Nansong yuanhua lu 南宋院畫錄

Nansong yuanhua lu 南宋院畫錄 "Discourse on painting from the Southern Song court" is a book on painting compiled during the early Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Li E 厲鶚 (1692-1752), courtesy name Taihong 太鴻, style Fanxie Shanmin 樊榭山民, Xiongfei 雄飛, Xixi Yuzhe 西溪漁者 or Nanhu Huayin 南湖畫隱, from Qiantang 錢塘 (today's Hangzhou 杭州, Zhejiang). He was not only the author of books on art like Yutai huashi 玉臺畫史, but also interested in history, writing the supplement Liaoshi shiyi 遼史拾遺, and in poetry, as the author of the critical collection Songshi jishi 宋詩紀事 and the book Song zashi shi 宋雜事詩. His collected writings are called Fanxie Shanfang ji 樊榭山房集.

The book of 8 juan length was finished in 1721. The word Nansongyuan points at the imperial collection of art of the Southern Song dynasty 南宋 (1127-1279) that was assembled in the Imperial Painting Collection (Yuqian Huayuan 御前畫院). The paintings in the collection were called yuanhua 院畫 "court paintings". Great masters of the time were Li Tang 李唐 (1066-1150), Liu Songnian 劉松年 (d. 1225), Ma Yuan 馬遠 (1160-1225) and Xia Gui 夏珪 (c. 1180-c.1230), who all tried to revive the flourishing art style of the Xuanhe reign-period 宣和 (1119-1125) of the late Northern Song era 北宋 (960-1126).

Li's book was particularly dedicated to the masters of the early Southern Song period. It begins with a general introduction (Zongshu 總述) to describe the historical background of the object of his study. The main part discusses the artworks of nearly hundred masters who contributed paintings to the Imperial Collection. Only part of the text was written by Li himself, but he made use of a number of secondary literature all of which he diligently indicated. This is the main difference to the original book Xuanhe huapu 宣和畫譜 whose structure Li more or less imitated.

Li E's book is included in the series Siku quanshu 四庫全書, Wulin zhanggu congbian 武林掌故叢編, Meishu congshu 美術叢書 and Huashi congshu 畫史叢書. A modern edition was published in 1991 by the Shanghai Guji Chubanshe 上海古籍出版社.