43 folding leaves (mostly split at fore-edges, with no loss of text). Small folio (344 x 233 mm.), orig. wrappers (soiled), new stitching. [Korea: late 18th or early 19th century].

A beautifully written manuscript collection of about 400 poems by Bai Li (701-62), one of the two greatest poets of the Tang dynasty, and certainly China’s greatest poetic personality (see Mark Edward Lewis, China’s Cosmopolitan Empire. The Tang Dynasty [Harvard University Press], p. 254).

The manuscript presents a number of mysteries that demand further research by scholars. The last line in the manuscript, which is in a more modern hand... More