Western pictorial methods for Chinese subjects. Rather than a title that describes it as a study of linear perspective or Western painting, Nian’s chosen title, The Study of Vision, emphasizes the ultimate effects of these pictorial techniques. With varying degrees of clarity and legibility, the illustrations and instructions demonstrate the technical methods that can be manipulated to produce visual deception in painting. Correlating the illustrations in his nine sections with the two prose prefaces confirms that Nian sought to investigate the techniques of linear perspective, modeling through shading, and cast shadows in the service of a more profound investigation into visual perception and cognition inspired by this foreign painting style.
Perception, Cognition, and Perspectival Illusionism
Although the illustrations are the most important part of the treatise, the prefaces establish how Nian contextualized his discussion of illusionistic painting methods by focusing on their effects. By not consistently linking Nian’s statements in the prefaces with what he does in the illustrations, the previous translations have privileged words over images in a way that contradicts Nian’s own methodology. Therefore, in light of the information found in the illustrations, Nian’s two distinctly different prefaces to The Study of Vision deserve a fresh translation.75
In the 1729 preface, Nian wrote,
For many years I have focused my heart and mind on the study of vision. While attending to my post, I thought about it exhaustively, all without achieving even a glimmer
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