Huang Qing jing jie suo ben bian mu 皇清經解縮本編目 [Pocket Edition of the Contents of "Explanations of the Classics of the August Qing"]

Lithographically printed. Four vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. title labels on upper covers (labels a little defective), orig. stitching. Shanghai: Hongwen shuju 鴻文書局, 1896.



Second edition (first ed.: 1892), of this reference work for navigating the most important collection of Confucian classical scholarship of the Qing period.


The voluminous Huang Qing jingjie 皇清經解 [Explanations of the Classics of the August Qing], published in 1825-29, was compiled under the auspices of Ruan Yuan 阮元 (1764-1849), the leading patron of classical scholarship of the era, Viceroy of the Two Expanses (Guangdong and Guangxi), and founder of the famous academy Xuehai Tang 學海堂 or "Sea of Learning Hall." Wolfgang Franke (1912-2007) wrote that Huang Qing jingjie, Ruan Yuan's "great collectanea of commentaries and essays on the canonical texts from the Qing period - fundamental works for anyone who wants to engage with Confucian learning - [has] to this day not been superseded and will forever retain [its] value" (Juan Yüan, 56).


The collection represented an important repository of knowledge in many fields. Yet, being very voluminous, it was not easy to use. Hu Shih 胡適 (1891-1962), one of the most prominent Chinese thinkers of the 20th century, praised our Pocket Edition in 1923, noting that 2400 juan of the unabridged collectanea were "but an overflowing pile of running accounts, [with] no systematicity" (Hu Shih, "Guoxue jikan fakan xuanyan," 10-11).


Our edition was published by Hongwen shuju in 1896 (see WorldCat 39287795). Founded in 1882, Hongwen shuju was the first publisher in Shanghai to use lithography to reproduce color illustrations.



References


Franke, Wolfgang. "Juan Yüan 阮元 (1764-1849)." Monumenta Serica 9 (1944): 53-80.
Hu Shih 胡適. "Guoxue jikan fakan xuanyan" 《國學季刊》發刊宣言. In Hu Shi wencun, Vol. 2. Beijing: Zhongyang bianyi chubanshe, 2014.