adangs are a very special treasure in Chinese architectural history. As well as being an art that combines calligraphy, painting, craftwork, and carving, the art of wadangs also is a result of the combination of practicality and aesthetics, adding much beauty to ancient architectures.

Guan's rich collections are more than just a showcase; they are historical material objects for his profound research on China's millenniums-old wadang culture.

Guan spent the past two years doing textual research on the paintings and characters on the surfaces of his wadangs, looking through dozens of reference documents like Zuo Zhuan (Zuo's Commentary on Spring and Autumn Annals, a famous historical book recording the history of the Spring and Autumn Period from 770-476BC); Shi Ji (The Records of the Great Historian, the first general historical book in the form of series biographies in China); and Han Shu (History of the [Former] Han Dynasty, a biographic dynastic history of the Western Han Dynasty from 206BC-8AD), and so on.

He analyzed altogether 268 wadang designs of the pre-Qin and Han dynasties, of which about three-fourth are new finds, and less than one-fourth are historical revisions, decoding some puzzling historic facts unexplained for millenniums.

In his A Textual Research on Pre-Qin and Han Wadang Decorations, Guan attached a short verse to each wadang illustration, commentating vividly and fondly on the historical significance of each piece. The book provides important data for the archeological study of ancient buildings and at the same time offers some reference for the study of politics, economics, and culture in different periods throughout China's history.

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