Si ku quan shu zong mu ?????? [Catalogue of the Complete Books of the Four Repositories]

JI, Yun ??, ed

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40 vols. Small 8vo, orig. printed wrappers & stitching. Shanghai: Shanghai Da Dong shu ju ??????, 1926. A fine set of the catalogue of Siku quanshu, a book series that is "by far the largest extant collection to be compiled before the 20th century." Its catalogue, in turn, is "the largest annotated book catalogue compiled in China before the 20th century. It is also the most important" (Wilkinson, Chinese History, Vol. 2, 1874). On the first day of the Chinese New Year, 1772, the Qianlong emperor issued an edict calling on officials throughout the empire to submit books to the capital to enhance the imperial library. After a scholar responded to this request with the suggestion that books ought also to be recovered from inaccessible collections and bibliographical précis written for all the works acquired, the project grew to one of the biggest editorial undertakings in Chinese history. Not only was the imperial library itself augmented with new books, but their contents were copied out into seven manuscripts, some of which were made available to scholars for use in designated libraries. The resulting book series, called Siku quanshu or "Complete Books of the Four Repositories," comprised 3471 works. The catalogue furthermore recorded brief notes on an additional 6793 books that were themselves not included in Siku quanshu. The definitive version of our text, the catalogue, was published in 1795. The catalogue is of unmatched importance "(1) because of the high quality of the abstracts, which give information on the nature and style of each work, including its table of contents in whole or in part, different editions, a brief biographical sketch of the author (on first appearance), and an evaluation, and (2) because it is the most comprehensive by far" (Wilkinson, 1874). According to Yu Jiaxi ??? (ca. 1890-1960), as translated by Kent Guy, "To say that there has been no work like this since Liu Hsiang s Pieh-lu would not be excessive. [Its benefits] were felt throughout the empire, and soaked deeply [into the roots of Chinese scholarship]. Since the Tao-kuang and Chia-ch ing periods, there have not been any scholars who have not partaken of its riches, or used it as a compass needle to find their way" (Guy, The Emperor s Four Treasuries, 104-5). The publisher of our book, Shanghai Da Dong shuju, was founded in 1916. It was located on Fuzhou Road (then also known as Fourth Street) in the international settlement, a street that still today is a center for the Shanghai book trade. Fine set, preserved in four hantao. Seller Inventory # 10045

Bibliographic Details

Title: Si ku quan shu zong mu ?????? [Catalogue of ...
Binding: Soft cover