronology of Shutao’s Book Collection 藏书年谱
By Li Guoqing 李国庆 published in 2000. A comprehensive book on Shutao’s bibliophile journey in chronicle order. Details and anecdotes on major acquisitions, the engraved ancient books that he financed, his seals .. most importantly, since China lacks such topic and he was the consummated and unprecedented rare ancient book collector, this book serves as the blueprint in the field. The likelihood of any followers of his magnitude is extremely slim, for rare books are no longer traded.
He had five stringent standards for his portfolio: 1. the engraving .. as someone born with great gene; 2 the printing .. as someone has good nutritions; 3. the topic postscript .. as someone with talents; 4. the collection seals .. as makeup for a beauty and 5. the mounts .. as clothes. The two pages below are his seals - 31 of them were published in this book .. those were the ones that he used most frequently.
