page:  = Hu <unk> = 
   
   Hu <unk> ( Chinese : <unk> ; c . <unk> – 1674 ) was a Chinese artist , <unk> and publisher . He worked in calligraphy , traditional Chinese painting , and seal @-@ carving , but was primarily a publisher , producing academic texts as well as records of his own work . 
   Hu lived in <unk> during the transition from the Ming dynasty to the Qing dynasty . A Ming loyalist , he was offered a position at the rump court of the <unk> Emperor , but declined the post , and never held anything more than minor political office . He did , however , design the <unk> Emperor 's personal seal , and his loyalty to the dynasty was such that he largely retired from society after the emperor 's capture and death in 1645 . He owned and operated an academic publishing house called the Ten <unk> Studio , in which he practised various multi @-@ colour printing and <unk> techniques , and he employed several members of his family in this enterprise . Hu 's work at the Ten <unk> Studio pioneered new techniques in colour <unk> , leading to delicate <unk> of colour which were not previously <unk> in this art form . 
   Hu is best known for his manual of painting entitled The Ten <unk> Studio Manual of Painting and <unk> , an artist 's <unk> which remained in print for around 200 years . His studio also published seal catalogues , academic and medical texts , books on poetry , and decorative writing papers . Many of these were edited and prefaced by Hu and his brothers . 
   
   = = Biography = = 
   
   Hu was born in <unk> County , Anhui Province in <unk> or early <unk> . Both his father and elder brother <unk> ( <unk> , art name <unk> , <unk> ) were <unk> , and after he turned 30 he travelled with them while they practised medicine in the areas around Lu 'an and <unk> . It is commonly stated that <unk> himself was also a doctor , though the earliest sources <unk> to this occur only in the second half of the 19th century . 
   By 1619 , Hu had moved to <unk> where he lived with his wife Wu . Their home on <unk> ( <unk> , now also known as <unk> <unk> ) , a hill located just within the northern city wall , served as a meeting @-@ house for like @-@ minded artists . Hu named it the Ten <unk> Studio ( <unk> , <unk> ) , after the ten bamboo plants that grew in front of the property . It functioned as the headquarters for his printing business , where he employed ten artisans including his two brothers <unk> and <unk> ( <unk> , art name <unk> , <unk> ) and his sons <unk> ( <unk> ) and <unk> ( <unk> , courtesy name <unk> ) . 
   During Hu 's lifetime , the Ming dynasty , which had ruled China for over 250 years , was overthrown and replaced by China 's last imperial dynasty , the Qing . Following the fall of the capital Beijing in 1644 , remnants of the imperial family and a few ministers set up a Ming loyalist regime in <unk> with Zhu <unk> on the throne as the <unk> Emperor . Hu , who was noted for his seal @-@ carving and facility with seal script , created a seal for the new Emperor . The court offered him the position of <unk> for the <unk> ( <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) as a reward , but he did not accept the role ( although he did accord himself the title of <unk> <unk> in some of his subsequent personal seals ) . 
   According to <unk> <unk> 's Lost History of the South ( <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) , prior to the Qing invasion of <unk> Hu studied at the National University there , and whilst a student was employed by the Ministry of <unk> to record official <unk> ; he produced the Imperial Promotion of Minor Learning ( Qin Ban <unk> , <unk> ) and the Record of <unk> <unk> ( <unk> Ji , <unk> ) as part of this work . As a result , he was promoted to the Ministry of Personnel and gained <unk> to the <unk> Academy , but before he could take up this appointment , Beijing had fallen to the <unk> rebellion . Since contemporaneous biographies ( <unk> 's work was not published until 1830 ) make no mention of these events , it has been suggested that they were fabricated after Hu 's death . 
   Hu retired from public life and went into seclusion in 1646 , after the end of the Ming dynasty . <unk> <unk> and <unk> <unk> recorded visiting him during his later years , in 1667 and <unk> respectively . He died in poverty at the age of 90 , sometime around late <unk> or early 1674 . 
   
   = = Seal @-@ carving = = 
   
   Hu <unk> was a noted seal @-@ <unk> , producing personal seals for numerous dignitaries . His style was rooted in the classical seal script of the Han dynasty , and he followed the <unk> school of carving founded by his contemporary He <unk> . Hu 's calligraphy , although balanced and with a clear <unk> structure , is somewhat more angular and rigid than the classical models he followed . <unk> seals attempt to <unk> an ancient , weathered impression , although unlike other <unk> artists Hu did not make a regular practice of artificially aging his seals . 
   Hu 's work was known outside his local area . Zhou <unk> , a poet who lived in <unk> around the same time as Hu and was a noted art <unk> , stated in his Biography of Seal @-@ <unk> ( <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) that Hu " creates miniature stone carvings with ancient seal inscriptions for travellers to fight over and treasure " , implying that his carvings were popular with visitors and travellers passing through <unk> . 
   In 1644 , Hu took it upon himself to create a new Imperial seal for the <unk> Emperor , which he carved after a period of <unk> and prayer . He presented his creation with an essay , the Great <unk> of the Seal ( <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) , in which he <unk> the loss of the <unk> Emperor 's seal and <unk> Heaven 's favour in restoring it . Hu was concerned that his essay would be overlooked because he had not written it in the form of rhyming , equally @-@ footed couplets ( <unk> , <unk> ) used in the Imperial examinations , but his submission and the seal itself were nevertheless both accepted by the Southern Ming court . 
   
   = = Ten <unk> Studio = = 
   
   Despite his reputation as an artist and seal @-@ <unk> , Hu was primarily a publisher . His publishing house , the Ten <unk> Studio , produced reference works on calligraphy , poetry and art ; medical textbooks ; books on etymology and <unk> ; and copies of as well as commentaries on the Confucian Classics . Unlike other publishers in the area , the Ten <unk> Studio did not publish works of narrative fiction such as plays or novels . This bias towards academia was likely a consequence of the studio 's location : the mountain on which Hu took up residence was just to the north of the <unk> <unk> ( National Academy ) , which provided a captive market for academic texts . Between 1627 and 1644 , the Ten <unk> Studio produced over twenty printed books of this kind , aimed at a wealthy , literary audience . The studio 's earliest publications were medical textbooks , the first of which , <unk> <unk> for <unk> <unk> ( <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) was published in 1631 and proved popular enough to be reissued ten years later . Hu 's brother <unk> was a medical <unk> and appears to have been the author of these books . 
   During the <unk> the Ten <unk> Studio also produced political works <unk> the rule of the Ming ; these included the Imperial Ming Record of <unk> ( Huang Ming <unk> Ji , <unk> ) , a biography of loyal Ming officials , and the <unk> of the Imperial Ming ( Huang Ming <unk> , <unk> ) , a list of Imperial <unk> . After the fall of the Ming Dynasty , Hu renamed the studio the Hall <unk> in the Past ( <unk> , <unk> ) as a sign of his affiliation with the previous dynasty , although the Ten <unk> imprint continued to be used . Despite Hu 's withdrawal from society after 1646 , the studio continued to publish well into the Qing dynasty , for the most part <unk> on seal impression catalogues showcasing Hu 's carving work . 
   The Ming dynasty had seen considerable advancement in the process of colour printing in China . At his studio , Hu <unk> experimented with various forms of <unk> printing , creating processes for producing multi @-@ coloured prints and <unk> printed designs . As a result , he was able to produce some of China 's first printed publications in colour , using a block printing technique known as " <unk> block printing " ( <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) . This system made use of multiple blocks , each carved with a different part of the final image and each bearing a different colour . It was a lengthy , <unk> process , requiring thirty to fifty engraved printing blocks and up to seventy <unk> and impressions to create a single image . Hu also employed a related form of multiple @-@ block printing called " set @-@ block printing " ( <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) , which had existed since the Yuan period some 200 years earlier but had only recently come into fashion again . He refined these block printing techniques by developing a process for <unk> some of the ink off the blocks before printing ; this enabled him to achieve <unk> and <unk> of shades which were not previously possible . 
   In some images , Hu employed a blind <unk> technique ( known as " <unk> designs " ( <unk> , <unk> ) or " <unk> blocks " ( <unk> , <unk> ) , using an <unk> , <unk> block to stamp designs onto paper . He used this to create white relief effects for clouds and for highlights on water or plants . This was a relatively new process , having been invented by Hu 's contemporary Wu <unk> , who was also a <unk> @-@ based publisher . Wu had used this technique for the first time in his book Wisteria Studio <unk> Paper ( <unk> <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) , published in <unk> . Both Hu and Wu used <unk> to create decorative writing papers , the sale of which provided a <unk> income for the Ten <unk> Studio . 
   
   = = Major works = = 
   
   Hu 's most notable work is the Ten <unk> Studio Manual of Painting and <unk> ( <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) , an anthology of around 320 prints by around thirty different artists ( including Hu himself ) , published in 1633 . It consists of eight sections , covering calligraphy , bamboo , flowers , rocks , birds and animals , plums , orchids and fruit . Some of these sections had been released previously as single volumes . As well as a collection of artworks , it was also intended as an artistic <unk> , with instructions on correct brush position and technique and several pictures designed for <unk> to copy . Although these instructions only appear in the sections on orchids and bamboo , the book still remains the first example of a <unk> and analytical approach to Chinese painting . In this book , Hu used his multiple @-@ block printing methods to obtain <unk> of colour in the images , rather than obvious outlines or overlaps . The manual is bound in the " butterfly binding " ( <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) style , whereby whole @-@ <unk> illustrations are folded so that each occupies a double @-@ page spread . This binding style allows the reader to lay the book flat in order to look at a particular image . Cambridge University Library released a complete digital scan of the manual , including all writings and illustrations in August , 2015 . Said Charles <unk> , Head of the Cambridge University Chinese Department , " The binding is so fragile , and the manual so delicate , that until it was <unk> , we have never been able to let anyone look through it or study it – despite its <unk> importance to scholars . " 
   This volume went on to influence colour printing across China , where it paved the way for the later but better @-@ known Manual of the <unk> <unk> Garden ( <unk> <unk> <unk> ) , and also in Japan , where it was reprinted and foreshadowed the development in <unk> @-@ e of the colour <unk> printing process known as <unk> @-@ e <unk> . The popularity of the Ten <unk> Studio Manual was such that print runs continued to be produced all the way through to the late Qing dynasty . 
   Hu also produced the work Ten <unk> Studio <unk> Paper ( <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) , a collection of paper samples , which made use of the <unk> stamped <unk> technique to make the illustrations stand out in relief . Whilst primarily a catalogue of decorative writing papers , it also contained paintings of rocks , people , ritual vessels and other subjects . The book was bound in the " wrapped back " ( <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) style , in which the <unk> pages are folded , stacked , and <unk> along the open edges . Originally published in 1644 , it was reissued in four volumes between 1934 and 1941 by <unk> <unk> and Lu <unk> , and revised and republished again in 1952 . 
   
   = = = Other publications = = = 
   
   Other works produced by Hu 's studio included a reprint of Zhou <unk> 's manual of seal @-@ script calligraphy , The Six <unk> of <unk> , <unk> and <unk> ( <unk> <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) and the related <unk> Investigations into <unk> ( <unk> Bi Ji , <unk> ) , which discussed common errors in the formation of characters . With his brother <unk> , Hu edited a new introductory edition of the Confucian classics , entitled The <unk> Text of the Four Books , <unk> and <unk> ( <unk> <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) ( 1640 ) , giving the correct formation and pronunciation of the text . A similar approach was taken with the <unk> of the Thousand Character Classic in Six <unk> ( <unk> <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) ( 1663 ) , which Hu compiled with the aid of his calligraphy teacher , Li <unk> . It was published after Li 's death , partly in homage to him . 
   The three Hu brothers worked together to <unk> a student <unk> on poetry by their contemporary <unk> <unk> , which was called simply the <unk> of Poetry ( Shi Tan , <unk> ) ( <unk> ) . Other works on poetry from the studio included <unk> <unk> to the <unk> <unk> of Selected Tang Poems ( <unk> Tang Shi <unk> <unk> , <unk> ) , which was a compilation of several works on poetry and included <unk> by Hu <unk> himself . 
   Among the studio 's more obscure publications was a text on Chinese <unk> entitled <unk> <unk> ( <unk> ) , written under a pseudonym but with a preface by Hu <unk> . 
   
   = = Gallery = = 
   
   <unk> from the ' ' Ten <unk> Studio Manual of Painting and <unk> ' ' 
   
   