Mōgyū 蒙求

Variant title: Hyōdai jo jōgen hochū mōgyū 標題徐狀元補注蒙求 [標題徐状元補注蒙求]. Variant title: Hochū mōgyū 補注蒙求. Author/compiler: Li Han 李瀚, fl. 746, original author. Text edited with commentary by Xu Ziguang 徐子光. Imprint: [Kyōto] , Dōki 道喜 (i.e. Oze (or Ose) Hoan 小瀨甫庵), Bunroku 5 文禄五年, 1596. Kanki following 5 line kango on last page of maki 下 reads: 惟時文禄第五丙申小春吉辰道喜記. For transcription of complete kango, see Edition below. Description: 3 kan, formerly in 3 satsu, now rebound in 1 vol. western style. (上) ff. 3 (list of headings 標題), 1-3 (薦蒙求表 and prefaces 序), 4-99; (中) ff. 3 (目録), 93; (下) ff. 3 (目録), 94. 24.8 x 19.3 cm. Fukurotoji. Movable type. Printing frame 17.6 x 16.7 cm. Single-line borders all round. No vertical rules. Fishtail design on hanshin. Kanbun text without printed kunten. 11 lines to page, 15 characters to line. Headings throughout text printed in large-sized type. Renewed orange-yellow front cover (late-Edo period) of maki 上 only, with title slip of similar date. Manuscript gedai: 徐状元補注蒙求 上. Hashiragaki: Mōgyū jō 蒙求上 (chū 中, ge 下) + folio no. In a western style half-leather binding. Edition: The earliest movable type edition of this work, published in 1596 by Oze Hoan 小瀨甫庵, also known as Dōki 道喜, one of the pioneers of movable type printing in Japan. Hoan, as personal physician to the kanpaku Hidetsugu 秀次, had opportunities for gaining experience in this technique of printing, newly imported from Korea, and was responsible for publishing several medical works in Bunroku and early Keichō periods. This edition of Mōgyū was, however, his first publication. It was preceded by a blockprinted edition by the Chinese block-cutter Chen Mengrong 陳孟榮, published in Ōan 7 応安七年, 1374. The present edition of Bunroku 5 (1596) contains the following kango: 桑域洛陽西洞院通勘解由小路南 ／ 町住居甫庵道喜新刋一字板繡此 ／ 書以應童蒙之求也呼嗚未辨芋耶 ／ 羊耶魚耶魯耶澗愧林慙冀博覽人 ／ 運郢斤多幸. Contents: Text of Mengqiu 蒙求, a collection of historical allusions drawn from a wide variety of sources in rhymed form, with notes to explain the events referred to. The work, intended for the education of young people, consists of 592 four-character phrases, each beginning with a name famous in history or legend, followed by a further four-character phrase epitomising that personage. This edition contains a commentary by Xu Ziguang, compiled in 1189.

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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 4. History and biography 歴史•伝記

Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, pp. 77, 155-7, 388, 690, pl. 38-9; Nihon koten bungaku daijiten 日本古典文学大辞典, vol. 6, p. 3; Daitōkyū kinen bunko kichōsho kaidai 大東急記念文庫貴重書解題, vol. 1, p. 80; Meng Ch'iu: famous episodes from Chinese history and legend.