Search Results: Titles starting with Q from Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc.

46 juan in 12 vols. Small 8vo, orig. blue wrappers, orig. stitching. [Shanghai]: Da dong shu ju 大東書局, 1928. First printed edition of this Qing-period work with information on variety plays, or zaju 雜劇. Zaju have antecedents going back as far as the medieval period, but over time, the term "came to mean [a] four-act music drama" (The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Vol. 1, 775-76). In the early 20th century, there was renewed interest in the genre along with the will to forge a new canon of vernacular literature. Our book summarizes the plots of plays, investigates the origin of their plots, and on occasion provides biographical details and an appraisal of the authors. The majority are Ming-period variety plays, but there are also earlier, Yuan-period plays as well as plays from other traditions than that of the variety play proper. A number of the plays described "are no longer extant today, which means that this book has an important value as a historical source"… Read More

16 vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers & stitching. [China]: written before 1691, printed in the early 20th century. An early printed edition of this work of Ming bibliography. "The book records Ming-period works and appends information on Song works from the Xianchun 咸淳 [1265-1274] onward as well as works from the four dynasties of Liao, Jin, and Yuan. Compiled by Huang Yuji 黃虞稷 of the Qing. 32 juan. The works by Ming authors collected in it are grouped into 'classics', 'histories', 'masters', and 'collections.' Within each section, works are arranged according to the time of writing, beneath the authors' names a brief biography is often appended. This is an important bibliography for investigating Ming-period books. After every category, Huang has appended works by Song, Liao, Jin, and Yuan authors, which can serve to complement lacunae in the record of books in the histories of these four dynasties. This bibliography later served as the basis for the bibliographical treatise in the History of… Read More

58 folding leaves. Small 8vo., orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. Beijing: Shuang zhao lou tu shu bu 雙肇樓圖書部, 1934. First edition of this study of the history of Chinese operatic musical scores. As the linguist and poet Liu Fu 劉復 wrote in his Preface to our book (dated 1934), "tune and tone (qiang diao) are basically the method of singing, that is, the musical scores used when songs are sung." Liu explained the difficulties overcome by Wang Zhizhang in researching such scores: Yet this work is truly not easy to carry out. Assuming for an instant that all earlier forms of opera had been transmitted with detailed musical scores, then all that would be needed is a little bit of comparative work. However, in reality, what we find is that only the scores of Kunqu opera are detailed. The various other 'tunes and tones' are either entirely without scores, or have scores that amount to so little as to basically equal nothing at all. For this reason, if one is to work on this question, one… Read More

178 pp. 8vo, orig. semi-stiff wrappers (a few leaves with short tears). Beijing: Guo li Beiping yan jiu yuan shi xue yan jiu suo 國立北平研究院史學研究所, 1948. First edition of this work on the history of the Khitans, who founded the Liao empire in Inner Asia and northern China in the 10th century. Our book studies Khitan history from several points of view. It covers topics such as the origin of the Khitans among a northern cultural tradition centered on pastoral nomadism; the Khitan ethnonym; their foundational myth; the practice of electing the khan, with comparison to the custom among other neighboring peoples; policies underlying the founding of the Khitan state; systemic change and the place of Chinese people within the Liao state; as well as factional conflict at the end of the Liao period and the migration west following the rise of the Jurchens in the 12th century. Chen Shu (1911-92) was one of the great experts of Liao history of his generation, serving in many… Read More

Three vols. Large 8vo, orig. wrappers & stitching. Chengdu: Weinan Yan shi 渭南嚴氏, 1930. An uncommon edition of this important study of Middle Chinese phonology by a leading scholar of the 19th century. Qieyun [Spelled Rhymes] is the oldest known "rhyme book," or phonological dictionary. It was compiled in 601 CE by Lu Fayan, who lived under the Sui dynasty. Rhyme books like Qieyun were originally intended to aid in the writing of poetry, but over time they took on other purposes. By the Qing period, older rhyme books were treated as sources for the sound system used at the time when they were compiled, and this is also how Chen Li used Qieyun in our book. Despite the importance that Qieyun has assumed in phonological research, the book was not generally accessible in the Qing period, so scholars were generally compelled to rely on later works. Chen was a pioneer in choosing this particular dictionary as his object of study. Chen Li (1810-82) was a "Cantonese textual and geographical… Read More

Eight juan plus one introductory juan in three vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers with orig. title slips, orig. stitching (a little loose). [China]: 1908. A lead movable type edition of this important Qing legal code for southern Xinjiang, a vast territory. "The Imperially Authorized Substatutes and Precedents of the Muslim Regions was the main legal basis for the handling of ethnic affairs in southern Xinjiang before the establishment of Xinjiang as a province" (Long Qun 龍群 and Wu Xiuju 吳秀菊, "Shixi Huijiang zeli de bianzuan yu xiuding" 試析《回疆則例》的編纂與修訂, Heilongjiang minzu congkan 2013, no. 4: 100). The background to the compilation of the book is the Qing conquest of Xinjiang, which had been completed by 1760. For decades, the Qing had competed with the Dzungar Mongols for supremacy in what is today western China, eventually defeating them in a war. The Dzungars occupied what is today northern Xinjiang; southern Xinjiang was inhabited primarily by Muslim Uyghurs. As… Read More

40 folding leaves. Large 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [Guangzhou]: Guangya shuju 廣雅書局, 1892. A rare glossary on kinship terminology. Our book aimed to provide a guide to the words used for family relations in antiquity, glossing them with references to literary sources and occasionally contemporary language (Zeng, "Zheng Zhen Qinshu ji lunlüe"). The degree of kinship is the overarching organizational principle used in the work. Zheng Zhen (1806-64), a minor provincial official, a philologist and poet (Huang & Huang, Jindai shiwen, 22). He finished his draft for the book in 1860. His son Zheng Zhitong 鄭知同 (1831-90) - who wrote a Preface - and Chen Ju 陳矩 (1851-1939) later added to it and first published it in 1886. Chen's older brother, Chen Tian 陳田 (1850-1922), wrote a colophon that unusually follows the end of the first juan, rather than the end of the second. The Chen brothers were officials and writers. After the Republican revolution, Chen Ju became the head of… Read More

74 leaves (including one folding leaf). 8vo, orig. printed wrappers, orig. stitching. Beijing: Hafo Yanjing xue she [Harvard Yenching University Library], January 1934. First edition, Supplement No. 8 of the famous Harvard-Yenching Institute Sinological Index Series. "In Yenching University Library was found a manuscript, in eight fascicles, of a reference compilation of biographical notices of about eleven hundred painters under the Ch'ing dynasty. Internal evidence seemed to indicate that the unknown compiler worked during 1787-1795 by culling eight other compilations. Three of these do not appear in the usual bibliographies, and many of the painters they mentioned do not appear in subsequent compilations. A preface specifies these and other findings." ("An Annotated, Partial List of the Publications of William Hung"). Hung (1893-1980), Chinese historian and sinologist, was dean for many years at Yenching University and also taught at Harvard. He was instrumental in raising the standards of… Read More

12 vols. Small 8vo, orig. printed wrappers, orig. stitching. [China]: Sao ye shan fang 掃葉山房, 1917. First edition of these lithographically printed collections of prose and verse by various authors from the Qing period. The majority of the pieces collected here is literary fiction written in classical Chinese. The table of contents advertises that several of the included works are printed from manuscript copies. The collections include such titles as "Short Biographies of Female Poets of the Eight Banners" and "Record of Things Seen and Heard from the New Moon Pavilion." The publisher of our edition, Saoye shanfang, or the "Mountain Dwelling of Sweeping Leaves" was "the name of a famous commercial publisher. It was established toward the end of the Ming period and was in continuous operation until the early Republic. Initially, it was established in Suzhou, but it later established branches in Shanghai, Hankou, and other places" (Zhou, Tushuguan xue qingbao xue cidian, 370). Lei Jin… Read More

Ten vols. Small 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. title slips, orig. stitching. Shanghai: Yi xue shu ju 醫學書局, 1927. A nice set of this work of poetry criticism, or shihua, from China's last imperial dynasty. "Shih-hua 詩話 (talks on poetry) is a form of literary criticism that consists of a critic's comments on various aspects of Chinese poetry. A comment may contain the original thoughts of the writer himself, or quotations from other critics, which are then criticized by the writer. It may be as short as one or two lines or as long as a page or more, but each is a unit in itself." It is a subgenre of biji 筆記, or "jottings," applied to the field of poetry (The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Vol. 1, 695-96). Ding Fubao gathered 43 "talks on poetry" from the Qing period and assembled this work. Writers whose works feature in the collection include 17th-century political outsider Wang Fuzhi 王夫之 (1619-92), the prolific poet Wang Shizhen 王士禎 (1634-1711),… Read More

[with]: Qing zhen ji wai ci 清真集外詞 [Lyrics Not Included in The Pure and True Collection]. 79 folding leaves. Small 8vo., orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [China]: Siyin zhai 四印齋, [1893-96]. Two collections of lyrics (ci 詞). This genre, with origins in folk songs, are poems that were originally set to musical tunes. In later ages, lyrics were written to the patterns of older songs for which the music had been lost. The genre was particularly popular during the Song dynasty. Zhou Bangyan (1056-1121) was a writer and musician of the Northern Song. He called himself the "Pure and True Hermit" 清真居士. The book has a colophon by Wang Pengyun 王鵬運 (1840-1904), who published it. Dated 1896 (Guangxu bingshen), the colophon explains that the edition was produced by tracing the text of a "pocket-size edition" (jinxiang ben 巾箱本) from the Yuan period, which Wang collated against other witnesses. Wang's studio name Siyin zhai [Studio of the Four Kinds of Self-Cultivation]… Read More

Eighteen woodcut diagrams in the text, numerous woodcut initials, & a woodcut printer's device on recto of final leaf. Rubricated throughout in red. Gothic type, 66 lines & headlines. Two columns. 2 p.l., 152 numbered leaves. Folio (310 x 210 mm.), cont. blindstamped pigskin-backed wooden boards (spine a little rubbed, some unimportant worming at front & back), orig. or early clasps & catches. Venice: Bonetus Locatellus for O. Scotus, 20 Dec. 1493.<p> Second edition, enlarged with the addition of other important astrological texts, of Ptolemy's Quadripartitum, a textbook of astrology more usually known today under its Greek title, the Tetrabiblos. "Ptolemy's Quadripartitium ranks as the Bible of Astrology, but the attribution of the Centiloquium is considered spurious."-Stillwell, The Awakening Interest in Science during the First Century of Printing 1450-1550, 96-(describing the first edition of 1484). <P>"To modern eyes it may seem strange that… Read More

Six vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [China]: Liao hai shu she 遼海書社, [1934]. An uncommon typeset edition of this work on what is today the Liaoning province of China. A so-called gazetteer, our book provides information on the geography and history of Liaoning, the southernmost of the three provinces that make up Manchuria. Historically, different parts of the province had culturally diverse populations, with speakers of Chinese, Mongolic, and Jurchenic languages occupying different areas in different times. As a transition zone between Chinese and Inner Asian cultures, the territory described in our book held parts of the fortifications known as the Great Wall. These fortifications are covered in part in juan two, in part in the biographies of various officials who worked on improving border defenses during their tenure in the region. "Gazetteer for All of the Liao Region is an important reference work for research on the Great Wall in Liaodong" (Lin & Li, Changcheng cidian,… Read More

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… Read More

Many black & white illus. 267 pp. Thick 4to, printed softcover, title on spine, illustrated endpapers. Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, 2015. The Spanish edition of this exhibition catalogue, now very scarce. The exhibition took place at the Reina Sofia (16 March-10 October 2016) and Mexico City's Museo Jumex (9 February-7 May 2017). Profusely illustrated, the catalogue contains essays and remembrances by Guy Schraenen, Felipe Ehrenberg, Jan Voss, Joao Fernandes, Heriberto Yepez, Javier Maderuelo, and Maike Aden. An invaluable reference on Ulises Carrión's life and works. Near fine, minimal edgewear. With the inserted DVD present as issued.