Xiushilu (Records of Lacquering) is the only surviving Chinese traditional book on the art of lacquerwork. Compiled in the Ming dynasty by Huang Cheng (黃成), the book contains detailed descriptions on the art of producing lacquer, and the cosmological ideas that are connected to the art of lacquer work.

Mr. Wang Shixiang’s (王世襄) A Commentary on Xiushilu《髹飾錄解說》is one of the most important annotated editions of Xiushilu, and is a book that can be found relatively easily in bookshops, and is a valuable resource for anyone who is engaged in the study of lacquer.

Any existing manuscripts of Xiushilu were lost from China, until 1927, when the only surviving copy of Xiushilu, a Japanese manuscript, was printed and circulated in type-setting format in China, through the great efforts of Zhu Qiqian (朱啟鈐).

During the Republic period, after printing and circulating Yingzaofashi, the oldest complete architecture treatise found in China and written in the Northern Song dynasty, Zhu Qiqian made the comment that “I deeply fear that cultural relics will sink into oblivion. That the relaying of information will gradually be replaced.” Zhu Qiqian therefore established The Chinese Architecture Society, China’s first organization dedicated to the research of ancient architecture.

There are many different facets to architectural construction, such as major carpentry (大木作; structural framing, beams, columns, etc.), minor carpentry (小木作; windows, doors, partitions, screens, etc.), lacquer work, paint work, and more, and thus Zhu Qiqian set out to edit a text related to lacquer, Qishu 《漆書》. From written records we know that in the Five Dynasties period, Zhu Zundu compiled a text called Qijing《漆經》, but which has been lost to time, with no existing copies.

Based on the Japanese manuscript copy of Xiushilu in the possession of Kenkakedo (蒹葭堂), Zhu Qiqian published a type-setting edition of the text in 1927, printing 200 copies, most of which were gifted to his close friends. Later when China and Japan were at war with each other, many copies of this publication were destroyed. The edition printed by Zhu Qiqian is called “Dingmao edition丁卯本”, and the Japanese manuscript copy is called “Kenkakedo edition (蒹葭堂抄本)”.

In the foreword of A Commentary on Xiushilu, Wang Shixiang notes that “Xiushilu is only known to us because of Mr. Zhu Qiqian, and a commentary on this compilation would also require his illumination. Wang’s commentary on Xiushilu thus uses Zhu Qiqian’s Dingmao edition.

Copies of Zhu Qiqian’s publication of Xiushilu are hard to come by today, and they are occasionally seen in auctions. In recent years, the printing press of Renmin University of China has published an edition that contains both the Dinngmao edition as well as the Kenkakedo edition.