An exhibition reviewing a 300-year-old textbook for traditional Chinese painting opened in National Library of China in Beijing recently.

300-year-old painting textbook highlights museum show

An exhibition reviewing a 300-year-old textbook for traditional Chinese painting opened in National Library of China in Beijing recently.

The event displays more than 10 different versions of Jieziyuan Huapu, or Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden, as well as modern painting gurus' works that are adaptions of the book to reveal their continuous development of Chinese painting. 

Jieziyuan Huapu was first published in 1679, being printed via woodblock in five colors. It not only functioned as the most important reference for fundamental Chinese painting students, but also had a major influence on Japanese painters during the Edo period. 

Another new one

The Book of Time, telling history, customs and cultural significances behind each of the 24 Chinese solar terms, will hit the shelves around China on Dec 26.

 The 24 Chinese Solar Terms were listed as world intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO on Nov 30. 

"It's different from other Chinese intangible cultural heritages such as Kunqu Opera, or paper-cutting, which are local customs and practiced by just a few people," says the author of the book, Yu Shicun, an independent scholar of Chinese culture in Beijing.

"Solar terms, however, transcend locality. They're still used in our daily lives today, relating to everyone's sense of time."

A solar term is any of 24 date in traditional Chinese calendars, which matches an astronomical event or signifies natural phenomenon, such as Lichun (the beginning of spring) and Shuangjiang (the first frost).

In the book, Yu cited material from agriculture and classical poetry to physiology, reminding modern people to live a healthy lifestyle that complies with the time in nature. 

The book features 24 illustrations by painter Lao Shu, depicting people's life during the time of each solar term.