[Seal: Seal of Wu Shiyu]
[Seal: Xiyu]

Preface to the Manual of Birds and Flowers

Among the famous masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, those who excelled at painting flowers and plants huahui: a collective term for floral subjects in Chinese art almost invariably also mastered the painting of birds lingmao: literally "feathers and hair," the traditional category for birds and mammals, though often used specifically for birds in this context.

The Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings original: "Xuanhe Huapu" (宣和画譜), a foundational 12th-century catalog of the Song Emperor Huizong's imperial collection records forty-six artists under the "Flowers and Birds" category. If an artist specialized specifically in "grasses and insects" caochong: the sub-genre of painting focusing on small insects and meadow plants, they were instead categorized under the "Vegetables and Fruits" section.

In terms of arrangement and composition, birds are most often embellished with "woody flowers" blossoms from trees or shrubs, such as plum or magnolia, whereas insects are paired with "herbaceous flowers" soft-stemmed garden flowers and wild grasses. Because these categories should not be placed after the Manual of Flowers original: "Ruipu" (蘂譜), referring here to the preceding floral section of the manual, the herbaceous flowers and insects are presented first here.