The first in-depth look at the history and legacies of forgeries in Chinese art.
In 1634, scholar-official Zhang Taijie (b. ca. 1588) published a book titled A Record of Treasured Paintings (C. Baohui lu), presenting an extensive catalogue of a purportedly vast painting collection he claimed to have built. However, the entire book is Zhang's meticulously crafted forgery; he even forged paintings to match the documentation, and profited from trading them. Furthermore, the book intriguingly mirrors unfounded art-historical claims of its time. Prominent figures like Dong Qichang (1555–1636) made entirely fabricated arguments to assert legitimate lineages in Chinese art, designed to create a fictionalized history shaped by preferred beliefs rather than reality.
While presenting the first comprehensive exploration of various forgery practices in early modern China—fabricated texts, forged paintings, and fictitious art history—The Forger's Creed examines the cultural, social, and genealogical desires, anxieties, and tensions prevalent in early modern China. Through thorough scrutiny of the historical irregularities introduced by these forgeries, J. P. Park highlights a peculiar and paradoxical phenomenon wherein forgeries transform into legitimate materials across Chinese history.
J. P. Park is the June and Simon Li Professor in the History of Art at the University of Oxford.
"The Forger's Creed is the first comprehensive study of forgery practices in early modern China and the underlying cultural, social, and genealogical anxieties that produced this plethora of fabricated texts, forged paintings, and fictitious art histories. J. P. Park's groundbreaking book highlights the ways in which fabrications become legitimate."—Wu Hung, author of Contemporary Chinese Art
"The Forger's Creed is a delightful and instructive book that takes a central problem of art history, especially Chinese art history—forgery—and comes at it from surprising directions, turning what we might be tempted to regard as something simple and familiar into something complex and intriguingly unfamiliar. Writing with considerable style and verve, Park brings us inside the issue with insight and grace. This book will be essential reading in the field of Chinese art."—Timothy Brook, author of Great State: China and the World
"Based on meticulous reconstruction of a wholesale forgery of an old master painting catalogue and the accompanying invented paintings in seventeenth-century China, Park's study reveals unexpected connections between blatant forgery, creative artistic imitation, early modern Chinese art discourses, and modern art history."—Richard Vinograd, author of Facing China: Truth and Memory in Portraiture
"Moving with confidence between the individual artwork and the big picture, this highly readable account of an occasionally astounding project of virtuoso forgery tells us much that is new, and profound, about Ming China, its anxieties, and its aspirations."—Craig Clunas, author of Chinese Painting and Its Audiences
240 pp.7 x 10Illus: 60 color images
9780520403802$49.95|£42.00Hardcover
Mar 2025