Ordering the Myriad Things: From Traditional Knowledge to Scientific Botany in China

In his book, Ordering the Myriad Things, Nicholas K. Menzies, research fellow in The Huntington's Center for East Asian Garden Studies, examines how traditional knowledge of plants in China gave way to scientific botany between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries. This talk focuses especially on images of plants, contrasting their representation in late-imperial Chinese painting and materia medica to the conventions of scientific botanical drawing. It highlights the work and careers of three 20th-century Chinese artists who paved the way for today's professional botanical illustrators.