Siyouzhai shuhua lun 四友齋書畫論

Siyouzhai shuhua lun 四友齋書畫論 "Discussion of Four Friends Studio on calligraphy and painting" is a book on painting and calligraphy written during the mid-Ming period 明 (1368-1644) by He Langjun 何良俊 (1506-1573), courtesy name Yuanlang 元朗, style Zhehu Jushi 柘湖居士, from Huating 華亭 (today part of Songjiang 松江, Shanghai). He entered the Directorate of Education (guozijian 國子監) as a tribute student (gongsheng 貢生), and after graduation obtained the post of a clerk (kongmu 孔目) in the Hanlin Academy 翰林院 in the Southern Capital Nanjing. After retirement he settled down in Suzhou 蘇州, Jiangsu, where he became acquainted with Zhang Zhixiang 張之象 (1496-1577) and Wen Zhengming 文徵明 (1470-1559) father and son (together the "four friends"), two experts in art. He Langjun was an ardent collector. His collected writings are called He Hanlin ji 何翰林集.

His Shuhualun of 38 juan length, written around 1530, was originally part of his Siyouzhai congshuo 四友齋叢說 and was written in a rather heterogenous arrangement of the "brush-notes"-style (biji 筆記). The central pieces of this book were ch. 27, a discussion on calligraphy, and ch. 28-29, a discussion on paintings. For the series Meishu congshu 美術叢書, these three chapters were separated from the whole book, transformed into books of their own, and given the titles Siyouzhai shulun 四友齋書論, and Siyouzhai hualun 四友齋畫論, respectively, or jointly called Siyouzhai shuhua lun.

For each of the two types of art, He created 50 paragraphs in which the most important statements by ancient writers are assembled, as well as He's own discussions, as a kind of appendix. Following the then-current perception, He stresses the high quality of ancient calligraphers like Wang Xizhi 王羲之 (303-361), but reduces later achievements to the extraordinary skills of Zhao Mengfu 趙孟頫 (1254-1322). He also holds that calligraphies incised into stone were best in earlier ages, while the Song period 宋 (960-1279) was an age of decline with respect to artistic achievements. In the realm of painting, He follows the concept that personal quality was a precondition for artistic achievement, and that the imitation of ancient masters was necessary. Yet he also points out the problem of discerning private painters (lijia 利家) from professional ones (xingjia 行家), a difference not necessarily leading to lower, or higher quality, respectively. The author also juxtaposes the "orthodox school" (zhengpai 正派) with masters like Jing Hao 荊浩 (850-911), Guan Quan 關全 (early 10th cent.), Dong Yuan 董源 (d.c. 962), Juran 巨然 (early 10th cent.), Li Cheng 李成 (919-967?), Fan Kuan 范寬 (c. 950-c. 1032) or Li Tang 李唐 (1066-1150) with the "court style" (yuanti 院體) as seen in the works of Ma Yuan 馬遠 (1160-1225) or Xia Jia 夏圭 (c. 1180-c. 1230).

The text is also quoted in the books Shuhua mingxin lu 書畫銘心錄 and Peiwenzhai shuhua pu 佩文齋書畫譜. It is also included in the series Zhongguo shuhua quanshu 中國書畫全書.