Classical Chinese Writing Guide from Japan

HUANG, Jian 黃堅

Kaihon taiji shoju senkai Kobun Shinpō goshū 魁本大字諸儒箋解古文真寶後集 [Large Format Truly Precious Collection in Big Characters of Ancient Prose with Commentary & Explanations of Various Classicists, Second Installment]

84.5; 89 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo (275 x 190 mm.), orig. blue semi-stiff wrappers (wrappers wormed), new stitching. [Japan, probably Kyoto]: colophon dated 1614.

A rare Japanese edition of a manual for classical Chinese composition ascribed to Huang Jian 黃堅, allegedly of the Song dynasty. The earliest edition was published in China and has a Preface dated 1502. The book contains examples of classical Chinese writings classified by genre. These include poetry, such as rhapsodies (fu 賦), and prose, such as essays (wen 文), biographies (zhuan 傳), and stelae (bei 碑). The “ancient prose” (Ch.: guwen; J.: kobun 古文) advertised in the title of the book was pioneered in the Tang dynasty as a literary style based on the writings of China’s pre-Buddhist past.

Our edition is Japanese, but editions of the book are also known from China and Korea. The present edition was printed with kunten marks to facilitate reading in Japanese. The early Edo period saw a number of editions — a testament to the text’s popularity — and, within editions, a number of variants (witness Gardner’s head-scratching in his description of the BL’s copy). Our copy furthermore contains the red-ink annotations of a studious reader.

The Preface is signed by Zheng Ben 鄭本 and dated 1366; the Chinese name and the Yuan-dynasty era suggest a Chinese writer. We read his name as Zheng Ben, but note that the Japanese kunten mark links the two characters 文敘, with the implication that Zheng’s first name is Benshi 本士.

This copy has a colophon, which we think is dated as “kinoetora year of Keichō” 慶長甲寅, corresponding to 1614. We are grateful to Huang Hui-ju for her help in reading the colophon.

Very good set of a rare book. There is some worming here and there, touching some characters in each volume, but we do not find it offensive.

References

Kenneth B. Gardner, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese Books in the British Library Printed before 1700 (1993), 69.

Price: $4,250.00

Item ID: 9437