Niyudo [Ch.: Er you dong; Precious Books from the Cave] [or, from title label on covers]: Tohon ruisho mokuroku
MAEDA, Kikuso (or, on title: ISSHIKI, Tokimune)
73; 60 folding leaves (pagination in Vol. II continued from Vol. I). Two vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers (wrappers rather worn), orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers (frayed), new stitching. Kyoto: Hayashi Kuhei & Takemura Shinbei, 1699. First edition of this valuable bibliography of Chinese encyclopedias or lei-shu (classified books); this is an important guide to the corpus of lei-shu. The term âencyclopediaâ is not used in the Western sense. Lei-shu âis the name given a genre of collectanea of literary and non-literary materials compiled in pre-modern Chinese history. Commonly translated âencyclopedia,â lei-shu is more accurately rendered âclassified book,â from the categories of topic, genre, or rhyme that were typically used to organize the contents. Lei-shu are properly regarded as encyclopedias in that they were intended to encompass and present synoptically the total of either existing knowledge or a specified field of knowledge. However, they did so in a characteristically Chinese way, by quoting existing texts and placing them in a synthetic rearrangement. Lei-shu contain little or no original writing, unlike our modern encyclopedias, a fact that suggests their compilation was motivated by a desire to preserve texts as well as to provide accessible surveys of knowledge. That lei-shu contain virtually no new material should not lead to an underestimation of their importance and influence. Many lei-shu in their time exerted great influence in shaping education, the intellectual climate, and literature by making available a particular selection of materials to a large number of readers from a vast canon of existing texts not readily available to them. Lei-shu were the emperorsâ and officialsâ digests of important texts, the primers of early education, the handbooks of poets and playwrights, and the study guides of examination candidates⦠âThe durable lei-shu tradition is to be credited with the preservation of a vast amount of texts from pre-Ming China.ââNienhauser, ed., The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Vol. I, pp. 526-29. Very good set. Some worming touching but not obscuring characters.
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