Quan shang gu san dai Qin Han san guo liu chao wen 全上古三代秦漢三國六朝文 [Complete Prose of High Antiquity, and the Qin, Han, Three Kingdoms, & Six Dynasties Periods]

66 vols. Small 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [China]: 1930.




The excellent facsimile edition of this voluminous and groundbreaking collection of Chinese prose from before the Tang dynasty, edited by Yan Kejun (style name Tieqiao 鐵橋, 1762-1843). Yan held a provincial examination degree and worked as a school instructor. After the Qing court in 1808 initiated a project to publish all the remaining prose from the Tang period (618-907 CE), Yan took it upon himself to publish all of the prose that remained from before that time. He spent nine years producing a first draft and another 18 years editing it. In 1834, the manuscript was finished, but it was never printed during his lifetime. Yan used all the sources available to a scholar in early 19th-century China, including earlier anthologies, epigraphic rubbings, and the Daoist and Buddhist canons. "For that reason, completeness is the most important characteristic of this book. Regardless of whether one considers the list of authors included or the degree of completeness in the assemblage of works, this work greatly exceeds earlier works in the genre." Yan furthermore "wrote short biographies for the 3400 authors included" in the book (Liu, Gudai wenshi mingzhu tiyao, 25-26).


The book was only published after Yan's death. There were editions in 1879, 1887-1893, and 1894. This last edition was printed by Qing official Wang Yuzao 王毓藻 (1838-1900). Over 30 individuals were involved in the editorial work for that edition, which took several years to complete. Our copy (WorldCat 36413685) is a 1930 facsimile of that edition. The reprint was made by Ding Fubao 丁福保 (courtesy name Zhongyou 仲祐, 1874-1952), an important Buddhist intellectual in Republican China. Shen Qianyi 沈乾一 explains the relationship of the editions in the Preface to our copy:

In Guangxu 13 [1887], Mr. Wang of Huanggang was able to consult the author's holograph...and began to print it. Yet it was not well collated so there were erroneous characters and missed phrases, for which the edition has often been faulted by scholars...Later, this manuscript was transferred to Yixue shuju [Medical Publishing House] where it remained for two years. At that time, Buddhist master Ding Zhongyou wanted to reprint this work. He had people collate Wang's edition against the holograph and punctuate the text for the benefit of readers. This is the edition published herewith.

Fine and fresh set.



References:


Liu Hongren 刘洪仁, Gudai wenshi mingzhu tiyao 古代文史名著提要. Chengdu: Ba-Shu shushe, 2008.