The only written record in the album that indicates the painter's identity is an inscription in one picture as "73-year-old Run Zhai, Sun Wen" with seals of "Sun Wen" and "Sun Xiaozhou", who was found neither in the painting's history nor the chorography. Research indicates that Sun Wen was born in Fengrun in North China's Hebei Province in 1818 and the pictures were painted between 1867 and 1903, and finished when he was 73. The whole album was mainly conceived and drawn by Sun Wen with Sun Xiaozhou.

There are few records of the history and handing-down of the hand-painted album except that it was transferred to the Lvshun Museum in Dalian of North China's Liaoning Province in July 1959 by the Shanghai Institute for Conservation of Cultural Relics. Since then it was sealed up until its rediscovery in the 1970s, although little attention was aroused.

  Rebirth of the album

The experts at the Lvshun Museum said the hand-painted album of 230 fine brushwork paintings was collected at the museum as first-class national cultural relics. Attracting more recognition from the public has been the main task at the museum for years.

Liu Guangtang, curator of the Lvshun Museum who has engaged in research on the album for more than 10 years, introduced that the first 80 chapters of A Dream of Red Mansions were written by Cao Xunqin and the remaining 40 chapters were attributed to Gao Er, who published the combined version in 1792. Consequently, the painting styles of the two parts are also different. The number of the figures in the album numbers over 3,700, which the painter endowed with his own understanding of the original work. Being Sun Wen's only work known so far makes the album more than precious. It is not only the important material for research on the folk painting of the Qing Dynasty, but also provides new contents into the research on A Dream of Red Mansions.

Liu added that the Lvshun Museum has always aspired to exhibit the album, however, it is difficult to hold an exhibition due to sunlight and humidity which would harm the pictures. Now, the pictures are preserved in 24 slipcovers respectively.

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