QIAN, Shisheng 錢士升.

Nan Song shu 南宋書 [Book of the Southern Song].

Ten vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [China]: Saoye shanfang 掃葉山房, [1798].

An edition of an abridgment of the History of the Song, with additions by the author. These additions provide a certain amount of information not found in the standard histories, but Qian’s work has been criticized by some for lacking in detail (Lao, Zhonghua yeshi cidian, 315).

Qian Shisheng (1575-1652), served as a compiler in the Hanlin Academy and later held other posts in the government in the Ming southern capital of Nanjing.

Our edition was probably published as part of Song, Liao, Jin, Yuan si shi 宋遼金元四史 [Four Historiographical Works on the Song, Liao, Jin, and Yuan], but it does not have a title-page. The corporate entity of the publisher of our edition, Saoye shanfang, or the “Mountain dwelling of sweeping leaves,” issued this series (Zhou, Tushuguan xue qingbao xue cidian, 370). Our work was published by Xi Shichen 席世臣 (b. ca. 1756, d. before 1814), who by some accounts founded the publishing house (Yang, Saoye shanfang shi yanjiu, 43).

Xi, of a merchant-scholar background, had the opportunity to participate in the production of the fair copies of Siku quanshu 四庫全書 [Complete Books of the Four Repositories] destined for libraries in the lower Yangzi region. This job put him in contact with the imperial library collection and influenced his later publication program. The Siku quanshu bibliographical précis for Book of the Southern Song is included in our edition.

Xi wrote in the Preface of our book, “in our time, there are no printed copies of Book of the Southern Song in circulation,” but he had been able to borrow a manuscript copy from the scholar Wang Chang 王昶 (1725-1806), which became the basis for his own edition (Yang, 50). His Preface is dated 1797 (Jiaqing dingsi).

Very good set, preserved in a hantao.

References

Lao Tie 老铁. Zhonghua yeshi cidian 中华野史辞典. Zhengzhou: Daxiang chubanshe, 1998.

Yang Libao 杨丽莹. Saoye shanfang shi yanjiu 扫叶山房史研究. Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe, 2013.

Zhou Wenjun 周文骏. Tushuguan xue qingbao xue cidian 图书馆学情报学词典. Beijing: Shumu wenxian chubanshe, 1991.