A Comparative Study of the Works on Decoration Art by Chinese and Japanese Scholars 

during the Republic of China: with the Works by Wang Ziyun and Itō Chūta as Examples

ABSTRACT: The Republic of China was a remarkable period for the transformation towards modernity of Chinese art history. The expansion of the subject and the interdisciplinary of the methodology of the art history brought about varied academic standpoints, historical views, aesthetic judgments, and values in the “anonymous” art history concerning the civilian decoration art, as is part of the fieldwork of the art historical studies conducted by Chinese and Japanese scholars. As a matter of fact, The Compendia of the Applied Art throughout the Past Dynasties in China by Wang Ziyun and The Architectural Decoration in China by Itō Chūta were important works revealing the distinctive narrative logics, views andmethods of the Chinese and Japanese scholars during this period due to their different national standpoints. Meanwhile, the two works were not only the representative writings of the Fieldwork School on the “Anonymous Art History” by the scholars from the two nations, but also the outstanding research findings with similar features in the breakthrough of the methodology for Chinese art history during the transformation towards modernity. This paper, with a comparative study on the similarities and dissimilarities of the two works, aims at enhancing the academic understanding about the research paradigm and the methodologies of the“anonymous art history” in China during the Republic of China. 

Key words: decoration art; Anonymous Art History, Wang Ziyun, Itō

Chūta, Theory and Methodology