Field and Archival Research Paper AHI 163B Chinese Pa.docx

Field and Archival Research Paper
AHI 163B
Chinese Painting History
(History of the Pictorial Traditions of China)
Spring 2019
Professor Katharine Burnett
(4373 words)
This assignment teaches you how art historians conduct
basic fieldwork in museums and archival research in libraries.
The situation:
As a young scholar interested in China’s pictorial traditions,
you have been invited to
submit a short article to the Art Bulletin1 for publication
consideration in a volume of
essays produced by college students about a pictorial work of
Chinese art (that is, one that
is a painting, or has a significant pictorial aspect, such as an
incised stone tablet with a
scene containing figures or landscapes). You will select a topic,
develop a motivating
question about it, conduct research to find the answers for your

question, and then write
up your findings in a well organized and thoughtfully argued
paper.
Topic choices
1. Study an image that was not discussed in class. Discuss it in
terms of one of the
thematic categories discussed in class: art in the tomb, art at
court, art in the temple,
art in the life of the elite, and art in the market-place. Compare
it to an object studied
in class that you believe is its closest type AND ALSO contrast
it against an object
discussed in class that you consider to be its opposite.
2. Study an object on display in the Chinese painting galleries
at the Asian Art Museum.
Discuss it in terms of one of the thematic categories discussed
in class: art in the
tomb, art at court, art in the temple, art in the life of the elite,
and art in the market-
place. Compare it to an object studied in class that you believe
is its closest type
AND ALSO contrast it against an object discussed in class that
you consider to be its
opposite.
1 The Art Bulletin is a journal of scholarly art history articles
published by the College Art
Association (CAA), the premier national organization for artists
and art historians in the US.

AHI 163B Research Paper Assignment 2
3. Study a painting that interests you that is reproduced in a
peer reviewed book or
article (such as those listed at the end of the Syllabus). Discuss
it in terms of one of
the thematic categories discussed in class: art in the tomb, art at
court, art in the
temple, art in the life of the elite, and art in the market-place.
Compare it to an object
studied in class that you believe is its closest type AND ALSO
contrast it against an
object discussed in class that you consider to be its opposite
4. Study a theme, such as plum blossoms or drought stories,
etc., to see how the topic
has been handled in different times by different artists. A
question you might ask of
these images is: Does the meaning of the artwork change over
time? Does it always
fit into one (and only one) of the categories studied in class: art
in the tomb, art at
court, art in the temple, art in the life of the elite, and art in the
market-place?
5. Study a myth or folk tale to see how the topic was handled in
different times by
different artists. A question you might ask of these images is:
Does the meaning of
the artwork change over time? Does it always fit into one (and
only one) of the
categories studied in class: art in the tomb, art at court, art in
the temple, art in the
life of the elite, and art in the market-place?
6. Select a passage(s) of Chinese art theory or criticism, and

discuss how the statement
can help us better understand a selected painting or group of
paintings. What
category or categories does the theory apply to of the categories
studied in class: art
in the tomb, art at court, art in the temple, art in the life of the
elite, and art in the
market-place?
7. Other: with permission of the instructor in advance of writing
process.
Topics that are generally not acceptable as the focus for this
assignment:
for comparisons).
other than China (though these may
be used for
comparisons).
Essays must use scholarly and persuasive language and conform
to the formatting
instructions provided below.
Prepare to research: Move from a general topic to a focused one
Once you have selected an object and have a general topic in
mind, use the formulae
provided to test your topic’s validity. First, fill in the blanks to
develop your motivating
question, and then test your motivating question with the test
question. Not only will your
motivating question help you develop a focused topic, but also
it will help you develop your

hypothesis, set up questions that will set limits on your research
work, and provide a
significance (i.e., The “Big So What?” that every writer must
address to satisfy readers).
1. Motivating question: I am studying XTOPIC because I want
to learn about YQUESTION
in order to help my reader better understand ZSIGNIFICANCE.
2. Test of the motivating question: If my readers want to
achieve the goal of
ZSIGNIFICANCE, would they think that they could do it if they
found out about YQUESTION?
Try using these formulae on your own first, but then work in
small writing groups to help
each other. These formulae will help you narrow your topic
from a general interest to a
workable topic, and then help you figure out the questions that
can help focus your
research, and practically guarantee you success!2
Good example:
n Dunhuang Cave
285 QUESTION because I want
to learn about Buddhist belief systems and what they were
imagined to look like on
the Silk Route, in order to help my reader better understand the

Buddhist belief
system practiced by the monks and pilgrims of the 6 Dynasties
period SIGNIFICANCE .
the Buddhist belief
system practiced by the monks and pilgrims on the Silk Route
during the 6
Dynasties period SIGNIFICANCE, would they think that they
could do it if they found out
about Buddhist belief systems in the 6 Dynasties period on the
Silk Route and what
they were imagined to look like then, especially as manifested
in the murals in
Dunhuang Cave 285 QUESTION?
Bad example
ing TOPIC ancient paintings QUESTION because I
want to learn about religious
icons in order to help my reader better understand the Buddhist
faith SIGNIFICANCE .
Buddhist faith SIGNIFICANCE,
would they think that they could do it if they found out about
religious icons in
ancient paintings QUESTION?
Why is the first example a good example? (It’s focused and
precise.) Why is the second
example inadequate? (It’s too unfocused and imprecise.)

Prepare to write:
Hypothesis (i.e., your main claim, thesis statement)
Make sure your paper has a clear and strong hypothesis.
Typically, hypotheses in the
humanities are conceptual in nature, and are statements that do
one of the following:
seventeenth-century
Chinese art, theory and criticism.)
been set against
understanding the importance of originality in China prior to the
twentieth-century?)
(This paper explains that
new data indicates xxxx, something not known before.)
2 For more information about the process of moving from topics
to questions, see Wayne C.
Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, The Craft
of Research, 3rd Edn., Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2008, chapters 3 and 4. This book
is on shelf reserve in Shields
Library and in the VRF (Everson 163/165).

issue. (This paper argues
that while we used to think that xxx was the case, the situation
is actually yyyy.)
Hypotheses are usually located toward the end of a paper’s
introduction. Your paper will
likely be organized around the reasons that support your
hypothesis (main claim).3
THE STEPS INVOLVED IN WRITING YOUR RESEARCH
PAPER:
Part 1: formal (visual) analysis and archival fieldwork
First, choose your preferred option.
1. A. If going to the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco: Select
one object from the Chinese
galleries that was made at any time. All Chinese paintings in the
Asian Art Museum’s
galleries are acceptable. Chinese objects that are pictorial (e.g.,
a ceramic vase with a
painted image on it, or an incised stone slab with pictorial
imagery), may be acceptable
but require the instructor’s permission. The object cannot be a
loan object or in a special
exhibition; it must belong to the Asian Art Museum. All
alternative topics must have the
approval of the instructor before you begin your project.
Projects developed without the
instructor’s permission will not be read.
For information about the Asian Art Museum, please see

http://www.asianart.org/ .
B. If preferring to work from book or online reproductions:
Work through Shields
Library or websites of museums with strong collections of
Chinese painting/art.
Find relevant books and articles. Select a Chinese painting, or
set of paintings.
Chinese objects that are pictorial, as per class discussions.
All alternative topics must have the approval of the instructor
before you begin your
project. Projects developed without the instructor’s permission
will not be read.
2. Photograph the object as well as you can. If in the Museum,
be sure to get a frontal view
of the whole object and details of interesting elements. Please
note:
but only of objects it
owns, and only without
flash.
plan to go to the
AAM once at the beginning of the course to scope out your
object.
t once again
after you have done
most of your textual research to confirm that you understand
what you have
been looking at.

3
Your paper will likely make several claims, but the major one
that holds your whole paper
together is your hypothesis.
http://www.asianart.org/
NB: In museums or Special Collections (Rare Book Rooms) in a
library: use pencil only
(pen can deface objects). Take detailed notes about the object at
the Museum: size,
medium, format, most important viewpoint, effect on the
viewer, etc.
About that pencil… Museums and archives (such as rare book
rooms) permit pencil use
only, no pen-- and not even a mechanical pencil. Even in
museums where objects are
protected by glass cases, patrons are still restricted to pencil
use. Museums and
archives do their best to protect their objects for the benefit of
future generations of
patrons.
3. Thoroughly describe the object, taking careful notes. For
instruction on this, see Barnet,
A Short Guide to Writing about Art.

4. Object identification: Carefully take notes about the object
from its museum label or
book caption. (Sometimes full identifying information for
objects is located in a special
section at the back of books.) Provide a complete identification
for the object. This
includes brief statements about:
(This information is
typically be provided in the caption of the image in the book.
Sometimes this will be
listed in a separate section of the book. For objects from the
Asian Art Museum, this
information typically appears on the accompanying label-copy.)
production technique.
You will need this information as you continue your research
and write your paper.
When you write your first draft, this information will be placed
toward the front of your
paper.
5. Write a formal analysis (sometimes also called “visual
analysis”) about the object. In
your analysis, compare the object to at least one other object
that we have studied (or
will study) in class.4 For instruction on how to write an
informative comparison, see

Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing about Art.
6. Category of object: In your paper, explain which of the
broad categories defined by
Craig Clunas in Art in China, does your object fall into: art for
the tomb, temple, court,
élite, or market-place? (Or, does your object belong in more
than 1 category?) Explain.
Support your claims with evidence. Specific kinds of evidence
can include: information
from label copy, similar to an object(s) studied in class or
readings; information from
books; your observation of the object. NB: a combination of all
three is the best!
4
Images studied in class will appear in the Lecture PDFs in our
“Files” folder on Canvas.
Objects that will likely be discussed in class appear in the Study
Images folder in our “Files”
folder on Canvas. All are acceptable for comparison images in
your papers. You are not
restricted to these objects.
lain how the category of object can dictate a) the choices
made by the artist who
created it, and b) how you interpret it. That is, you may have

certain expectations for
tomb art, etc. Explain what they are.
tegory, explain how
this is so. Support your
claims with evidence.
we have studied in
class to support your claim(s).
7. To help establish the importance of your selected object:
scuss what kinds of ideas/belief systems it manifests, and
how these ideas are
communicated through the object. How does your object
represent period values,
such as belief systems, a political situation, folk beliefs, the
social class of the maker
and/or the patron, issues of patronage, etc.?
object(s) relate to the
object’s historical context.
anomalous to its time
and place of production.
For each of the prompts just provided, you may find it helpful
to compare your object to
others, such as those we have studied in class.

For each point, you must provide an illustration (numbered
sequentially Figure 1,
Figure 2, etc., in order of appearance) for each object discussed.
For examples, see how
your assigned readings and reference materials handle the issue.
And of course, discuss anything else that you believe is
important and relevant to your
object that will help your reader better understand your claims.
8. In writing your paper, you may find it helpful to address the
following: How close
stylistically is your object to the ones we have studied? How
does it differ (including
location of production) to objects we have studied?
9. Provide illustrations in your paper of all the objects you
discuss. Scan them into your
paper either after the paragraph where they are first discussed in
your text, or place
them at the end of your text. In all cases, please number them
sequentially as Figure 1,
Figure 2, etc., and add a caption with identifying information.
Part 2: textual research
1. Go to the assigned readings for the course, and take notes on
the information that is
relevant to your object.

2. Through archival research, find relevant information. A good
starting point is the
“Bibliographic Essay” at the back of Clunas’s Art in China and
also “Further Readings” at
the back of 3000 Years of Chinese Art, as well as the endnotes
of each. Read no fewer
than 5 academic sources (i.e., articles from academic journals
and/or books from
academic presses) about your object in areas that interest you,
such as art history,
social history, political history, economic history, religious
studies, literary studies,
science and technology, anthropology, archaeology, etc. to
understand your object in its
historical context. Do use the course texts as reference tools,
but note that neither they
nor our class lectures will count as one of your 5 academic
sources.
Regarding the 5 academic sources:
reviewed sources,
choose sources from the bibliographies of assigned texts for this
course.
s much from these sources as you need to learn the
information; you don’t
have to read the texts in their entirety. Read enough as you need
to be certain

you understand the information presented.
-academic sources will
not be counted for
your 5 sources. Please do not use them in your papers.
As you conduct your research, Be a writer! Start writing! Ask
questions! Write possible
answers! Write notes how your text relates to another source
you have read. Write
notes about how your object relates to what you have read.
Write notes about how
what you are reading relates to your object.
You will find your sources in several ways:
a. Start with the bibliography and endnotes of the course text to
find relevant
sources about your topic.
b. Then examine the texts on Shelf Reserve for the course in
Shields Library.
c. To find other useful sources, go to Shields Library and use
bibliographies and
other texts about Chinese studies such as the following:
1962).
-shu, Premodern China: A Bibliographical
Introduction, Ann

Arbor, 1974.
-)
of Imperial China: A
Research Guide,
Cambridge, Mass, 1973.
Guide to Reference
Works about China Past and Present (University of Hawaii
Press, 1999).
d. For brief biographies of Chinese artists, consult the
following:
T’ang, Sung, and
Yüan. Floating World Editions, 2003, c1980. (This book also
lists paintings by
each artist, and provides an opinion about the work’s
authenticity, collection,
and places where it is reproduced.)
Steiner, 1976.
publications, 1956-1968, an
annotated bibliography and an index to the paintings. Ann
Arbor: University
of Michigan, Center for Chinese Studies, 1969. (Information on

painters from
Tang –Qing.)
Principles. 7 vols. New
York, Hacker Art Books, 1973.
London, The Medici
Society, 1938; 1978.
Dictionary.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.
2010.
–
2000s. London:
Thames & Hudson, 2014.
e. For small black and white reproductions of Chinese art in
world collections, in
Chinese or Japanese languages, consult:
中國古代書畫圖目 (Illustrated
Catalogue of
Selected Works of Ancient Chinese Painting and Calligraphy),
24 vols., Beijing:
Wenwu chubanshe, 1987-. NB: These objects are in PRC
collections only.
中國繪畫總合圖錄

(Comprehensive Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Paintings:
Japanese
Collections). Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1982-1983. NB:
These objects
are in world collections except the PRC.
Teisuke and OGAWA Hiromitsu, compilers.
中國繪畫總和圖錄
(Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Paintings),
Second Series. 4
vols. Tokyo: Tokyo University Press, 1997. NB: These objects
are in world
collections except Japan and the PRC.
f. For image databases, see online resources available through
Shields. These
include:
Facility,
Everson 163/165. (This is not available through Shields
catalogue.)
Many museums now have excellent image databases of their
collections. Examples
include:
https://www.npm.gov.tw/en/index.aspx
(NB: Searches require Wade-Giles not Pinyin romanization
system.)

.org/
-Sackler Gallery of Art, https://www.freersackler.si.edu/
http://www.clevelandart.org/art/collection/search?
https://www.npm.gov.tw/en/index.aspx
https://www.metmuseum.org/
https://www.freersackler.si.edu/
http://www.clevelandart.org/art/collection/search?
For more help with scholarly resources, consult Dr. Dan
Goldstein, Reference Librarian
for Humanities and Social Sciences, Shields Library:
[email protected]
Part 3: Formatting instructions
Please follow these instructions carefully as if you were
submitting your paper for
publication consideration to the Art Bulletin. NB: Papers not
adhering to these instructions
will not be read. Use the “Chicago Manual of Style” format (as
per Kate Turabian’s A Manual
for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations), not
MLA or other formats.
Format and assembly: Typed, double-spaced, 12-pt. pitch, in
Times, Times New Roman, or
Cambria font, or another script that is similarly easy to read.
(NB: These will be fonts with
serif, not sans serif. Serif fonts like the one this document is

typed in have a slight
projection on letters that leads the eye from one letter to the
next. Sans serif fonts, such
as this, which is in Ariel, do not have this. Studies have shown
that documents written in
serif fonts such as this are easier for readers to read and process
information than those
without. We appreciate your cooperation on this!)
Set margins to 1.25” at the top, 1.0” at the bottom, 1.25” on the
left, and 1.25” on the right.
(For an example, this document follows those guidelines.)
Please use footnotes,5 not
endnotesi nor notes embedded into the text (Burnett, 8). The
previous sentence contains
examples of each of these note styles.
Assemble your paper in the following order: title page
(providing the title of your paper,
and then several spaces below: your name, the course number
and name, the name of the
professor for the course, the date of submission, and word
count), your text with
illustrations and footnotes, ii and bibliography. As you refer to
images, number the title of
the illustrations consecutively from Figure 1 within the body of
the text and on the page
bearing the illustrations. Be sure to include a caption with
identifying information next to
each image.
Place your title on the first page about 2-3 inches from the top,
followed by an inch or 2 of
space before the text begins, similar to how this document is
titled.

Please paginate your text, with the page numbers appearing in
the top right corner,
starting on page 2. You may add a header that includes your
surname and your title.
Staple your paper in the top left corner before coming to class
to submit it.
5 A footnote appears at the foot of the page, like this. Consult
Kate L. Turabian, Wayne G.
Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, A Manual
for Writers of Research Papers,
Theses, and Dissertations (Seventh Edition: Chicago Style For
Students And Researchers
(Chicago Guides To Writing, Editing, And Publishing),
University of Chicago Press, 2007),
for what belongs in a footnote, and in what order.
mailto:[email protected]
http://www.amazon.com/Manual-Writers-Research-
Dissertations-
Seventh/dp/0226823377/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&q
id=1201211462&sr=1-1
Dissertations-
id=1201211462&sr=1-1
Dissertations-
id=1201211462&sr=1-1

Length: The required length is 10 pages of text (including
footnotes), plus
bibliography and illustrations. This equates to about 2000-2500
words. Include your word
count on the title page.
For further guidance about how to write art history papers,
please consult:
Barnet, Sylvan. A Short Guide to Writing about Art, Longman
Publishers. The most
recent and thus, most up to date edition is the 11th edn. It is
recommended that you
use that.
For further guidance regarding formatting, please consult:
Kate L. Turabian, Wayne G. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and
Joseph M. Williams. A
Manual For Writers Of Research Papers, Theses, and
Dissertations, Seventh Edition:
Chicago Style For Students And Researchers (Chicago Guides
To Writing, Editing,
And Publishing). University of Chicago Press, 2007.
For general writing help, please consult:
Dutton Hall 530-752-2013.

Writing assignment deadlines. Submit the following at the
beginning of class:
Week For Class Today Bring…
3a
April 15
Begin research process. Figure out what kind of topic you wish
to research. This
week, go to the Asian Art Museum or the library, and select an
object or theme
to research for your paper.
Recommended reading before starting the whole research and
writing
process:
Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing about Art
Ch. 1 “Writing about Art,” pp. 1-35.
Ch. 2 “Writing about Art: A Crash Course,” pp. 36-46.
Ch. 3 “Analytic Thinking,” pp. 47-112.
Ch. 4 “Formal Analysis and Style,” pp. 113-127.
For the museum or library visit:
1. Survey our course texts, the Study Images (on Canvas), and
Shelf Reserve
texts in Shields Library for images to see what types of images
we will be

Dissertations-
id=1201211462&sr=1-1
Dissertations-
id=1201211462&sr=1-1
Dissertations-
id=1201211462&sr=1-1
Dissertations-
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https://tutoring.ucdavis.edu/writing
studying this quarter. Suggestion: for the books in Shields, go
with your
writing group to share efforts and books.
2. If selecting an object from the Asian Art Museum, print out
the gallery
checklist, “Asian Art Museum Chinese Ptgs 1-23-2012
Rotation.pdf,” and
take it with you to the museum as a guide.
3. In the Asian Art Museum. select an object (or a selection of
objects for you to
choose from after some preliminary research) from the China
painting
galleries to research.

4. For projects in which the objects are chosen from
books/articles in the
library:
a. photograph your object (or a selection of objects for you to
choose
from after some preliminary research)
b. Begin finding relevant research materials.
5b
May 1
In HARD COPY, at the beginning of class, submit:
7b
May 15
research project
-Assessment of research project to date
9b
May 29

-Assessment of research project to date
FINALS
WEEK
June 7
FINAL PAPERS DUE IN HARD COPY AT 9:00AM IN ART
217 on FRIDAY JUNE
7th.
Early submissions will be accepted in person to the instructor or
grader, or to
their departmental mailboxes in Everson 152.
i
An endnote looks like this, although it more typically would be
numbered 1 instead if i. The
endnotes appear at the end of the paper. The formatting of
endnotes, however, is otherwise
identical to that of footnotes. Although most journals and books
require endnotes not footnotes,
footnotes are requested for this assignment.
ii
Please use footnotes for your research paper. Footnotes appear
on the same page as the

information they support. Footnotes appear at the foot of the
page, not at the end of the paper, as
here. Footnotes (and for that matter, endnotes) do not include
chatty information, like this.
Footnotes typically contain reference information only.
Statement of the Project Intent
The project will explore the thematic category of art in the tomb
and how significant it was for the Chinese.
Goals for Final Paper
The goal is to explore the Chinese pictorial tradition, especially
on the use of art in the tomb and how that has influenced the
culture of the Chinese.
It is essential to compare the Chinese artwork on tombs with
what characterized the Egyptian past during the era of pharaohs.

Field and Archival Research Paper AHI 163B Chinese Pa.docx

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