of the Northern School. Collection of R. Petrucci 97

XVI. Portrait of a priest. Yuean or early Ming period.
Collection of H. Riviere 101

XVII. Horse. Painting by an unknown artist. Yuean or
early Ming period. Doucet collection 105

XVIII. Visit to the Emperor by the Immortals from on
high. Ming period. British Museum, London 109

XIX. Egrets by Lin Liang. Ming period. Collection of
Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Junior 115

XX. Flowers and Insects. Ming period. Collection of
R. Petrucci 119

XXI. Landscape. Ming period. Bouasse-Lebel collection 125

XXII. Beauty inhaling the fragrance of a peony. Ming
period. Collection of V. Goloubew 133

XXIII. Halt of the Imperial Hunt. Ming period. Sixteenth
century. Collection of R. Petrucci 137

XXIV. Painting by Chang Cheng. Eighteenth century.
Collection of M. Worch 141

XXV. Tiger in a Pine Forest. Eighteenth to nineteenth
centuries. Collection of V. Goloubew 145

[A] Now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss.

* * * * *

INTRODUCTION

Whatever its outward expression, human thought remains essentially
unchanged and, throughout all of its manifestations, is fundamentally the
same. Varying phases are but accidents and underneath the divers wrappings
of historic periods or different civilizations, the heart as well as the
mind of man has been moved by the same desires.

Art possesses a unity like that of nature. It is profound and stirring,
precisely because it blends and perpetuates feeling and intelligence by
means of outward expressions. Of all human achievements art is the most
vital, the one that is dowered with eternal youth, for it awakens in the
soul emotions which neither time nor civilization has ever radically
altered. Therefore, in commencing the study of an art of strange
appearance, what we must seek primarily is the exact nature of the
complexity of ideas and feelings upon which it is based. Such is the
task presented to us, and since the problem which we here approach is
the general study of Chinese painting, we must prepare ourselves first
to master the peculiarities of its appearance and technique, in order
to un