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Eastern Culture Nucleus: Chinese Rare Books in the USC Libraries

Lithography 石印

Supplement A to the Catalogue of Xiqing Antiquities (Xiqing xujian jiabian 西清續鑑甲編) is an illustrated catalogue of bronzes from the imperial collection of the Qing dynasty, which was originally compiled in 1793 by order of the Qianlong 乾隆 emperor (1711-1799). It is the sequel to the more comprehensive Catalogue of Xiqing Antiquities (Xiqing gujian 西清古鑑) completed in 1751. Printed in 1911, USC's copy is a fine lithographic facsimile of a manuscript version of the catalogue from the Palace of Tranquil Longevity (甯壽宮). It beautifully reproduced the imperial seals stamped on the contents page of the original manuscript.

Other Fine Examples of Lithography Printing from the Chinese Rare Book Collection:

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Commentary and Corrections to the Sweated [Bamboo] Strips 汗簡箋正 (1889) 7
Sweated [Bamboo] Strips (Hanjian 汗簡) is a paleographic dictionary compiled by Guo Zhongshu 郭忠恕 (d. 977), a well-known painter, calligrapher and paleographer of the Five Dynasties 五代 (907-960) and early Song dynasty. The compilation follows the Explaining single-component Graphs and Analyzing compound Characters (Shuowen jiezi 說文解字) tradition to arrange Chinese characters by radicals (部首) and draws on a variety of seventy-one textual sources, including Shuowen jiezi, Confucian classics like Ancient Book of Documents (Gu shangshu 古尚書) and Ancient Book of Changes (Gu zhouyi 古周易), inscriptions from stone steles, etc. Commentary and Corrections to the Sweated Strips (Hanjian jianzheng 汗簡箋正), the first in-depth evidential research on Hanjian , was written by Zheng Zhen 鄭珍, a scholar of late Qing dynasty. The ex libris seal "獨山莫繩孫字仲武印" on the displayed page comes from Mo Shengsun 莫繩孫 (c. 1844-1919; courtesy name 字 Zhongwu 仲武), second son of Mo Youzhi 莫友芝 (1811-1871) who was a prestigious late Qing scholar, book collector and bibliophile.
Donated by Dr. Chow Tse-Tsung. Printer's colophon (牌記) date: 1889 (Jichou year of the Guangxu reign 光緒屠維赤奮若, i.e. 光緒己丑年).

Further Reading:
- Hay, Jonathan. “Guo Zhongshu's Archaeology of Writing.” Journal of Chinese History 3, no. 2 (2019): 233–324. doi:10.1017/jch.2018.39.
media/hanjianjianzheng.jpg plain 2021-02-03T12:44:05-08:00 Link to the catalog record in the USC Libraries
This collection of poems was written by Li Ciming 李慈銘 (1830-1894; literary name 號 Yueman 越縵; alternative name 別號 Master of the Baihua Jiangfu Pavilion 白華絳柎閣主), an influential official and scholar of the late Qing dynasty. USC's copy contains handwritten punctuation marks and commentaries from the donor Dr. Chow Tse-Tsung 周策縱 (1916-2007), a world-famous scholar on the May Fourth Movement and The Dream of the Red Chamber (Hong lou meng 紅樓夢).
Donated by Dr. Chow Tse-Tsung. Date/edition: 1890 | 光緒十六年石印本.
Practice Tutorial to the Complete Explanation of Algebra 代數備旨全草 (1905) 4
This book was compiled by Xu Xilin 徐錫麟 (1873-1907), a late Qing revolutionary. It intended to serve as a practice tutorial to the textbook Complete Explanation of Algebra (Daishu beizhi 代數備旨) which was written by Calvin Wilson Mateer (1836-1908) and first published in 1891. Mateer was a pioneer American Presbyterian missionary in Shandong 山東 province and founder of the first Christian college in China.
Date/edition: 1905 | 清光緒三十一年石印本.

Further Reading:
- Martzloff, Jean-Claude. "Appendix 1: Chinese Adaptations of European Mathematical Works (from the 17th to the Beginning of the 20th century)." In A History of Chinese Mathematics, 371-89. New York: Springer, 1997.
media/algebra.jpg plain 2021-01-22T13:52:09-08:00 Link to the catalog record in the USC Libraries

This page references:

Supplement A to the Catalogue of Xiqing Antiquities 西清續鑑甲編 (1911) This is an illustrated catalogue of bronzes from the imperial collection of the Qing dynasty, which was originally compiled in 1793 by order of the Qianlong 乾隆 emperor (1711-1799). It is the sequel to the more comprehensive Catalogue of Xiqing Antiquities (Xiqing gujian 西清古鑑) completed in 1751. Printed in 1911, USC's copy is a fine lithographic facsimile of a manuscript version of the catalogue from the Palace of Tranquil Longevity (甯壽宮). It beautifully reproduced the imperial seals stamped on the contents page of the original manuscript.
Date/edition: 1911 | 清宣統三年上海商務印書館石印本.