Ch: huapu. Lit. Painting primers, often illustrated books explaining the canon of painting production or appreciation. In China these manuals date from the Song period when they were created by and for both professionals and scholar-amateurs. The oldest known gafu is Song Boren's (Jp: Sō Hakujin 宋伯仁) Meihua xishenpu 梅花喜神譜 (Album of the Joyful Spirit of Plum Blossoms), a manual on plum blossom painting, inscribed in 1238. While early painting manuals of the Song and Yuan period tend to concentrate on single subjects such as plum or bamboo, manuals of the Ming and Qing periods are typically more comprehensive in scope. These manuals, notably Bazhong huapu (Jp: *Hasshu gafu 八種画譜), Tuhui zongyi (Jp: Zukai sōi 図絵宗彝), Jieziyuan huazhuan (Jp: *Kaishien gaden 芥子園画伝), and Shizhuzhai shuhuapu (Jp: *Jitchikusai shogafu 十竹斎書画譜) were frequently adapted by Japanese Southern School *nanga 南画 artists.