Minghualu 明畫錄

Minghualu 明畫錄 "Ming paintings" is a book on Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) painting written by Xu Qin 徐沁 (fl. 1677), courtesy name Yegong 野公, style Weiyu Shanren 委羽山人, from Guiji 會稽 (today part of Shaoxing 紹興, Zhejiang).

Xu's book, finished around 1680, has a length of 8 juan and imitates in structure Xia Wenyan's 夏文彥 (fl. 1365) Tuhui baojian 圖繪寶鑒, and draws a lot from Zhu Mouyin's 朱謀垔 (1584-1628) Huashi huiyao 畫史會要. Concerning the structure, the 855 painters examined in the book are partly arranged according to social status (juan 1, with emperors, princes, and clerics; incl. the genre of portraits and architectural painting), and below that level, chronologically. From fascicle 2 on, painters are arranged according to painting genres, first landscape painting (juan 2-4), then a rest of landscape painting, domestic and wild animals, dragons and fishes (juan 5), birds and garden plants (juan 6), and then the particular genre of bamboo and plum images, with an appendix on vegetables and fruits (juan 7). The last fascicle (8 Huiji 彙記) is a miscellaneous chapter. Each of these sections is preceded by a short introduction briefly discussing the origins of each painting discipline and its development during the Ming period. The text not only outlines the state and development of Ming-period painting, but also his adds Xu Qin's own artistic insights.

Even if the book of Xu Qin is more detailed than the Huashi huiyao and Wusheng shishi 無聲詩史, the author did not indicate his many sources, which is a main scholarly defect.

The text is found in the series Duhuazhai congshu 讀畫齋叢書, Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編, Huashi congshu 畫史叢書 and Meishu congshu 美術叢書, where the book is transformed into one single fascicle.