Printed in Chinese characters & Korean Hangul. Ten columns per page; variable number of characters per column. 152 folding leaves. Two vols. bound in one. Large 8vo (295 x 202mm., text block: 217 x 153 mm.), orig. yellow wrappers, new stitching. [Korea]: n.d., but ca. 1796.

First edition and rare. The great rhyme books [issued in Korea] of the eighteenth century were Hwa-Dong jeongeum tongseok un-go [Examination of Rhymes in the Correct Pronunciation of China and the East [viz. Korea], with Comprehensive Explanations] from 1747, Samun seonghwi [Collected Sounds of the Three Rhymes] from 1751, and Eojeong Gyujang jeonun [Royally... More

76; 69; 89; 83 folding leaves. Four fascicles in four volumes. Large 8vo, orig. patterned semi-stiff wrappers, new stitching. [Kyŏngsong: Chŏng Chae-yŏl], 1936.

A rare woodblock edition; the first edition appeared in 1669, with subsequent editions in 1711 and 1845. The book is a reprint of a so-called gazetteer — a local history divided into treatises on various topics — for the city of Kyŏngju in present-day South Korea (Kŭmo is an alternative name for Kyŏngju). Kyŏngju was the “Eastern Capital” of the Silla Kingdom (57 BCE-935 CE) and is today a UNESCO World Heritage site, replete with numerous historical... More

Manuscript on paper, entitled on the upper wrapper. One full-page manuscript map, in brush & ink, of the eight major roads or provinces of Korea & many tables in the text. 111 numbered folding leaves. Small folio (302 x 215), orig. patterned wrappers (wrappers a little soiled & wormed), stitched as issued. [Korea: 18th or 19th century].

Manuscript gazetteer describing Chosŏn Korea, which was referred to as “the East” (tung 東) or the “Eastern kingdom” (tungguk 東國) before the 20th century. Our manuscript was written between 1694 (we find that date in the text) and 1895, when the eight provinces... More

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

21.5 folding leaves. 8vo, orig. yellowish-brown wrappers, new stitching. [Korea]: n.d.

Yuhap is a common primer for children dating from the early Chosen period. The book teaches Chinese characters by giving their Sino-Korean pronunciation along with a vernacular Korean translation. Both the pronunciation and the translation are given in han’gul, the Korean alphabet promulgated in 1443. The characters are arranged by category, as indicated by the title. The end of a list of characters belonging to a certain category is indicated by a short sentence in classical Chinese.

Yuhap was widely used in Chosen Korea alongside the Thousand Character Essay... More

80 pp. 8vo (216 x 135 mm.), early 20th-cent. cloth-backed marbled boards & orig. printed wrappers mounted on stubs, gilt title on spine. Paris: Bonnefons Delavialle, Ch. Paillet; London: Treuttel & Wurtz, Jarman; Amsterdam: Dufour & De la Chaux; Brussels: Danot; Berlin: Logier & Simon Schropp; Vienna: Schabacher, [1826].

A fascinating and rare auction catalogue of an extensive and influential collection of Asian artifacts belonging to a “F. Sallé,” with many contemporary pencil annotations in the margins. We have been unable to ascertain his first name, but Sallé appears in numerous early 19th-century Parisian auction catalogues as the commissaire-priseur.

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

Movable type print. 73; 66; 72 (two leaves misnumbered 70); 27 folding leaves. Four vols. Large 8vo (310 x 199 mm.), orig. patterned brown semi-stiff wrappers, orig. stitching. Namwŏn, South Jeolla province: Chŏng Kyŏng-sŏp (printed by Im T’ae-hwa 尹泰和), 1933.

First edition of this local gazetteer for Gyeongju (Kyŏngju) in South Jeolla province of South Korea. This book is remarkable in that it represents a genre that flourished in the Chosŏn period, and it was printed using the movable type technology common in the Chosŏn period but carries a 20th-century-style imprint. It shows the survival and transformation of Chosŏn textual... More

92.5; 95 folding leaves. Two vols. Small folio, orig. yellow-brown patterned wrappers (some soiling to wrappers), old stitching. Chŏnju (today’s Jeonju): 1795 or possibly later.

A selection of 100 letters written by Zhu Xi (1130-1200), the great synthesizer of the philosophical school known as Neo-Confucianism. Zhu Xi, who lived in southeastern coastal China far from the center of power, became extremely influential in East Asia for centuries following his death. His interpretation of Neo-Confucianism (a metaphysically argued philosophy of the self, the family, and the state) became official orthodoxy in late imperial China and Chosŏn Korea, promulgated largely through the... More

[Korea]: mid- to late Chosŏn era.

A remarkable survival: this is a substantial part of a Korean Chosŏn-era census register, known as hojŏk 戶籍 (“household registry”). It is written in classical Chinese. These registers were maintained by the Chosŏn government for the purpose of levying taxes and corvée (labor exacted in lieu of taxes by public authorities). The registries were divided according to the administrative divisions of counties and provinces and updated every three years. Our register starts with what ought to be the first t’ong 統, meaning the first unit of five to ten households. However, there is no... More

Many illustrations in the text. Manuscript in accordion format. 36 pages (or panels), written on both sides. 8vo (204 x 98 mm.), orig. boards. [Korea?]: 18th or 19th century.

A unique manuscript collection of Daoist texts and talismans, richly illustrated with diagrams and images. The manuscript is probably Korean, as we find another manuscript with the title Sindo t’aeŭlgyŏng held at Dongshin University library in Naju, South Korea. We find no copy of a work with this title in WorldCat, be it Chinese or Korean.

This unique manuscript contains spells (Ko.: chu, Ch.: zhou 咒), registers (Ko.: nok, Ch.: lu... More

Seven vols. Large 8vo (303 x 190 mm.), later wrappers using various old manuscripts, new stitching. [Korea]: Preface dated 1786.

An uncommon edition of this “first influential Chosŏn history raising the question of legitimacy in ancient Korea” (Baker, “Writing History in Premodern Korea,” 115), by Hong Yŏ-ha 洪汝河 (1620-74, literary name Mokchae or Wood Studio). The book was written in the 17th century, but our edition is later. Hong’s work “denied legitimacy to the kingdom of Wiman Chosŏn, which was established in the northern part of the peninsula in the second century BC. Instead, Hong maintained that the kingdom it... More