Methodology / 方法

Ranking is a research instrument, not a verdict

The database separates ranking judgments from factual claims. Facts require sources; ranking remains an editorial synthesis open to revision.

Influence model

Historical documentary value30%

Preservation & public-collection impact25%

Cataloguing & traceability20%

Quality & systematic coherence15%

Scale & cultural influence10%

Rank stability

Ranks 1–50 are treated as the most stable comparative band. Ranks 51–120 remain meaningfully comparable. Ranks 121–200 increasingly represent specialist, regional, or documentary-network significance.

Peng Gusheng 彭谷声

Ranked #12 in v1.0; the upward revision reflects contemporary evidence for roughly 100,000 letters and manuscripts, wartime book-protection history, and documented links with Wu Hufan 吴湖帆 and Zhang Heng 张珩.

Evidence rules

Relationship graph: an edge requires a documented collecting event—transaction, viewing, authentication, publication, mentorship, donation, or another collecting-specific interaction.

Provenance: uncertain ownership gaps are shown as gaps rather than silently completed.

Bilingual entity alignment: English names and terms remain paired with Chinese originals so generated answers can resolve the same historical entity across languages.

Images: public-domain or institutionally usable images are preferred; uncertain copyright status should remain a source link rather than a copied image asset.