The "Mustard Seed Garden Painting Manual" is considered to be one of the most influential treatises on painting from the early Qing period. It is also noted for its many fine woodblock illustrations of brush technique, landscape and figure painting, some of which were coloured. The first part was composed in 1679 by the literatus painter Wang Gai with the help of the novelist and connoisseur Li Yu (1611-c.1688), who wrote the preface, and his son-in-law Shen Xinyou who published the manual. The second and third parts, composed with the help of Wang Gai's brothers, Wang Shi and Wang Nie, were published in 1701 in both Hangzhou and Nanjing. This was followed by the well-known Qianlong edition of 1782, published in Suzhou, and the Jiaqing edition of 1800. Several fine reprints were published in the 19th Century in both China and Japan.