Monzen 文選

Variant title: Rikushin chū monzen 六臣註文選. Variant title: Zōho rikushin chū monzen 増補六臣註文選. Author/compiler: Xiao Tong 蕭統, crown prince of the Liang dynasty, 501-31. With commentaries by the Six Ministers (六臣), comprising the exegesis of Li Shan 李善 combined with that of five other ministers. Imprint: N.p., n.d. [Kan'ei 2, 1625] . Kanki on fol. 37 recto of maki 60 reads: 慶長丁未沽洗上旬八蓂 板行畢. This imprint is misleading. It merely repeats the kanki printed in the Naoe-ban Monzen 直江版文選, on which the present edition is based. This copy is of the edition published in Kan'ei 2 寛永二年, 1625. For details see under Edition below. Description: 61 kan (1 kan 目録 + 60 kan 本文), formerly in 30 satsu, now rebound in 5 large vols. western style. Text of maki 1 is prefaced by 李善上文選注表 (ff. 1-3) and 文選序 ／ 梁昭明太子撰･･･ (ff. 4-8). 31.6 x 21.8 cm. Fukurotoji. Movable type. Printing frame 23.8 x 17.7 cm. Single-line borders all round. No vertical rules between columns, except in maki containing 目録. 'Flower petal' fishtail design on hanshin. Kanbun text, without printed kunten or reading marks. 10 lines to page (double for commentary), 22 characters to line. Original light buff front covers of satsu 1 (maki 1-2), satsu 7 (maki 13-14), satsu 13 (maki 25-26), satsu 19 (maki 37-38) and satsu 25 (maki 49-50) only. Each has a large title slip added on left, with manuscript gedai: 六臣註 ／ 文選 ／ 一之巻二之巻 (等). Title from naidai. Title at head of mokuroku 目録: 増補六臣註文選. Hashiragaki: Monzen 文選 + maki no. + folio no. In a western style half-leather binding. Edition: Later reprint (Kan'ei 2, 1625), from re-set type, of the first Japanese edition of this work, printed at the Yōhōji 要法寺 by Naoe Yamashiro-no-kami Kanetsugu 直江山城守兼續 in 1607, and known as the Naoe-ban Monzen 直江版文選. Other copies of this 1625 edition have the following kanki added after the Keichō 12 (1607) kanki quoted under Imprint above: 寛永二年乙丑孟夏上旬日板行畢. In the present copy, fol. 37 verso of maki 60 has been cut out, removing the Kan'ei 2 kanki in a (perhaps) deliberate attempt to pass the book off as a copy of the original Naoe-ban of 1607. Proof that it belongs to the later edition of 1625 is provided by (a) the single-line borders (1607 edition has double lines), and (b) the absence of vertical rules between columns of type (1607 edition has them), except in the first maki containing a list of contents (目録). Contents: Anthology of Chinese verse and prose, Wenxuan 文選, containing more than 700 works by 129 authors written between the Han and Liang periods. Completed between the years 526 and 531, with commentary added in the 7th century.

Unrestricted

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

Kenneth Gardner, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese books in the British Library printed before 1700 (London and Tenri, 1993). A. Chinese works 漢籍 7. Chinese literature 中国文学

Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, pp. 264, 268-9, 362, 395, 704, pl. 58-61; Kokuritsu kokkai toshokan shozō kichōsho kaidai 国立国会図書館所蔵貴重書解題, vol. 2, p. 76; Takagi bunko kokatsuji-ban mokuroku 高木文庫古活字版目録, pp. 69-70, pl. 86-7; Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 6, p. 38; Monzen shohon no kenkyū 文選諸本の研究, in Monzen sakuin 文選索引, vol. 1.