Ten columns per page, 21 characters per column. Two sizes of type. 38 folding leaves. Large 8vo (321 x 200 mm.), orig. brown patterned wrappers, new stitching. [Seoul]: Pich’ŏndang 丕闡堂 Building, Sŏnggyun’gwan [today’s Sungkyunkwan University], 1872.

First edition and very rare; WorldCat lists only the Berkeley copy. “Scroll” is clearly used here as a figure of speech, as this is a codex-style book, printed using movable (metal or wooden?) type in 1872. Sungkyunkwan, established in 1398, was the highest educational institution in Chosŏn Korea. It is now the sight of an eponymous university. The location of the printing of this... More

Several woodcuts in the text. Ten columns per page, 22 characters per column, textblock: 208 x 155 mm. 80; 69 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo (273 x 178 mm.), somewhat later wrappers, later block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. [Korea]: colophon dated 1562 (Jiajing 41).

An early and very rare (no copy in WorldCat) Korean edition of the teachings of the Cheng 程 brothers, Hao 顥 (1032-85) and Yi 頤 (1033-1107), two important philosophers of the Northern Song period; they can be called the true founders of Neo-Confucianism. The Cheng brothers, along with their uncle Zhang Zai, their... More

Collected & edited by Jiang Shaoyu 江少虞. Complete in 78 parts plus table of contents, bound in 15 vols. (full collation supplied in the Hyde catalogue). Large 8vo (286 x 215 mm.), early paper wrappers, new stitching. [Japan]: chokuban [privately published by the Emperor Go-Mizunoo’s order], 1621.

First edition and a fine complete set of one of the very few surviving “imperial editions” printed with movable type (kokatsujiban 古活字版). There is considerable modern debate, with no definitive conclusion, whether this book was printed with metal or wooden type (see below). It is of very great rarity, and we find no... More

Woodblock-printed. 4, 1, 16, 39; 40, 33, 2 folding leaves. Three kwŏn in two volumes. Small folio (341 x 216 mm.), orig. semi-stiff patterned wrappers, handwritten title on upper covers, old stitching. [Hansŏng]: [Chujaso], Preface dated 1797.

Very rare Korean collection of community rituals (K. hyangnye 鄉禮), compiled by and printed for the King of Korea. We find no copy in Korea, and only three copies in WorldCat (Berkeley, Columbia, and Harvard).

The reign of King Chŏngjo of Korea (r. 1776-1800) witnessed a shift in the sovereign’s role in relation to Confucian teachings. “Chŏngjo sought to formulate the sage-king as... More

Manuscript on paper. 95 folding pre-printed leaves. One kwŏn in one volume. Small folio (353 x 215 mm.), orig. wrappers (lower cover a little wormed), handwritten title & table of contents in black ink on upper cover, later stitching. [Korea]: [between 1775 & 1848].

This fine Korean manuscript is a rare sola scriptura version of the Classic of Changes, with the canonical “Ten Wings” (Ch. shiyi 十翼) commentary.

An unusual, and in its time revolutionary, edition of the Confucian Classics was commissioned by King Chŏngjo (1752–1800) of the Chŏson dynasty in 1775. As his edict to the officials observed, “many... More

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... More

Printed with wooden movable type. 2, 1, 4, 46, 12, 11; 24, 33, 36; 23, 58; 37, 30; 81; 77; 51, 34, [1] folding leaves. 14 kwŏn in seven vols. Small folio, orig. semi-stiff patterned wrappers, title & kwŏn numbers handwritten on covers, old stitching. [Korea]: colophon dated 1897.

First edition, and rare; WorldCat lists only the Harvard copy (accession number 31333684). This is a synthesis of Chinese and Korean practices surrounding the four “family rituals”: general rites, coming of age (K. kwanrye 冠禮), marriage, and funerals, written by Kim Kyŏng-yu (1698-1773), and edited and published by his descendant, employing... More

12 full-page hand-colored woodcut illus. (each with several figures, some with text) & one black & white full-page illus. 61 folding leaves. Four parts in one vol. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. block-printed title label on upper cover, new stitching. [Japan, probably Kyoto]: Preface dated 1690.

First edition, and very rare, of this work on funerary rites by Nakamura (1629-1702/03), written in classical Chinese with Japanese kunten reading marks. The 12 woodcut illustrations have been beautifully colored by hand at an early date. Nakamura, who probably had a merchant background, was a Neo-Confucian scholar in the early Tokugawa period... More

Printed with wooden & metal movable type. 69; 87 folding leaves. Two kwŏn in two volumes. Small folio (295 x 178 mm.), orig. wrappers (wrappers a little stained), handwritten titles in black ink on upper covers, new stitching. [Korea]: [Kyosŏgwan], [before 1748].

A rare movable-type edition of a 15th-century primer on Neo-Confucian philosophy, printed in the first half of the 18th century.

The Chuja hakchŏk — or in Chinese, Zhuzi xuedi — is a thematically organized collection of sayings attributed to the great Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200), compiled by the eminent scholar-official Qiu Jun (1421-95) and given to... More

Some woodcut diagrams. Woodblock-printed. 3, 76; 71; 93; 71 folding leaves. Four quyển in four vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers with pasted-on handwritten title-slip, leaves appear to be knot-bound inside, red edges. [Vietnam: Nguyễn dynasty?].

Rare Vietnamese edition of the Classic of Changes, incorporating cosmological diagrams and commentaries of the Neo-Confucian philosophers Shao Yong 邵雍 (1012-77), Cheng Yi 程颐 (1033-1107) and Zhu Xi 朱熹 (1130-1200). The only other Vietnamese copy of the Classic of Changes in WorldCat is a different edition, held at Leiden University (accession no. 695525306).

“The Yijing was probably introduced into Vietnam at about the same time... More

Wood-block printed. 23 folding leaves. Folio (364 x 270 mm.), orig. wrappers (wrappers somewhat soiled & marked), new stitching. [Andong: Privately Printed at] Tosan sŏwŏn [or Dosan seowon], [most likely 1578 or, perhaps, 1638].

First edition, privately printed at the Tosan Academy, the private Confucian academy established in 1574, following Yi’s death; this is certainly one of the earliest books to be printed there, if not the first. Yi Hwang (1501-70), also known as Yi T’oegye, was the most influential Neo-Confucian thinker in Chosŏn Korea (his portrait was used on the 1000 won banknote from 1975 to 2007). The... More

19 folding leaves. Large 8vo (293 x 189 mm.), orig. brown patterned semi-stiff wrappers, orig. stitching. Jeollanam-do: Chukkok chŏngsa , 1929.

An exceedingly rare edition of Yi I’s Ŭnp’yŏng chŏngsa hakkyu (or Eunpyeong jeongsa hakkyu) 隱屏精舍學規 [School Rules for the Hidden Study Hall], Ŭnp’yŏng chŏngsa yaksok 隱屏精舍約束 [Compact for the Hidden Study Hall], and related texts as an independent work on “school rules.” We find no other copy in WorldCat, the Korean Old and Rare Collection Information System, or in other catalogues available to us. The copy at the Academy of Korean Studies (Jangseogak, MF35/8172) appears to be from a.... More