Rongo [shikkai] 論語 [集解]

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 59 ORB 30/174
  • Dates of Creation
      1499
  • Language of Material
      Japanese
  • Physical Description
      5 volumes Condition: Fair to poor. Extensive worm damage, particularly in maki 1, 2, 7-9. Water-stained in places. Pages cropped at top and bottom. Impression: Clear-cut in many places, but fuzziness elsewhere suggests a later impression with some block wear. Seals of ownership: Square red seal (inkoku), 寺田盛業, on first page of each satsu; red seal, Azana Shikō gō Bōnan 字士弘号望南 on first page of satsu 1; and small red seal, Dokuto sōdō 讀杜艸堂, on last page of satsu 10 (all seals of Terada Bōnan 寺田望南). Large square red seal, Imadegawa zōsho 今出河藏書 (seal of the Kikutei family 菊亭家), on first page of each satsu.

Scope and Content

Alternative reading of title: Rongo shūkai. Author/compiler: He Yan 何晏, 3rd century. Imprint: N.p. [Suō 周防 province] , [Sugi 杉] Takemichi (or Budō) 武道, Meiō 8 明応八年, 1499. Mokki on last folio of maki 10 reads: 明應龍集己未仲龝良日 / 西周平 武道敬重刊. Description: 10 kan, 5 satsu, formerly bound in 1 vol. western style, now restored to original form. 27.2 x 22.4 cm. Fukurotoji. Blockprint. Printing frame varies between 21.7 and 22.5 x 18.7 cm. (average). Thick single-line borders all round. Vertical rules between columns. No fishtail design on hanshin. Kanbun text, with manuscript kunten and kaeriten in black and shubiki and kutōten in red, added in Muromachi period. 6 lines to page (large characters), 12 lines (smaller characters), 13 large characters to line. Renewed grey senji-gami 宣旨紙 front cover of satsu 1 only, with manuscript gedai: 論語巻之一二三四. Hashiragaki: [no title] , maki no. + folio no. Text paper: thick kōzo. In a new chitsu case. Edition: Gozan-ban. Meiō 8 (1499) edition of the Shōhei-ban Rongo 正平版論語, printed from newly cut blocks based on the sōbatsu-bon 双跋本. Textually, the sōbatsu-bon and the present edition differ from the first edition (初刻本) of the Shōhei-ban Rongo and its derivatives. Kawase dates the publication of the sōbatsu-bon to a period in the first half of the 15th century, i.e. approximately similar to the tanbatsu 単跋本 edition. In the present edition of Meiō 8 (1499) the following blockprinted kango precedes the kanki transcribed above, the whole being printed within a double-line frame: 今玆一書 夫子之遺言而 / 漢朝諸儒所註解也寔是五經 / 之輨轄六藝之喉衿也天下為 / 民生者豈不仰其徳矣哉 / [刊記] . The publisher, Sugi Takemichi, was a clansman of the Ōuchi 大内 fief, indicating the Ōuchi family's close involvement with provincial printing. Contents: Commentary on the text of the Confucian Analects, compiled by He Yan and other scholars in the Wei period. Superseded in the Song by the commentary of Zhu Xi 朱熹.

Access Information

Not Public Record(s)

Unrestricted

Acquisition Information

Acquired from Ernest M. Satow, 22 Sept. 1884.

Other Finding Aids

Kenneth Gardner, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese books in the British Library printed before 1700 (London and Tenri, 1993).A. Chinese works 漢籍 2. Chinese classics 経書

Bibliography

ozanban no kenkyū 五山版の研究, pp. 188, 199, 492, pl. 343-8; Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, pp. 73-5, 107-11; Daitōkyū kinen bunko kichōsho kaidai 大東急記念文庫貴重書解題, vol. 1, p. 49; Zushoryō tenseki kaidai, kanseki hen 図書寮典籍解題・漢籍篇, p. 51; Shōhei-ban rongo no kenkyū 正平版論語之研究; Shōhei-bon rongo kō 正平本論語攷, in Nihon shoshigaku no kenkyū 日本書誌学之研究, pp. 1609-95; Zushoryō tenseki kaidai, kanseki hen 図書寮典籍解題・漢籍篇, pp. 53-4; Kyūkan eifu 旧刊影譜, no. 57, pl. 104 (with plate illustrating colophon of Yasuda Bunko copy).