APPENDIX III CHINESE AND OTHER EAST ASIATIC BOOKS ADDED By Walter T. Swingle, chairman of the Library Committee, United The usual predominance of Chinese items over other East Asiatic books appears in the acquisitions of the past year. The Chinese accessions total 160 works in 3,832 volumes; the Japanese, 92 works in 122 volumes, and also 61 pamphlets; the Manchu, 16 works in 106 volumes, of which 6 works are in Chinese and Manchu, 1 in Chinese, Manchu, and Mongol, and 2 in Chinese, Manchu, and Tibetan. The Korean accessions total 71 works in 159 volumes. One of these is in Korean and Manchu, and 1 in Korean and Mongol. No Annamite books were secured during the year. Chinese, Japanese, Manchu, Korean and Mongol on books. Chinese works in gress. An estimate published in the Report of the Librarian of Census of the Congress for 1923-24 gives the number of Chinese works Library of Conin the Library as 5,690. The accessions during the past year bring this total to 5,850. A summation of the last seven years' purchases, from 1918 to date, shows that during that time 2,902 Chinese works in 41,066 volumes have been added to the Library of Congress. The average number of volumes to the work is just over 14 (14.15). On this basis the 5,850 works would contain 82,777 volumes, Chinese style. It is therefore probably safe to assume that there are now 80,000 volumes in the Chinese collection of the Library of Congress. gazetteers. Increasing difficulty is experienced in securing Chinese Chinese official official gazetteers, since the Library of Congress collection in this field is the largest known, and in consequence all the gazetteers commonly offered for sale are already on the shelves at Washington. Nevertheless, thanks to the active help of a great Chinese publishing house in Shanghai and the librarian of Chinese collectanea-Ts'ung shu. the University of Nanking, at Nanking, China, as well as to gifts and miscellaneous purchases, 30 official gazetteers were added last year; 2 provincial, 6 prefectural, and 22 district. Of these, 1 in each class was a duplicate. The total number of gazetteers now in the Library of Congress is 1,360. There are also 116 duplicate copies. Perhaps the most interesting gazetteer secured last year is the Hunan t'ung chih, the official gazetteer of Hunan Province, published in the eleventh year of the Emperor Kuang Hsü (1885), in 168 volumes. This work was a part of the gift made by the Hon. Nelson T. Johnson, to be noted later. The building up of the already superb collection of ts'ung shu, or Chinese collections of reprints, proceeds apace. In all 31 ts'ung shu were secured, of which 4 are duplicate copies, making a net increase of 27. Unfortunately 6 of these ts'ung shu are more or less incomplete. Last year the Library contained 394 ts'ung shu; it now has 421. Of these 406 have been fully indexed and contain reprints of 21,264 works. Index cards for all of these works are filed in the Library of Congress in the order of the number of strokes contained in the first character, making it possible to find any work desired in a very short time, usually in a few seconds. This vast collection of ts'ung shu is one of the most valuable assets of the Library of Congress, for great numbers of Chinese works have become so rare that they are almost impossible to obtain and when placed on sale bring very high prices. Such works can usually be found reprinted in some ts'ung shu. The most important ts'ung shu now being received by the Library of Congress is the Taoist Canon, Tao ts'ang, noted briefly in the last report. The third instalment was received in October, 1924, and contains 361 works bound in 277 volumes. This instalment contains the fundamental texts of Taoism and the commentaries thereon, and also a large number of works of a nondoctrinal character, on dietetics, alchemy, morality, etc., and a remarkable herbal and materia medica, the T'u ching yen i pên ts'ao noted elsewhere in this report. Many of the fundamental texts and the commentaries on them, as well as some of the nondoctrinal works, are very valuable additions to the Chinese collection. As yet only three of the seven divisions of the Taoist Canon have been reprinted, so a full notice of this ts'ung shu can not be given now. The Chu ching p'in chieh is a collection of Taoist and Buddhist fundamental doctrinal works or Ching, 17 Taoist and 12 Buddhist treatises in all. It was compiled by the Chin Shih scholar Yang Ch'i-yüan, literary name Yang Chêng-fu, also known as Yang Tai-shih, posthumous title Yang Wên-i. The preface is dated the twentysecond year of the Ming Emperor Wan Li, or 1594 A. D. It is therefore a Ming dynasty ts'ung shu, of a good period, and furthermore is well printed in large black characters, with the commentaries in characters of half the size. This copy is in good condition, as the folios have been reinforced by lining with thin blank paper and then solidly rebound. As has been noticed in previous reports, the tabooed characters that had to be replaced by other characters in Taoist works printed during the Manchu dynasty render many passages so obscure as to be almost unintelligible. For this reason. good editions of Taoist works printed during the Ming dynasty are much more valuable than the more recent editions. works by a great Chinese savant. The Chu ching p'in chieh, as noted above, contains 4 collection of no fewer than 17 of the most important fundamental treatises of Taoism, including, of course, the famous Tao têh ching with a commentary by the compiler of the collection, Yang Ch'i-yüan. The Buddhist classics comprise some of the better known sutras, such as the Heart Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, etc. Another ts'ung shu of unusual importance obtained during the past year is the Su chai ts'ung shu, compiled by Wêng Fang-kang (tzu) Chêng-san (hao) T'an-ch'i. He was a famous scholar who served on the great bibliographic commission of the Emperor Ch'ien Lung to .select works for the Ssu k'u ch’üan shu MS. collection and compile the Imperial Catalogue. The present edition is a photolithographic reprint of the original edition, with a preface by Liu Chêng-kan, dated 1923, translated by Mr. Michael J. Hagerty in part as follows: Wêng T'an-ch'i, a graduate scholar of Ta-hsing, became a high official in his youth, being successively promoted to the highest official rank in the Imperial Government. When over 80 years of age he was still unwearied in writing. People praised him for his widespread knowledge. His studies in ancient inscriptions in metal and stone, his treatises and monographs, calligraphy, painting, and tablet inscriptions were particularly accurate, as he was able to detect the slightest points of difference In the forty-first year of Ch'ien Lung (1776) he was appointed Chao Li Kuan in the throne hall of the palace known as the Wên Hsien Ko. At that time the Ssu k'u ch'üan shu or Imperial Library was established and the avenues through which works were sent were widely open. From the four regions came works which had been presented and these were gathered into one collection and stored in a private storeroom. In the T'i yao [the Imperial Catalogue, sometimes called Ssu k'u ch’üan shu tsung mu t'i yao] there is much of his handiwork. This work includes more than (ten) thousand works; each work was classified into some division and its main features were summarized. Liu Chêng-kan goes on to say that the Su chai ts'ung shu had become rare, but that in 1913 he finally obtained a copy which Liu Yung-tsun reprinted in order to make it available to a wide circle of readers. The Su chai ts'ung shu contains 19 works, apparently all by Wêng Fang-kang himself. They cover a wide range of subjects, lexicography, bibliography, research in the meaning of the classics, epigraphy, biography, poetical critiques, original poems, etc., and are well calculated to show the breadth of learning of the oldtime Chinese scholar. A ts'ung shu of unusual interest and of enormous bulk is the Kuang ya shu chü ts'ung shu, compiled by Hsü Chao-chi, and published at Canton, China, in 1920, in 560 large volumes. It reprints 167 works, largely historical commentaries by Ch'ing dynasty authors. In the compiler's preface there is an interesting account of the great impetus given to historical and literary research at Canton by Chang Chih-tung (author of "China's Only Hope") during the latter part of the nineteenth century when he built up while he was viceroy of Kuangtung Province, the Kuang Ya Shu Yuan, a literary institute and library where scholars were made welcome and old books preserved and new ones written and published. The Viceroy Chang Chih-tung himself had a study in the institute to which he would retire to read and study whenever he was free from official cares. Already toward the end of the reign of Kuang Hsü (1875-1908) this institute ceased its activities; the great changes experienced by the country as the result of the revolution have caused the art of letters to fare badly. Soldiers were quartered in the Wen-Lou Ko library, and not an entire tile remains of the Hsüeh Min Lou library building. Although the Kuang Ya Shu Yuan is in ruins the compiler found the printing blocks for the works here reprinted. Some works he wished to reprint had to be left out as the blocks were damaged or missing in part. Other works were too bulky to include and will be issued separately. The good judgment in selecting works and the accuracy in editing them in the Kuang Ya Shu Yuan have long been recognized by scholars. on the loss of the ture. Another valuable ts'ung shu is the Lung ch'i ching 4 lamentation shi ts'ung shu, compiled by Chêng Yao-chên, printed old Chinese culrecently in 120 volumes. It contains 56 works of which 28, or exactly one-half belong to the philosophy class. The second preface, written by Ch'i Yao-lin, says in part (as translated by Mr. Mien Woo): Chêng Yao-chên, a native of Ch'ao-yang in Ch'ao-chou Prefecture, Kwangtung, has extensive knowledge and is devoted to study. He does not seek for fame or prominence but lives a hermit's life at Shanghai. He has many books and is afraid that the old works may be lost and that intellectual thought may be confused. So he selects the old books and distinguishes the false from the genuine Culture and civilization were most prosperous during the period from the Chow dynasty to the Ch'in dynasty. Afterward there were civil wars. Books were hidden in secret places and those handed down to us were few. What exists to-day are as only about one or ten out of a thousand. Moreover, European civilization has spread to the East; to seek for the new and hunt for the strange has become the habit of scholars. European books are full of capital. The youth find their time insufficient to study them. Even the Six Classics are placed upon high shelves. It is easy to imagine what will become of hundreds of philosophical works! The most ancient volumes are looked down upon as valueless things. This is a turning point in the history of culture, |