Zhang Yanyuan was born in a family of collectors in the Tang Dynasty. He learned a lot about calligraphy and painting since he was a child. Over time, he developed a pair of "eyes". He claimed that "the collection of expertise, one day long."
Zhang Yanyuan studied calligraphy and painting carefully according to the family heirloom. He deeply realized that although many famous paintings and calligraphy have been circulated since ancient times, many people did not really realize their value, so they did not really play their role.
At the same time, the destruction of war and turmoil is enough to destroy a large number of precious paintings and calligraphy in the fire of war; As for some people who pretend to collect in the name of "being a vassal", they use famous paintings as a means of promoting officials and knighthood, and even become a temporary trend, which is even more worthy of being warned by future generations.
All these things, Zhang Yanyuan thinks, will bring great obstacles to the development of painting art. To this end, he sprouted the idea of writing a book about painters and works of past dynasties. His two books, Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties and A Compendium of Calligraphy, collected rich materials of the previous generation on painting and calligraphy respectively, especially the previous book put forward his own opinions, which was an important contribution to the scientific research of ancient Chinese fine arts.