Mao Shi Pin Wu Tu Kao

Author: Gōngyuán Fēng
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2002-07-01
Features: This book is dedicated to explaining the animals and plants in the ancient Chinese poetry anthology The Book of Songs, categorized into six groups: grass, trees, birds, beasts, insects, and fish. It includes relatively common species within these categories, presented in a format rich with illustrations. Over 200 images are included, all meticulously hand-drawn by renowned masters, showcasing lifelike details with incredible precision, making them visually accessible and highly engaging. The accompanying text draws on extensive research, tracing origins and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of previous studies, offering the author's own judgments and choices. It particularly excels in explaining the evolution of names and alternative terms for the same species, broadening readers' horizons and enriching their knowledge while providing a fundamental and preliminary guide for those interested in further exploration. Additionally, the publication of this book paves a relatively feasible and reader-friendly new path for organizing and presenting illustrated ancient classics.
The value of this book lies primarily in its comprehensive revisions and new interpretations of the named items in The Book of Songs, built upon extensive cross-referencing. Given the antiquity of The Book of Songs and the numerous, often obscure names and alternate terms it contains, accurate understanding is challenging. The author, as the preface notes, "traveled far and wide to personally study these names," meticulously reviewing Confucian texts, historical records, and medical illustrations, comparing similarities and differences, and offering profound insights. They exposed the errors in earlier annotations, such as the Mao Commentary, Zheng Annotation, and Collective Commentary, proposing their own new interpretations, which are commendable.
Secondly, the title "Illustrated Examination" reflects the author's intention to present the results of their research visually, allowing readers to grasp the content at a glance while achieving the effect of "comprehensively understanding diverse forms and colors" (as noted in Dai Zhaochun's preface). This greatly enhances the book's visual appeal and. A rough estimate shows that the book includes 211 illustrations of grass, trees, birds, beasts, insects, and fish. While not every image is perfection, they are largely executed with fine brushwork and accurate portrayals, offering much to admire and appreciate.
In the history of Chinese culture, works on named items in The Book of Songs have occasionally appeared, but many have been lost (see postscript). Recent productions in the market, however, are often rough in quality. Thus, this small book can indeed be considered rare and valuable. Another noteworthy aspect is that this work is authored by a Japanese sinologist.
Regarding the author, Gōngyuán Fēng, little is known to us so far. The phrase "enjoying the Han culture since the Hōbai era" appears frequently in the book (see...