"The Power of Form" Kaikodo Journal, VII (Spring, 1998)

Corresponding to the exhibition held between February 5 and March 28, 1998. 35 early Chinese and Japanese paintings; 37 early Chinese and Vietnamese objects (72 color plates). Preface by Howard Rogers. 283 pages. Includes the essays: James Cahill: “Where did the Nymph Hang?” (Ching Yuan Chai so-shih I) Arnold Chang: “Returning to Brushwork: A Personal Exploration” Jay A. Levenson: “Reflections in a Western Eye” Elizabeth Childs-Johnson: “Metamorphic Imagery in Early Chinese Art: Long-Dragons, Feng-Phoenixes, Gui-Spirit Masks, and the Spirit Journey” Howard Rogers: “Notes on the Meaning and Function of Ming-ch’i“ The problem of multiple recensions of a single painting composition, subject of an essay in Kaikodo Journal V, receives additional attention in the present volume in an essay by James Cahill on how such paintings were used and what they signified in contemporaneous society. Writing at the top of his form, Professor Cahill focuses on artists and types of paintings usually ignored by art-historians to illumine significant aspects of early Qing dynasty painting. Further installments of his Ching Yuan Chai So-shih, “Jottings from the Hall of Gazing into the Abstruse,” are eagerly anticipated. Howard Rogers’ entries on Shen Tsung-chi’en) and K’un-tsan, both subjects of multiple recensions, receive further attention.