Gunsho chiyō 羣書治要 [群書治要]

Author/compiler: Wei Zheng 魏徴 and others, c. 600. Imprint: N.p. [Suruga 駿河] , n.d. [Genna 2 元和二年, 1616] . No colophon. Description: 47 kan (of 50). Maki 4, 13 and 20 were never printed and are lacking from this edition. Maki 1 opens with the original preface by the compilers (3 folios) and a 4-folio mokuroku 目録. Formerly bound in 47 satsu, now rebound in 7 large vols. western style. 26.5 x 18.8 cm. Fukurotoji. Printed with bronze (or copper) movable type. Printing frame 21.5 x 16.3 cm. (average). Double-line borders all round. Vertical rules between columns. 'Flower petal' fishtail design on hanshin. Kanbun text without kunten or reading marks. 8 lines to page (double for commentary), 17 characters to line. Original pale fawn front covers of maki 1, 9, 17, 25, 32, 38 and 44, each with a title slip added in the Edo period by former owners, the Kii 紀伊國 branch of the Tokugawa family. Printed gedai, with maki no. and other details in manuscript Gedai of maki 1 reads: 群書治要 序目 一 ／ 第四第十三第二十欠 ／ 現存四十七冊. Naidai: 羣書治要. Hashiragaki: Gunsho chiyō 羣書治要 + maki no. + folio no. In a modern western style half-leather binding. Edition: Suruga-ban, printed at Suruga by order of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who did not live to see the completed work. Hayashi Razan 林羅山 (Dōshun 道春) and Ishin Sūden 以心崇傳, chief priest of the Konchiin 金地院 (Nanzenji 南禪寺), were appointed to plan and supervise the work, using a team of printers from Kyōto and scholar-monks from the Gozan monasteries to edit the text. Printing was completed in the fifth month of Genna 2 (1616), but due to haste many typographical errors crept in. The metal type used was the same font as that employed for printing the first of Ieyasu's Suruga-ban, Daizō ichiranshū 駿河版大藏一覽集, published in Keichō 20 (1615), with the addition of some newly cast type. Contents: Text of Qunshu zhiyao 群書治要, a collection of extracts selected from Chinese classical works having a bearing on the Confucian principles of government and administration. A work much valued by the Tang emperors and later, in Japan, by the Tokugawa rulers.

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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 6. Law, government, administration and economics 法制・政治・行政・経済

Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, pp. 229, 239, 388, 699, pl. 33; Kokuritsu kokkai toshokan shozō kichōsho kaidai 国立国会図書館所蔵貴重書解題, vol. 2, p. 71; Keiō gijuku toshokan-zō wakanjo zenpon kaidai 慶応義塾図書館蔵和漢書善本解題, p. 132; Zushoryō tenseki kaidai, kanseki hen 図書寮典籍解題・漢籍篇, p. 149.