Guangchuan huaba 廣川畫跋

Guangchuan huaba 廣川畫跋 "Notes on paintings from Broad River [Studio]" is a sister-work to Dong You's 董逌 (early 12th cent.) Guangchuan shuba 廣川書跋 and a collection of various critics of paintings through the ages.

In the 6 fascicles of his book, Dong comments on no less than 136 paintings in private collections and those of the imperial palace. His notes add biographical information on artists. The notes are strong in critical research and evaluation and demonstrate in many ways the quality of paintings in a reliable and systematic way. Dong bolsters his arguments by quotations from older books on painting. While not attempting to rank paintings one against each other, he achieves a non-biased approach to the evaluation of artworks. Instead of laying stress on the use of brush and ink, Dong discusses the content of paintings, and points at factual errors in details. Analysis of painting techniques can only be found in a few landscape paintings.

The text is included in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Wangshi shuhua yuan 王氏書畫苑, Shiwanjuanlou congshu 十萬卷樓叢書, Cangxiutang congshu 藏修堂叢書, Cuilangganguan congshu 翠瑯玕館叢書 and Shiyuan congshu 適園叢書.