ZHANG, Weixiang 張惟驤 & QIAN, Daxin 錢大昕.

Yi nian lu hui bian 疑年錄彙編 [Union List of Uncertain Dates].

Nine vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [China]: Xiao shuang ji an, 1925-27.

First edition of the final and best edition of “the most important dictionary of dates in the Chinese language” (Hummel). Qian Daxin (1728–1804), arguably the most distinguished scholar of the Qing Dynasty, “took special interest in recording the dates of birth and death of historical figures. The result was the well-known Yinian lu (Record of Uncertain Dates), which became the basis of the most important dictionary of dates in the Chinese language. This work, in four juan, which recorded dates of birth and death of some 364 persons, was left incomplete at the time of Qian’s death, but was supplemented in 1813 by a pupil named Wu Xiu (1764-1827), and published in 1818 with a few additions…Further supplements to this work were compiled later…[and the author lists four further supplements from 1838 to 1908]…Finally all these were brought together by Zhang Weixiang who reedited them and printed them in 1925, with further additions [our ninth volume], under the title Yinian lu huibian, ‘Union List of Uncertain Dates,’ 16 juan — including a total of 3,928 names” (Hummel, Eminent Chinese of the Qing Period, vol. I, p. 154).

Fine set, preserved in a hantao.

References

Hummel, Arthur W. Eminent Chinese of the Qing Period (1644-1912). Washington, D.C.: United States Printing Office, 1944.