| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.4

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 107.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

Ginger Cheng-chi Hsü. A. Bushel of Pearls: Painting for Sale in Eighteenth-Century Yangchow. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 2001. Pp. xiii, 314. $49.50.

A recent claim that art history has made on the attentions of a larger historical community comes from its refocusing of attention away from the actions of artists to the role of audiences in the wider reception of their work. The "social history of art" has sought to shift the burden of meaning away from makers to viewers, and to see the work of art as one commodity among many. In this vein, Ginger Cheng-chi Hsü's work on eighteenth-century Yangchow seeks an integrative approach, binding together a study of makers and consumers, focusing on "the negotiations between the two parties, as revealed in the paintings themselves" (p. 11). This is pursued through case studies of artists active in the city. They are (in the Wade-Giles romanization that the book employs): Fang Shih-shu (1692–1751), Huang Shen (1687–1765), Cheng Hsieh (1693–1765), and Chin Nung (1687–1763). Although all are canonical figures, and hence have a presence in the literature, the account given of their careers here has some fresh insights. At the same time, juxtaposing different types of artistic practice certainly points up the complexity of the Yangchow setting, with its distinctive culture built on the riches generated by the salt monopoly. There is throughout, however, a relatively uncritical approach to sources, which for example sees an early nineteenth-century gazetteer as an unproblematic "primary source" for events one hundred years earlier. Quite a lot of the discussion is similarly underpinned by secondary literature, where a skepticism about the interpretative framework of the writers cited might have served the author better. . . .

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