Collecting China收藏中国 · 中国近现代收藏史数据库
Who collected what, from whom, through which studios and markets, and where did those objects eventually go? This database begins with 200 collectors active around Republican-era China and develops the top 50 as source-linked research profiles.
Most influential collectors
This user-selected cohort shows each collector’s actual rank in the revised 200-person index. The new method gives greater weight to rare books, letters, archives, oracle bones, epigraphic rubbings, and systematic catalogues because they preserve direct historical records.
Zhang Boju 张伯驹
A benchmark for preserving canonical calligraphy and painting, with exceptional art-historical, provenance, and public-donation value.
Pang Yuanji 庞元济
The Xuzhai collection joined exceptional scale with systematic cataloguing, leaving a durable record of modern painting provenance.
Wu Hufan 吴湖帆
Meijing Shuwu combined old paintings, rubbings, and rare books; diaries and colophons document the Shanghai connoisseurial network.
Luo Zhenyu 罗振玉
Oracle bones, Dunhuang manuscripts, and epigraphic materials unite primary historical evidence with foundational modern scholarship.
Ye Gongchuo 叶恭绰
Painting, textiles, epigraphy, rare books, and transport archives were preserved and catalogued across an unusually broad documentary range.
Ma Heng 马衡
Oracle bones, rubbings, seals, and epigraphy connect private collecting to archaeology and the institutional formation of the Palace Museum.
Peng Gusheng 彭谷声
More than 100,000 letters spanning the Song through Republican periods form an exceptional continuum of biographical and social evidence.
Fu Zengxiang 傅增湘
Song–Yuan rare books and annotated editions from Shuangjian Lou and Cangyuan are central evidence for bibliography and intellectual history.
Zheng Zhenduo 郑振铎
Xidi’s library and wartime book-rescue work connect private collecting, national preservation, and bibliographical research.
Xu Naichang 徐乃昌
Jixue Zhai united rare books, manuscripts, and local documents with particular value for textual collation and historical research.
Provenance connects people, objects, and institutions
Pingfu Tie《平复帖》 links Pu Ru 溥儒, Zhang Boju 张伯驹, and the Palace Museum 故宫博物院 into a traceable modern provenance chain. The database treats these links as structured, sourceable facts rather than decorative stories.
Explore provenance chainsImage: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Current collection: Palace Museum.
Distribution of collecting fields
Only evidenced relationships become edges
For example, Wu Hufan 吴湖帆 → Peng Gusheng 彭谷声 is recorded through the commission of Qianli Fushu Tu《千里负书图》; Zhang Heng 张珩 → Peng Gusheng is recorded through documented close viewing of a Ni Zan 倪瓒 painting.
200 Republican-era collectors
The top 50 use the enhanced research template. Ranks 51–200 remain a structured base index for continued expansion. Peng Gusheng 彭谷声 is ranked #12 in this edition.
| Rank | Name / 中文 | Collecting focus | Representative holdings | Profile | Official source | Wikipedia |
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