Chronicle of Prefaces and Postfaces of Rare Books from 1911 to 1984

Author: Beijing Library Rare Book Group
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: The main texts of the Song Dynasty's small box editions of the Confucian classics, with eight surviving volumes. Including the Book of Changes (12 leaves), the Book of Documents (18 leaves), the Book of Songs (40 leaves), the Book of Rites (93 leaves), the Book of Rites of Zhou (55 leaves), the Classic of Filial Piety (21 leaves), the Analects (16 leaves), and the Mencius (21 leaves). These are the only remaining texts of the Nine Classics and Three Commentaries. Each leaf has 20 lines, with 27 characters per line, fine black margins, and double columns on both sides. The names of the engravers, varying in length from one to three characters, are recorded at the bottom of the leaf margin. Replaced boards are marked with "engraved to replace [name of original board]." The characters Zhen, Heng, Huan, Shen, and Dun are all missing the last stroke in the Song dynasty taboo list, while the character Kuo is not missing, indicating it was carved before the reign of Emperor Ningzong. The world-renowned small box editions of the Confucian classics are often listed in various catalogs, and their format matches this one. They are known as "lines dense as masts, characters fine as hair." However, this edition adds side margins and notes phonetic pronunciations at the top, which differs from this book. Moreover, the calligraphy on this edition is sluggish, compared to the precision and sharpness of this book, it truly resembles a maid trying to imitate a noblewoman. The ancients once pointed out that it was a copy of the Ming Dynasty's Jingjiang Royal Family, and this is not without reason. Ten years ago, Shugu Tang acquired this book from an old family in Shandong. I happened to glimpse it and was astonished by its different format, recognizing it as the first volume of the Yanling Catalogue. Later, it was collected by Mr. Hanshen, who stored it in his Ba Jingshi room. At that time, Mr. Dong Shujin, Mr. Zhang Genglou, and Mr. Xu Senyu greatly admired it. After much effort, I obtained a copy and kept its facsimile in a sealed box. In the blink of an eye, years passed, and with the changes of the times, everything scattered like wind and rain. The original book was lost, and it is now unreachable. Therefore, I asked Tao Lanquan to reprint it, entrusting me to record its history. To finally see the book is like meeting an old friend, and it fills me with the same sense of awe as when Cai Yong met Huangfu Xi.
Examining the Jingding Jiankang (Jingding Jiankang Annals) under the section on books, it lists four editions of the Five Classics: the Imperial Academy edition, the Jian edition, the Shu edition, and the Wuzhou edition. When Gu'an Lu's Jiande (Small Catalogue of Jiande) was discovered, it was immediately identified as a Wuzhou edition, as it resembled the Wuzhou edition of the Double Words and Double Meanings of the Book of Documents and the Book of Rites of Zhou. This edition has a square and sharp structure, with sharp calligraphy, characteristic of Fujian craftsmen, making it undoubtedly the Jian edition. The Ming Dynasty's Jingjiang edition was based on this to make copies, adding side margins. Thus, the format, size, and taboo characters are all the same. However, when Qin family carved the Nine Classics, they changed it to 18 lines per leaf, and the appearance became entirely different. This is the general outline of the transmission of these small box editions of the Confucian classics, which I hope to share with knowledgeable scholars. October, Bingyin Year, written by Fu Zengxiang in Feng'a, Bing She.
Preface to the Qing Copy of the Book of Documents with the Same Text by Wang Xiantang
Wang Xiantang, a native of Shandong, Mou Ting County, was born in 1759 (the 14th year of the Qianlong reign) and died in 1832 (the 12th year of the Daoguang reign). In his 74 years of life, at least two-thirds of the time was spent reading and writing. During his lifetime, he only published one work, the Chuci Shufang (The Fragrance of Chu Ci). After his death, his son Mou Fang published the Chronology of the Duke of Zhou and compiled and printed the Catalogue of Snow Mud Studio (Xue Ni Wu Yi Shu Mu), which included over 50 of his works and annotations.