HU, Guang 胡廣, comp.

Taehak changgu taejŏn 大學章句大全 [Ch. Da xue zhang ju da quan; Comprehensive Commentaries on the Great Learning].

Woodblock-printed. 4, 5, 7, 69 folding leaves. One kwŏn in one vol. Small folio (323 x 210 mm.), orig. semi-stiff patterned wrappers with handwritten title, new stitching. [Hansŏng]: Naegak, kyŏngjin [1820].

Woodblock-printed by the Palace Library of Chŏson Korea, this is a collection of commentaries on the Great Learning, the first of the Four Books as established by the Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200), compiled on imperial order by Hu Guang (1370-1418).

First published in 1415, the Comprehensive Commentaries incorporated the writings of notable philosophers and commentators such as Zhu Xi, Zhen Dexiu 真德秀 (1178-1235), Wu Zhenzi 吳真子, Ni Shiyi 倪士毅 (1303-48), and others, and served as the Ming court’s authoritative edition of the Four Books at the heart of the civil examination curriculum. The first Korean edition of the work was published in 1428, under King Sejong (r. 1418-50). The popularity of the Comprehensive Commentaries declined in China after the fall of the Ming, but within Korea, the work continued to be reprinted and disseminated by the government even into the early 20th century.

Our copy opens with a Preface by King Yeongjo (r. 1724-76) dated 1758, followed by Zhu Xi’s guide to reading the Great Learning, his Preface to the Great Learning, and then the text of the Great Learning itself. On the final folio is a colophon, 庚辰新刊內閣藏板, states this is a naegak edition with the woodblocks carved in the year of kyŏngjin. Comparison with KORCIS entries and digitized copies shows this to be part of the 1820 palace edition of the Samgyŏng sasŏ taejŏn 三經四書大全.

Fine copy. First few leaves with minor marginal worming. We find only three copies of the 1820 edition of the Comprehensive Commentaries on the Great Learning in WorldCat, one held at the University of HK (145452882), one at the Claremont Colleges (1038535678), and one at UC Berkeley (55696744). Red ownership seal on front cover and endpaper reads 佐木家藏. Red ownership seals on f. 1 read 中林藏書, 子=孫=保之 (?), with another one faint and illegible.

❧ 王赫, “從《四書大全》的刊刻看明代經學、科舉、出版與社會,” 中央研究院歷史語言研究所集刊 94, no. 1 (2023): pp. 201-77; 송일기, “永樂內府刻本 <四書大全>의 朝鮮傳來와 流布,” 한국문헌정보학회지 48, no. 1 (2014): pp. 97-116; KORCIS: Korean Old and Rare Collection Information System.