Tang xie ben "Qie yun kao" can juan 唐寫本切韻殘卷 [Fragmentary Tang-Period Manuscripts of the "Spelled Rhymes"]

58 folding leaves, 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [China]: 1921 (date of colophon).




First edition of this fragmentary medieval rhyme book, reproduced here in a facsimile lithographic reprint of Wang Guowei's handwriting.


Rhyme books are a kind of Chinese dictionary, in which characters are arranged according to their pronunciation. Because of this arrangement, they can be used to study the sound system of the language used at the time they were compiled. Characters that no longer rhyme in modern Chinese might still do so in medieval rhyme books, providing precious data for historical linguistics. During the Qing period, the earliest rhyme book accessible to scholars was Guangyun 廣韻 [Expanded Rhymes] from 1008 CE. In the early 20th century, even earlier sources came to light, most prominent of which was Qieyun 切韻 [Spelled Rhymes] from 601 CE. In our book, leading Republican-era intellectual Wang Guowei transcribes three fragmentary manuscripts of Qieyun held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. The Qieyun fragments are followed by a colophon by Wang dated 1921 (xinyou).


The Qieyun fragments had been found by Paul Pelliot (1878-1945) in Dunhuang and taken by him to Paris. Upon the request of Wang and a colleague, Pelliot had them photographed which he sent to China. Wang based his transcription on these photographs.


Wang Guowei (1877-1927) was a scholar who combined the Qing tradition of philology and Western ideas. "Wang was the first to apply Western philosophy, aesthetics, and literary theory to the study of Chinese history and literature, profoundly influencing historiography in China. He combined the essence of Chinese literature with that of Western literature and put forward a complete theory of literature and art, with the 'theory of realm' as its core. His study of ancient Chinese traditional opera and novels also set standards for scholarship in those areas" (Britannica).


Fine copy. Our book is rare, with no copy of this edition recorded in WorldCat.