Fig. 1 Handscroll, silk wrapper, and box
*Northern Expedition Memorial of Wang Chong*
Copied in cursive script by Hongli (Qianlong emperor; r. 1736–95)
China; Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Handscroll, ink on paper with silk brocade; silk wrapper; rosewood box with jade inlay
Various dimensions
Palace Museum, Beijing

The mounting of calligraphy and painting at the imperial courts of past dynasties often developed in line with emperors’ personal preferences and the courts’ creation and collection of calligraphy works and paintings. For example, during the Xuanhe period of the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), Zhao Ji, the Huizong emperor (r. 1100–26), was addicted to calligraphy and painting art, being outstanding in these two fields himself. He opened the Imperial Painting Academy to train students to write and paint, and vigorously collected the calligraphy and painting treasures of all dynasties. This led to a flourishing of mounting developments at court, resulting in the most celebrated court style in the history of Chinese calligraphy and painting—Xuanhe mounting—whose influence continues into the present. During the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Hongli, the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736–95), was also passionate about calligraphy and painting art. At his court, which formed the largest collection after the Xuanhe period, such works were sought out and compiled in the imperial catalogue Shiqu baoji. Emperor Qianlong recruited excellent artists and painting activity was robust during his reign. The palace workshops also gathered the best mounters from all parts of the empire to serve the needs of the court. Over forty such names are found in the imperial archives, some of the most active of which were Zhang Kai, Jin Guoli, Ma Zunyi, Li Yi, Wang Guodong, Aibao, Qidazi, Ma Changbao, and Yuan Si. The master mounters of the Qianlong court made the calligraphy and paintings created look more beautiful and sumptuous, but also kept ancient treasures such as The Model of Recovery by Luji (261–303), Preface to The Orchid Pavilion by Feng Chengsu (612–72), Spring Outing by Zhan Ziqian (act. mid- to late 6th century), and Along the River During the Qingming Festival by Zhang Zeduan (1085–1145)—among countless others—safely preserved in the Forbidden City until today.

From the large number of calligraphy and painting works as well as documents detailing mounting practices, we know that the mounting process in the Qianlong court was almost the same as it is today, centred on four main steps: preparing materials, thickening artworks, assembling and re-thickening, and waxing and wrapping rods. For remounting works, other processes such as cleaning up, peeling away the backing, covering tears, and filling in missing colours and strokes also need be accomplished. The formats of the Qianlong court, based on inherited formats from previous dynasties, were a collection of the past, but there were innovations as well.

By the Tang dynasty (618–907) China had formed a calligraphy and painting mounting system with three basic formats: handscroll, hanging scroll, and album leaf. While the basic formats remained unchanged, within each dynasty variations developed. The Qianlong court focused on exquisite materials and a regulated style. The social and economic prosperity of the times provided sufficient guarantee of imperial finances that calligraphy and painting mountings could be realized at all costs, showcasing the wealth and majesty of the imperial family and fully demonstrating the superb craftsmanship of the Qianlong court. The obvious differences in the materials, colours, and outer packaging between court mountings (Fig. 1) and folk mountings emphasized the strong class difference and highlighted the supremacy of imperial power.

Fig. 2 Three types of handscroll edges (top to bottom): *zhuangbian* (contacting border), *zhuanbian* (turned border),
and *taobian* (wrapping border)
Graphic by Qin Chongtai

Fig. 3 Handscroll in *xiaoxiang* format
Detail of *Two Models of Cai Xiang*
Copied in running script by Hongli (Qianlong emperor; r. 1736–95); mounted in 1777
China; Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Handscroll, ink on paper with silk mounting; 21 x 246 cm (*xiaoxiang* section)
Palace Museum, Beijing

Fig. 4 Handscroll in *daxiang* format
Detail of *Relaxation in Leisure Time*
By Hongli (Qianlong emperor; r. 1736–95); painted in 1732, inscribed in 1734, mounted in 1790
China; Qing dynasty (1644–1911)
Handscroll, ink and colour on paper with silk mounting; 41 x 434 cm (*daxiang* section)
Palace Museum, Beijing

Judging from today’s practice, the mounting of handscrolls is the most complicated of the formats. As a result of different treatment methods for a handscroll’s upper and lower edges, handscroll mountings can be divided into three types: zhuangbian (contacting-border format), zhuanbian (turned-border format), and taobian (wrapping-border format) (Fig. 2). Depending on how the artwork is directly connected to separators used to section the handscroll, layouts are known as xiaoxiang (a partially inlaid format) (Fig. 3) or daxiang (all-inlaid format) (Fig. 4). By far the most common handscroll formats are xiaoxiang zhuangbian and daxiang zhuanbian. The xiaoxiang zhuangbian format fully highlights the main position of the artwork, while the edges go flat; the daxiang zhuanbian format is used mainly to solve the problem of different artworks within a single mounting having different heights. The handscrolls usually begin with a tiangan, a half-cylinder-shaped wooden rod adhered to the outer edge of the wrapper, and end with a zhougan, a relatively thick roller made of wood or sometimes paper. At the centre of the tiangan is a cord attached by a jade or, occasionally, an ivory clip, and on the top and bottom ends of the zhougan are two dutou, or circular plugs. The recto structure of a handscroll consists primarily of (in this sequence): a first section called tian in Chinese, which means ‘sky’, a frontispiece, the artwork itself, an inscription, and an endpiece. Between each of the parts is a separator. The mounting verso is covered with the head wrapper and backing paper. These features are almost the same as in previous generations, but the materials used, especially for the wrapper, were upgraded to become extremely colourful and luxurious. The wrappers (Fig. 5) of handscrolls from the Qianlong court are mostly made of brocades with complex patterns, bright colours, and fine textures, with some even made of tapestry silk. On the outer edge of a wrapper, the jade clip connected to the tiangan by a cord (Fig. 6) is always engraved with the corresponding artwork’s name. The length of a cord is generally 2.5 times the circumference of the handscroll, because with this length, when a closed handscroll is placed on the table, the title label faces upward.

Hanging scrolls at the Qianlong court included both vertical and horizontal orientations, with the only difference between them being the hanging direction. The large number of vertical scrolls from the court basically share the same mounting coloration styles as today, namely, a mono-colour, bi-colour, or tri-colour format (Fig. 7). Mono-colour formats use a single colour of silk or paper, also known as yikuaiyu or ‘a piece of jade’. Bi-colour and especially tri-colour formats were the most numerous of the Qianlong court’s vertical scrolls. The upper mounting, adjoined to the tiangan or top rod, and the lower mounting, next to the digan or bottom roller, are called tian and di, respectively, meaning ‘sky’ and ‘earth’; two thin ribbons are also attached to the sky. In the past, the two ribbons were attached by their tops only and could flutter with the wind to drive away birds and insects, and so they were called jingyan, or ‘frightening swallows’. Among the plentiful vertical scrolls of the Qianlong inner court there are other exquisite and innovative mounting designs, some of which include porcelain, enamel, ivory, or delicately carved wooden ferrules.

Album leaf mountings are vividly named. In a ‘butterfly’ format, the album’s leaves are on a vertical crease and are read by flipping the pages, like a butterfly’s flapping wings. To open an album in ‘awning’ format, where the crease line is horizontal, one needs to push the pages upwards, like operating an awning. For the ‘sutra’ format, named after ancient Buddhist scripture bindings, multiple sheets of paper are glued as one long piece and then repeatedly folded like an accordion. A sutra-formatted album leaf can be opened and pulled to a completely flat state; the other two formats cannot because the edges of each page are glued to another by thick paste. Albums in the Qianlong court followed these three formats, but compared with earlier dynasties and folk mountings, used more types of materials as covers—brocade, wood, lacquer, jade, and even bamboo—and were often placed in delicate boxes (Fig. 8).

The main purpose of mounting is to beautify and protect the calligraphy and painting works, but mountings for the Qianlong court also served the emperor’s political needs and personal tastes. It can be asserted that Hongli was the Qing emperor who paid the most attention to cultural undertakings and contributed the most. As a Manchu, the Qianlong emperor ruled over a large Han population, so needed the emphasis on traditional Han culture and its compatibility with Manchu culture to maintain the country’s political stability. During his reign, cultural undertakings were fully developed. According to records, more than one hundred books were edited officially during his reign. He promoted and organized the compilation of the large-scale document series Siku quanshu (Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature), which included most of the important books from before the Qin dynasty (221–207 ) to the Qianlong period, as well as some foreign books, covering almost all academic fields in Chinese history.

Apart from political motivations, the Qianlong emperor was crazy about calligraphy and painting art himself. He began to practice when he was a child, and started his own collection in his youth. As Prince Bao, he already possessed admirable pieces of calligraphy and painting from the past. His passion was also reflected through his seals and inscriptions on many now world-renowned works. Qianlong is thought to have had nearly 2,000 seals; at least 172 can be seen on famous works collected at his court, such as The Model of Mid-Autumn attributed to Wang Xianzhi (344–86), which was sealed everywhere. Emperor Qianlong was also a poet, composing about 40,000 poems in his life, many of which were written as individual calligraphy works or inscribed on paintings. Together with his seals, Hongli often inscribed these poems in the blank spaces on calligraphy and paintings, making the pieces extremely dense. The emperor’s love and attention for these arts directly and powerfully promoted the development and prosperity of calligraphy and painting at court. The luxurious court mountings fully reflect the emperor Qianlong’s recognition, respect, and inheritance of conventional Han culture and art, and directly show the emperor’s personal aesthetics and taste. At the same time, his love and recognition of specific regional cultures and local calligraphy and painting mounting styles brought a mounting style originally popular in Suzhou and other southeastern locales to the Forbidden City.

More surprisingly, Qianlong delved into specific research regarding the mounting of calligraphy and paintings. In the past, Hongli had written poems (Figs 9a–b) to express his thoughts about mountings, underlining the significance of the practice and expressing dissatisfaction with crude mounters who rendered artworks incomplete because of their lack of understanding of the values of calligraphy and painting; he deeply regretted the fragmentary nature of such mishandled artwork. He also once composed a poem, Inscriptions on Jin Tingbiao’s Cultivating Bamboo (Fig. 10a), after which he wrote a short essay (Fig. 10b) focusing on the origins, differences, and literal meanings of calligraphy and painting mounting’s three historical names. The three terms each had a distinct focus: one emphasizing formatting, as if for aerial views of pools; one focusing on restoration work; and the other on underlining paper dying. He expressed dissatisfaction with the confusion of mounting names in this essay, fully demonstrating his depth of understanding and special attention for this subject.

The Qianlong emperor had a special liking for Jiangnan, an area covering the southern banks of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangzi river. Hongli went to Jiangnan six times and left a mountain of calligraphy works, paintings, poems, and articles about the region. Among Jiangnan cities, Suzhou was undoubtedly the most prosperous both in economic terms and in culture at that time, with a particularly long history of calligraphy and painting creation as well as collecting and mounting activity. When painting the prosperous scene of Suzhou, painters frequently portrayed calligraphy and painting shops and mounting studios. For instance, Along the River During the Qingming Festival painted by Qiu Ying (c. 1494–1552), who spent most of his life in Suzhou, vividly depicts the extremely prosperous city in the middle of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). This famous painting was copied in countless replicas by professional forgers in early modern China. In a version at the Palace Museum in Beijing, for example, the whole handscroll is more than six metres long and shops, buildings, pedestrians, and courtyards are tightly arranged. Around the last quarter of the handscroll there is a shop with the name ‘Acquire and Sell Jade and Antiques’ (收賣古今玉物玩器) (Fig. 11a), where three people are carefully looking at an opened vertical scroll, while a clerk on the right seems to pick antiques according to a customer’s requirement. Not far to the right is the ‘Mounting Shop’ (裱褙店) (Fig. 11b) next to a well, where a mounter is sitting in front of a table with brush in hand. Beside the table, two customers are sitting on a bench, seeming to wait for well-mounted works, while a clerk outside the door is just walking towards them with two scrolls under his arm—all of which depicts a busy, productive, and successful business. Judging by the composition, brushwork, and colour, this work is likely a ‘Suzhou pian’, or Suzhou fake. As the centre of calligraphy and painting forgery activities from the Wanli era (1573–1620) of the Ming dynasty to the Jiaqing era (1796–1820) of the Qing dynasty, Suzhou garnered a significant number of highly skilled professional forgers who predominantly gathered in the area near the Chang Gate covering Shantang Street, Zhuanzhu Alley, and the Dock of Peach Blossoms; their fake works generated a special category all their own.

The emergence and popularity of Suzhou pian works made an enormous impact on the development of calligraphy and painting for future generations, while also demonstrating the profound calligraphy and painting tradition of Suzhou city. Another version of this painting, in the Liaoning Provincial Museum, shares almost the same composition with the Beijing version including where the two shops are located, what furnishings the shops have, and what clerks and customers are doing. Tiny differences principally rest on the shop names, which are changed to ‘Calligraphy, Paintings, and Antiques’ ( 詩畫古玩 ) and ‘Careful Mounting Calligraphy and Painting’ (精裱詩畫), along with the wall of the mounting studio covered with calligraphy and paintings being mounted. During the Qianlong reign, the court painter Xu Yang (act. 1750–76), who was born in Suzhou, completed The Prosperity of Gusu in 1759. The full handscroll is about twelve metres long and depicts contemporary scenes of prosperous Suzhou. Almost at the end of the handscroll there is a shop called ‘Calligraphy and Paintings by Celebrities’ (名人字畫). The shop backs onto a hill and faces a river, showing the pleasant environment. In the first quarter of this long painting, there is a three-hole stone arch bridge. The first shop on the waterside street hangs a vertical plaque with ‘Mounting Studio’ at the left side of the arch bridge. A mounter in the shop stands in front of a red table holding a corner of paper in his left hand and carefully sweeping it with a coir brush in his right hand; the painting on the wall behind him represents a work being mounted too. Another Xu Yang painting of Suzhou, The Qianlong Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour: Stopover in Gusu, also includes a mounting store. In these paintings, mounting studios are always set beside a well or on the street along the riverbank, perhaps for the convenience of fetching the water needed. The two painters’ depictions of Suzhou invariably show activities of purchasing and mounting calligraphy and paintings, reflecting the prosperity of that industry there. Combined with Jiangnan’s environment, the long-lasting prosperity of Suzhou gradually informed a Suzhou mounting style, with light and elegant colours and exquisite workmanship. Under the strong impact of the Suzhou School, other local mounting styles gradually formed to also combine their regional characteristics, such as the Yangzhou School, Beijing School, Shanghai School, and Canton School. Despite this, all regions acknowledged that Suzhou’s mounting techniques were the best. Even today, the Suzhou mounting style dominates in China and around the world.

With emperor Qianlong’s approval and love, as well as the prosperity of Suzhou’s mounting industry from ancient times, mounters from Suzhou and other Jiangnan cities enjoyed a stellar reputation throughout the country. In Xiqing biji (Miscellaneous Notes of Xiqing) by the Qing dynasty politician Shen Chu (1729–99), it is noted that during the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods the skills of Suzhou mounters were most praised, and outstanding mounters from Suzhou were widely commended by literati and officialdom. In Qianlong’s imperial workshops, it was a matter of course that mounting workers from the south were employed in large numbers; they were called ‘southern mounters’ in the court archives. Zhang Kai, a southern mounter, was recruited into the imperial mounting studio in the first year of Qianlong’s reign (1736), taking five liang of silver as his monthly salary. Later, he was rewarded an extra two liang of silver for his hard work in 1745. In 1753, emperor Qianlong composed a poem titled Long Process of Calligraphy Practice, in which we are told that when he was young, he used a very precious sheet of Song paper to write, but afterwards, not satisfied with his unskilled calligraphy, he ordered Zhang Kai to remove the characters—and then wrote this very poem (Fig. 12a) on it extolling Zhang Kai’s unbelievable, exquisite skill, which can be observed clearly using backlighting (Fig. 12b). In 1757, having affirmed Zhang Kai’s skills, Qianlong appointed him to complete the riskiest and most difficult steps in a large number of mounting works. When there were too many artworks to mount, Qianlong ordered Zhang Kai to focus on the most important, the rest to be temporarily handled by hired mounters outside the court. In 1759, emperor Qianlong asked two mounters to learn from Zhang Kai in the Hall of Ruyi. Zhang Kai carried on working for the court until 1770, when at age 86 he was too old to continue. The emperor then rewarded Zhang Kai with one liang of silver each month for retirement, reflecting both the special attention Qianlong paid to the mounting of calligraphy and painting and his approval of Zhang Kai’s Jiangnan-style mounting skills.

To a large extent, the Qianlong emperor’s approval of Jiangnan mounting techniques brought the Suzhou style to the forefront. Even today, skills developed from Suzhou still dominate in the Forbidden City. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Palace Museum recruited excellent mounters from all over the country, particularly focusing on the proficient folk mounters in Jiangnan to conserve calligraphy and paintings in the warehouses. At the time, the most reputed mounter in China was Liu Dingzhi of the Suzhou School, who worked in close contact with the renowned Chinese art connoisseur Wu Hufan. Master Liu Dingzhi was already advanced in years by then, so his best apprentice, Yang Wenbin, was recommended and went to work in the Palace Museum in 1954, along with four other eminent Jiangnan mounters: Zhang Yaoxuan, Sun Chengzhi, Jiang Shaoda, and Sun Xiaojiang. During their time in Beijing, a few young mounters were educated and rigorously trained in the processes, including Xu Jianhua, the most experienced conservator for calligraphy and painting at the Palace Museum today—who has now already coached several students as well. This has guaranteed that young mounters in the Forbidden City today are able to use the same mounting tools (Fig. 13) as before to complete traditional Suzhou-style mounts. It is thanks to generations of care and effort that countless treasures in the history of Chinese art have survived. At the end of the last century, as the frequency of Sino-foreign exchanges increased, mounting techniques from Jiangnan went global. Qiu Jinxian, a mounter of Chinese calligraphy and painting at the British Museum, learned from Yangzhou School mounter Xu Maokang and Suzhou School mounter Hua Qiming, thus saving a great many Chinese calligraphy and painting artworks collected overseas with traditional Jiangnan mounting techniques instead of the Japanese techniques previously relied upon.

Approximately 300 years ago, with the Qianlong emperor in love with calligraphy and painting, imperial patronage and the ruler’s direct involvement promoted the development and prosperity of the art of mounting such works. Based on the Jiangnan style represented by the Suzhou School and inherited techniques and formats from previous dynasties, the Qianlong court upgraded folk mounting materials and added Hongli’s personal taste through a graceful and luxurious court aesthetic, giving rise the Qianlong court mounting style. A large number of Chinese calligraphy and painting treasures scattered around the globe today were once collected in the Qianlong court, stamped by Qianlong’s seals, written with Qianlong’s inscriptions, and mounted in the Qianlong court style. Under the principle of authenticity in contemporary conservation work, these ‘Qianlong marks’—an indispensable part of history—have been and will continue to be preserved or restored by mounters. They shed light on the huge and lasting impact exerted by Qianlong court mountings on today’s and future conservation and study. Mounting was born of calligraphy and paintings: it dressed them up, kept them fit, and saved their lives, allowing us to appreciate those works to the present day. Even now, for much of East Asian calligraphy and painting, works without mountings are like people without clothes. As traditional mounting techniques meet today’s unparalleled levels of science and technology, hopefully the treasures of oriental calligraphy and painting will be enjoyed by our descendants for generations to come.

Qin Chongtai graduated from the school of archaeology and museology of Peking University and is now keeper and curator of the department of calligraphy and painting at the Palace Museum in Beijing.

The author would like to extend his special gratitude to Professor Hu Dongbo and Professor Gu Xinyi of Peking University, Yu Hui and Master Xu Jianhua of the Palace Museum, and Master Qiu Jinxian, senior conservator of the British Museum.

Fig. 13 Mounting tools currently used in the studio of calligraphy and painting restoration of the Palace Museum

Selected bibliography

First Historical Archives of China (FHA) and The Chinese University of Hong Kong, eds, The Archives of the Ministry of Imperial Affairs of Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2005.

Fu Dongguang, ‘A Preliminary Examination of the Art of Mounting Paintings of the Palace Household Office in the Qianlong Reign’, Palace Museum Journal 118, no. 2 (2005): 111–40.

Liu Fangru, The Art of Mounting Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, Taipei, 2008.

The Mounting Studio of the Palace Museum, ed., The Mounting and Restoration of Calligraphy and Painting, Beijing, 1981.

Robert Hans van Gulik, Chinese Pictorial Art, as Viewed by the Connoisseur: Notes on the Means and Methods of Traditional Chinese Connoisseurship of Pictorial Art, Based upon a Study of the Art of Mounting Scrolls in China and Japan, Rome, 1958.

The Art of Mounting Calligraphy and Painting in the Court of Qianlong

Tao Yuanming Returning to Seclusion: The Tale of Charles Lang Freer’s ‘Most Interesting and Beautiful Scroll’