About this Item
From the library of the British sinologist Arthur Christopher Moule: an expansive collection of scholarly publications by Hopkins, including four with presentation inscriptions and other unmarked presentation copies. The first volume is inscribed by Moule on the front free endpaper, "Articles from the most part from RAS [Royal Asiatic Society] given me by the author." Accompanying the articles are two letters from Hopkins to Moule and one from Hopkins to his veteran colleague, Arthur Waley. The brother of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Hopkins (1854-1952) served with the British consular service in China between 1874 and shortly before the First World War. Stationed in cities including Tianjin and Chefoo, he cultivated a specialist knowledge of early Chinese linguistics and applied this to a multi-decade academic career. Moule (1873-1957) spent a decade in China as a missionary and became a leading expert on the history of Christianity in the country. In 1933, he succeeded Herbert Allen Giles as the professor of Chinese language and history at Cambridge. The two men had many overlapping academic interests. The first letter from Hopkins to Moule, bound in opposite page [159] and dated 9 March 1917, discusses the interpretation of oracle bone inscriptions ("The misreading of. characters by the Han scholars is a fairly common occurrence"). The second, a loose postcard, offers Moule assistance with interpreting an inscription. Also present is a 29 January 1940 autograph letter signed from Hopkins to his colleague Arthur Waley (1889-1966), asking him "to come to my rescue in the matter of an alleged saying of Confucius which I am anxious to understand." This was presumably acquired by Moule from Waley at some point. In the first volume, Moule has numbered each leaf, added a manuscript table of contents and biographical details on Hopkins below his inscription, and written a few notes. The 25 articles and the individual inscriptions found in this volume are listed below. The second volume contains 22 articles, all of which are unmarked. a) "The Development of Chinese Writing." Inscribed by Hopkins. b) "Chinese Writing in the Chou Dynasty in the Light of Recent Discoveries." Inscribed by Hopkins. c) "The Chinese Bronze Known as the 'Bushell Bowl' and its Inscription." d) "A Funeral Elegy and a Family Tree Inscribed on Bone." e) "Dragon and Alligator: Being Notes on the Some Ancient Inscribed Bone Carvings." f) "A Chinese Pedigree on a Tablet-Disk." Inscribed by Moule as from the author. g) "Chinese and Sumerian" (Part 1). h) "Chinese and Sumerian" (Part 2). i) "Chinese and Sumerian" (Part 3). j) "Chinese and Sumerian" (Part 4). k) "The Archives of an Oracle." l) "The Archives of an Oracle: Notes on the Text." m) "The Chinese Numerals and Their Notational Systems." n) "The Chinese Numerals and Their Notational Systems. Part II." o) "The Sovereigns of the Shang Dynasty, B.C. 1766-1154." p) "Miscellaneous Communications: The Wind, the Phoenix, and a String of Shells." Inscribed by Hopkins. q) "Pictographic Reconnaissance: Being Discoveries, Recoveries, and Conjectural Raids in Archaic Chinese Writing." r) "Pictographic Reconnaissance Part II: Being Discoveries, Recoveries, and Conjectural Raids in Archaic Chinese Writing." s) "Pictographic Reconnaissance Part III: Being Discoveries, Recoveries, and Conjectural Raids in Archaic Chinese Writing." Inscribed by Hopkins and with "rough proof" ink stamp. t) "L'écriture dans L'ancienne Chine." u) "The Honan Relics: A New Investigator and Some Results." v) "Pictographic Reconnaissance Part IV." w) "The Royal Geneaologies on the Honan Relics and the Record of the Shang Dynasty." x) "Pictographic Reconnaissance Part V." y) "Metamorphic Stylization and the Sabotage of Significance. A Study in Ancient and Modern Chinese Writing." 2 vols, quarto (c. 230 x 155 mm), with 25 articles bound in first vol. and 22 bound in second. Many plates, some folding. Volumes bound at different times in near-contemporary bla.
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