The great era of art collecting in China. Emperor Taizong and his followers

Abstract

In 618 AD when the Tang dynasty was founded, the Imperial Storehouse had merely three hundred scrolls, but all of them were regarded as treasures handed down from the Sui dynasty. This small collection, however, only began to grow when on the throne sat Emperor Taizong 太宗 (626 – 649 AD) – one of the greatest art collectors of all times. An excellent scholar and calligrapher, interested in art himself, Taizong almost fanatically began to buy art from private individuals. As a result, by the year 632 AD in the imperial collection there were already over 1,500 scrolls of calligraphy. [...]