(c) Early Chinese dictionaries and encyclopedias. Such works are of great value in tracing the introduction of plants, animals, arts, and industries into China from Western Asia, Europe, and America. A few printed prior to the discovery of printing in Europe were obtained, and a very good collection of fifteenth and sixteenth century reprints, the whole making a collection of great value for historical and philological investigations, probably the equal of any in Europe.

(d) Chinese works on natural history and pharmacopoeias. These works are of the greatest importance in tracing the introduction of European and American plants and animals into China. Those secured, together with those already in the Library of Congress and in the Library of the Department of Agriculture, make the Washington collection easily the best in America, and probably better than any in Europe. Many of these works are early editions, including some very early imprints not included in any European collection.

(e) Chinese geographical works. The already large collection of these important works possessed by the Library of Congress was increased by a number of important items until at present the Library contains about 418 such works. As the John Crerar Library contains about 260 items of this class, the number available in America is, excluding duplicates, probably about 640, a number approached in Western countries only in France, where the Paris Library has about 600 such works.

(f) Ts'ung shu or collection of reprints, individual collections of the works of famous writers and works of erudition by famous scholars. Many valuable additions to these classes were secured. These works are highly prized by the Chinese themselves, but a considerable number of items were secured, some old editions dating from the Ming dynasty or even earlier. Four of the Ts'ung shu or general collections that were secured included no fewer than 3,740 books, bound in 592 volumes. With this notable addition the Library of Congress, already enriched by the purchases of 1913-14, attains a prominent place among the repositories of this most important class of Chinese literature.

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good collection of the works of this scholar, undoubtedly the best in America.

(h) Examples of ancient Japanese printing and old Japanese works serving to elucidate Chinese works, or written in the same general style.

(i) A few very valuable early Japanese imprints were purchased, including a good copy of the oldest Japanese printed work extant, probably dating from the beginning of the thirteenth century.

(j) Writings of Kaibara (Kaibara Ekken), 16301714 A. D. A large collection was made of the works of this popular philosopher, who occupies in Japan much the same place as Franklin in America. Kaibara was selected as a typical Japanese philosopher, critic, and teacher, just as Chu Hsi was selected as typical of the Chinese. Many of Kaibara's works were secured in the original editions, some in later editions, and a complete set of his writings in a modern Japanese reprint was purchased. No such collection exists elsewhere outside of Japan.

(k) Several sets of modern scientific or philosophic Japanese journals, complete or nearly complete, were purchased at very low prices.

Upon Dr. Swingle's detailed reports are based the following references to some of the more notable items acquired by him:

Chi- Ancient Chinese books of the Sung and Yuan dynasties, printed long before the European invention of printing.

A number of rare old Chinese lexicographic works were secured, some of them editions supposed up to now to have been lost in China.

The Ch'ung pien kai ping wu yin pien is a phonetic dictionary arranged according to a new and peculiar system

and is considered to be one of the most noteworthy Chinese lexicographic works of the thirteenth century. It is one of the few important original works published under the short-lived Kin dynasty of Tartars. The first edition was published in the eighth year of the Emperor T'ai Ho, 1208 A. D. The copy secured for the Library of Congress is likewise a Kin edition, dated in the sixth year of the Emperor Chêng Ta, 1229 A. D. This edition seems to be unknown to Chinese bibliographers, though a later, Yüan dynasty edition is listed among the treasures of the private library of the Manchu Emperor Chien Lung. The copy secured for the Library of Congress is of especial interest, as it contains impressions of seals showing that it was once contained in the palace library of the Ming emperors. It afterwards came into the possession of the famous scholar Li T'ien-fu, prime minister of the Manchu Emperor K'ang Hsi from 1692–1699 A. D. The fact that seal impressions of this character were placed in the work shows that it was considered to be of great interest and value by Chinese scholars.

The Tsêng hsiu lu chu li pu yün lüeh is a revision of a famous rhyming dictionary first published about 1190 A. D. It was adopted by the Board of Ceremonies as the standard for use in the State examinations. A single volume of the Yüan dynasty edition, the second of the five, published in 1361 A. D., was secured in Japan. No complete set of this edition is known in China, the Fan family has the third volume, and the Tin family the fourth, and now the Library of Congress possesses the second volume, while the first and fifth are not known to exist in any library. Fortunately a complete facsimile reprint of this edition, made in Japan, probably about the end of the fourteenth century, was secured for the Library of Congress, together with the single volume of the Chinese original.

An attempt was made to secure good early editions of the works of the great Sung dynasty philosopher and schoolman Chu Hsi, commonly called Chu tzu or Chu fu tzu (Chufucius), who was born 1130 and died 1200 A. D. He was one of the last and easily the greatest of the manv brilliant Sung

that for the past 750 years his influence over the Chinese people has been exceeded only by that of Confucius, and to a considerable degree he made the now prevalent modern Chinese interpretation of Confucius himself.

Two very ancient posthumous works by Chu Hsi were obtained, consisting of supplementary collections of letters and dispatches written by him but omitted from the earlier collection probably published shortly after his death in 1200 A. D. One volume is dated 1245 in the preface; the other 1265. These books are apparently not now known in the original edition and are of much bibliographic interest as there has been a dispute of long standing in China as to the number of books comprised in these works, a dispute which can perhaps be settled definitely by the aid of these ancient and perhaps original editions.

Another work by Chu Hsi, of which the early editions seem to have been lost in China, is an Imperial Ming edition of his commentary on the Shih Ching or Book of Odes dated 1447. The set secured is a fine sample of Ming printing, with large black characters on white paper. It lacks one of the six volumes, but in view of the importance of the author and the fact that no copies of this edition were known to the compilers of the Imperial Catalogue, it is a find of unusual interest and value.

The pre-Columbian Chinese editions of herbals or Pên ts'ao are of great interest in a study of the history of agriculture in the Orient, as they were printed before the possibility of confusion through plants brought by the Portuguese to Macao or by the Spaniards to the Philippines.

A copy of what seems to be an ancient edition of the T'ang i pên ts'ao, published by Wang Hao-ku in 1306, was secured. It shows all the characteristics of a Yüan dynasty printed book as to paper, type of characters, etc. Another item of unusual interest is a very old illustrated edition of the Chêng lei pên ts'ao of T'ang Shen-wei, dated 1302, but probably a Ming reprint as yet but imperfectly known to bibliographers. This work was originally published in 1108 and for five hundred years was the most important treatise on materia medica in China, Korea, and Japan. Numerous editions were published, but the earlier ones are no longer extant. Bretschneider, who for many years studied this class of work in China, never saw a copy of it (Botanicon Sinicum 1, p. 47). There is only a very 'imperfect copy of the edition of 1469 in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris. Another old edition of it published in 1552 and a Japanese reprint of 1775 were also secured while the Library of Congress already had two other editions, one of about 1620 and the other a recent facsimile reprint of the Sung edition of 1195. The copy in the John Crerar Library in Chicago (1587) and the one in Dr. Laufer's personal library at the Field. Museum (1523) differ from any of the five in the Library of Congress, so that American students have at hand no fewer than seven different editions of this most important work. Dr. Laufer after a thorough study of Chinese bibliographic works lists 13 editions, but the Library of Congress now has no fewer than 4 not appearing in his list. As an illustrated pre-Columbian work on natural history it is of the very highest interest in any study of the history of agriculture in the Pacific area. A critical study of this work can now be undertaken with some degree of assurance in America, with a wealth of ancient texts at hand, in striking contrast to the single imperfect copy in the Paris library.