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Required Texts:
The Arts of China by Michael Sullivan. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
A History of Far Eastern Art by Sherman E. Lee. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, 1994.
Strongly Recommended:
The Path of Beauty: A Study of Chinese
Aesthetics by Le Zehou, translated by Gong Lizeng.
Two editions are available. The hardback edition has
excellent color reproductions that help make it the best book available about
Chinese art. The hardback edition is published in Beijing by Morning Glory
Publishers.
The paperback edition
has only black-and-white reproductions, but makes this important text widely available. It
is published in New York by Oxford University Press.
Very Useful and Interesting:
An Anthology of Chinese Literature: Beginnings to 1911, edited and translated by Stephen Owen. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. This anthology is one of the best translations. It includes most of the significant texts. Throughout the centuries, Chinese poets often responded to earlier writings. Owen traces themes so that allusions and metaphors have context.
China: Empire of Living Symbols by Cecilia Lindqvist, translated from the Swedish by Joan Tate. New York: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1991. Lindqvist traces the development of calligraphy from oracle bone scratches to current times, showing how the characters are derived from reality. The book includes many good reproductions of Chinese art and pictures of everyday life.
China 5,000 Years: Innovation and Transformation in the Arts selected by Sherman Lee. New York: Guggenheim Foundation, 1997. This catalogue for the Guggenheim exhibition includes beautiful photographs of art work and several interesting essays. The essay by James Cahill, "Chinese Painting: Innovation After 'Progress' Ends" should be required reading if the book were not so expensive.
The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery and Innovation by Robert Temple with an introduction by Joseph Needham. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989. In the course of describing scientific achievements, this book includes many reproductions of Chinese art. Art is seen in the context of scientific discovery.
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