JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Artibus Asiae Publishers is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Artibus Asiae.The study of ancient artifacts and inscriptions was an important part of intellectual life during the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127). Fostered by private scholarly curiosity and by imperially sanctioned reevaluation of ritual practices, Song jinshi xue, the "study of metal and stone," laid the foundation for all later archaeological and antiquarian investigations in China.' Well-known scholars of the Northern Song who were active in jinshi xue include Liu Chang (lo19-68), Ouyang Xiu (loo7-72), Lii Dalin (lo44-93), and Zhao Mingcheng (l081-1129).Surviving catalogues and essays document their attempts to collect, describe, and identify antiquities, and, in some cases, to make practical application of knowledge thus acquired.' According to Song dynasty sources another pioneering antiquarian was Li Gonglin (ca. 1042--1106), also one of the most important artists of the Northern Song. Modern studies of Li Gonglin, as well as specialized studies of Song jinshi xue, mention in passing his contributions to this field; precisely what these contributions were has never been clarified. This article attempts to reconstruct Li Gonglin's collection of bronzes and jades, on which his studies were based, and to assess his scholarly opinions, some of which still influence the study of early Chinese art.Li Gonglin was born into a family of Confucian scholars from Shucheng in modern Anhui province. Although he earned his jinshi degree in 1O70, he postponed beginning his official career for nearly ten years, spending this period of retirement at his famous mountain retreat in the Longmian Mountains near Shucheng. When Li finally began his career, around O1079, he served in two provincial appointments before being called to the capital at Bianjing (present day Kaifeng) to take up a minor post in the Secretariat Chancellery. He later held another position in the central government, Legal Researcher (jianfa guan) in the Imperial Censorate, before leaving the capital for good around 1097. He held one further provincial posting before giving up all official duties owing to illness and returning home to the Longmian Mountains in the year IIoo. Throughout his years in retirement at Longmian, and while he was in office in Bianjing and elsewhere, Li Gonglin devoted much time to painting. His illustrations of Confucian classics, Buddhist texts, and his horse paintings were among the most influential works in the history of Chinese painting.3 Li's accomplishments as an artist, as well as his scholarship, earned him a place I am deeply grateful to Mr. Xu Jie of Princeton University for his help in the...
