First Korean Edition

ZHANG, Yingdeng 張應登.

Kongbuja sŏngjŏk to 孔夫子聖蹟圖 [Illustrations of the Sagely Traces of Confucius].

Woodblock-printed. 105 numbered double-page woodcuts. 3, 1, 2, 54; 51, 1 folding leaves. Two vols. Large 4to (369 x 273 mm.), orig. pink cloth with floral patterns, printed title-slips on upper covers, modified accordion binding with fabric strip connecting front and back boards. [Hansŏng]: 1905.

First Korean edition, first printing, of this illustrated hagiography of Confucius, published by his 76th-generation descendant Kong Chae-hŏn 孔在憲 in 1905. The 105 impressive woodcuts depicting well-known events and miracles from the sage’s life, with descriptive texts, are printed on large sheets bound into a modified accordion format. A very rare edition; the 2019 study by Pak Kwang-hŏn locates only six extant copies from this first printing, not including ours. WorldCat shows only the UC Berkeley copy (The Asami Library, 22.28).

According to the Prefaces, in the autumn of 1901, Kong Chae-hŏn, a Korean descendant of Confucius, travelled by sea to the Shandong peninsula and obtained, from the family estate of Kong Zhaoqian 孔昭謙, a set of 108 paintings by a Lü Shengfu 呂聖符 depicting events from the life of Confucius. Upon his return to Korea, Kong Chae-hŏn approached Song Pyŏng-sŏn 宋秉璿 (1836-1905), an eminent scholar-official, and expressed his intent to publish the illustrations an album, for which Song composed a Preface in 1902. As recent research by Pak Kwang-hŏn has shown, the woodblocks for the album were likely completed in 1904, when a set of pre-publication proofs was sent to the imperial printing bureau (K. kaminso 監印所) for review. In the same year, the scholar-official Cho Pyŏng-sik 趙秉式 (1832-1907), then director at the bureau, composed the second Preface for the album. Revisions were made by modifying the woodblocks themselves, sometimes carving out and replacing entire sections of text. The final publication includes a colophon dated 1905 containing the list of all editors, proofreaders, and printing supervisors. Printed copies were subsequently offered — or, according to some contemporary accounts, forcibly sold by corrupt officials — to Confucian academies across Korea.

Illustrations of famous scenes from the life of Confucius were popular in early modern China. The first example of the genre was a set of 30 scenes commissioned by Zhang Kai 張楷 (1398-1460) and carved into stone tablets. Rubbings from these tablets circulated widely in China, quickly giving rise to numerous adaptations and expansions printed by commercial publishers. In reaction to the genre’s popularity, “in 1592 a combination of sojourning officials and local elites (including descendants of Confucius) in Qufu, Shandong, sponsored a monumental version of the pictorial biography in 112 pictures. Along with four ancillary texts, it was incised on 120 rectangular stone tablets and enshrined in the Shengji dian (Hall of the Sage’s Traces), a new building at the end of the central axis of the Kongmiao (Temple of Confucius)...The pictures on the Shengji dian tablets did not simply reproduce those previous woodblock models but were redesigned for clarity and didactic efficacy. The compositions were streamlined and made more spacious, so that the figure of Confucius drew the viewer’s attention immediately. Instead of keeping writing and illustration visually separate, the incised tablets included texts and four-character titles inside the pictorial space.”–Julia K. Murray, “Didactic Illustrations in Printed Books” in Brokaw & Chow, Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: 2005), pp. 437-39.

The illustrations and texts in the Korean edition follow the Shengji dian tablets closely and were likely based on a Kangxi-era (1661-1722) woodblock edition of the incised illustrations, containing 105 of the 112 scenes (see Murray, p. 439). The album proper begins with the original Preface of Zhang Yingdeng 張應登, who supervised the 1592 project, followed by the 105 numbered illustrations, each taking up two facing pages. The woodblocks for the last two illustrations (104 & 105) were never completed, and the left half of those illustrations is blank across all copies, including ours. The woodblocks used to print this edition are now kept at the Osan Hwasŏng Kwŏllisa, a temple of Confucius in Osan City, Korea.

Very good set, with some wear on covers and binding, and light staining on margins. End flyleaf of vol. 1 is inscribed 하남 승주군 황전면 (김대열) (“Hanam, Sŭngju County, Hwangjŏn Township, Kim Tae-yŏl”).

❧ 박광헌, “『孔夫子聖蹟圖』의 책판과 판본 연구,” 書誌學硏究 78 (2019.6): pp. 69-90.

Price: $9,500.00

Item ID: 11555