JIN, Yufu 金毓黻.

Bohai guo zhi chang bian 渤海國志長編 [The Long Compilation of the Bohai Kingdom].

Two folding maps (one in color), laid-in orig. printed envelope. 20 juan in ten vols. & addendum. 8vo, orig. printed wrappers, orig. stitching. Liaoyang: Jin shi qian hua shan guan, 1934.

First edition of this important history of the Bohai Kingdom, written by Jin Yufu (1887-1962), the influential historian and historiographer.

The Bohai (or Parhae or Balhae) Kingdom (698-926) occupied the Manchurian plains to the north of the Korean peninsula. A peripheral state contemporaneous with the Tang empire in China, Bohai had also been on the periphery of the East Asian historiographical tradition. It had no obvious immediate successor state. After the Qing empire’s rise to power, however, the region where the Bohai kingdom had once existed became of renewed political and thus scholarly significance. The Manchus had begun their rise to power in southern Manchuria, and tracing their history meant revisiting the history of Bohai. At the same time, Korean historians took an interest in Bohai, as the kingdom also had connections to the Korean peninsula. In the 20th century, the area once again rose to the attention of historians as the power balance in the region was reshuffled once again. With Korea and subsequently Manchuria coming under Japanese control, the history of the region once more became a focal point for different shades of historiography. Jin’s work should be understood in this context.

In his history, Jin also includes lists and biographies of ministers, accounts of subordinate tribes, a chronology, genealogical tables, details of customs, etc.

Jin Yufu was from Liaoyang, Liaoning—which was in Manchuria. After graduating from Peking University in 1916, he worked in several educational institutions in the Northeast and later also in central China. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, he was first affiliated with Peking University but later moved to the Academy of Sciences.

Fine set, preserved in a hantao.

References

Nanjing shi dang’an guan 南京市档案馆, ed. Minguo zhendang: Minguo mingren huji 民国珍档民国名人户籍. Nanjing: Nanjing chubanshe, 2013.