Mōgyū 蒙求

This material is held atBritish Library Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections

  • Reference
    • GB 59 Or.75.ff.2
  • Dates of Creation
    • [1596-1615]
  • Language of Material
    • Japanese
  • Physical Description
    • 1 volume Condition: Good, apart from water staining in maki 下. Cropped at upper edge. Impression: Clear and sharp. Seals of ownership: Square red seal, Shunjū zōsho 春秋藏書, on first page of each satsu. Manuscript notes: Okurigana and kaeriten in black ink throughout text, dating from Kan'ei period or earlier. Numerous interlinear notes and marginal headnotes in red and black, the latter affected in places by cropping of upper edge. Some shubiki and kutōten in maki 上.

Scope and Content

Variant title: Shinkan jo jōgen hochū mōgyū 新刋徐狀元補注蒙求 [新刊徐状元補注蒙求]. Author/compiler: Li Han 李瀚, fl. 746, original author. Text edited with commentary by Xu Ziguang 徐子光. Imprint: N.p., n.d. [Keichō period, 1596-1615] . No colophon. Description: 3 kan, formerly in 3 satsu, now rebound in 1 vol. western style. (上) ff. 3 (list of headings 目録), 3 (薦蒙求表 and prefaces 序),111; (中) ff. 3 (目録), 108; (下) ff. 3 (目録), [1-10, missing printed folios supplied in manuscript] , 11-109. 29.1 x 20.5 cm. Fukurotoji. Movable type. Printing frame 22.5 x 17.7 cm. Double-line borders all round. No vertical rules. 'Flower petal' fishtail design on hanshin. Kanbun text without printed kunten. 9 lines to page, 15 characters to line. Dark blue-green front cover (old but not original) of maki 上 only, embossed with a floral / geometric design. No title slip or gedai. Hashiragaki: Mōgyū maki jō 蒙求巻上 (chū 中, ge 下) + folio no. Edition: One of the undated 9-line, 15- character movable type editions attributable to the Keichō period. 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.

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 4. History and biography 歴史•伝記

Bibliography

Kokatsujiban no kenkyū 古活字版の研究, pp. 388-9, 831, pl. 221-2; Takagi bunko kokatsuji-ban mokuroku 高木文庫古活字版目録, p. 61; Ishii Sekisuiken bunko zenpon shomoku 石井積翠軒文庫善本書目, p. 163, pl. 326.