From the humble birthplace of Huai’an in Jiangsu Province, Luo Zhenyu survived the tumultuous transition from dynasty to republic in 1912, but was left without a job or income. Along with others in the Epigraphic movement (jinshixue pai, 金石皐派), Luo loved artifacts, and despite hardship, he began to collect and record inscriptions found on stone and bronze. With Dong Zuobin (1895–1963), Luo established the identity and chronology of rulers during the Shang dynasty, once thought to be mythical. Luo claimed that, "I only like to collect ancient artifacts," but he played so many roles—scholar, collector, author, publisher, and art dealer—that he became a polarizing figure in that field. While oracle bone writing influenced bronze script, its rectilinear lines differed from the rounder bronze script because of the difficulty of engraving hard surfaces, contrasting with the ease of inscribing the wet clay in which bronze molds were cast. Bronze script in turn influenced Stone Drum script—most of their apparent differences deriving from the originals’ scales and materials. In this scroll, Luo wrote inscriptions on bronze vessels from his collection, exemplifying the epigrapher’s process of learning through collecting and writing from artifacts.