The Late-Qing Illustrated Shujing from the Sinology Library in Moscow

• Authors: Stezhenskaya Lidia
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The article deals with the 1905 lithographic illustrated edition of Shujing tu shuo (The Book of Historical Documents with Illustrations and Commentary), kept in Moscow. This edition of the ancient Confucian Classics is rather special, since it was designed as a comic book implementing principles of “explanation through pictures”. The canonical Ancient Chinese text is available in the book but is hardly simplified for an unprepared reader. The comments explain the engraved line drawings following and representing separate portions of the canonical text. Being the last official Qing edition of Shujing, it was destined to become a popular version of the Confucian classic.

Keywords

EN

Shujing; Shangshu; Confucian classic book illustration; Qing dynasty

• Publisher: Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN
• Journal: Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia
• Year: 2016
• Issue: 29
• Pages: 165-176

Dates

published

2016-12-01

Contributors

author

Stezhenskaya Lidia

• IFES RAS, Russia

References

• The research was granted a financial support by The Russian Foundation for Humanities (research project No.15-34-01301).
• Qin ding Shu jing tu shuo [The Highly Approved Book of Historical Documents with Illustrations and Commentary], 16 Vols., in 2 casings. S. l., 1905.
• Vladimir Mihaylovich Mayorov (trans., ed., comment., afterword), Lidiya Vladimirovna Stezhenskaya (ed., afterword) and Chtimaya Kniga, Drevnekitayskie teksty i perevod [The Esteemed Book: Ancient Chinese Texts and Translation], Moskva: IDV RAN, 2014. Vide List of illustrations on pp. 1093–1103.
• Qin ding Shujing tu shuo [The Highly Approved Book of Historical Documents with Illustrations and Commentary]: http://ebook.teldap.tw/ebook_detail.jsp?id=52 (accessed on August 9, 2016).
• Qin ding Shujing tu shuo [The Highly Approved Book of Historical Documents with Illustrations and Commentary], Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 2001, p. 2.
• Qin ding Shujing tu shuo, Vol. 1, Zhiming [Designations], p. 1a.
• Ibid. Tiao li [Regulations], pp. 2b and 3a. The New Policies were reforms in various spheres of Late-Qing government, undertaken after the Boxer Rebellion in 1901 and carried on roughly until 1908, the year of Dowager Empress Cixi’s death.
• Qin ding Shujing tu shuo, Vol. 1, Biao wen [Memorials], p. 2a; Zou zhe [Reports], p. 1a. Various diagrams, tables and images of ancient artefacts are meant. Traditional illustrated editions of these canons, due to understandable reasons, did not have narrative illustrations.
• Mayorov and Stezhenskaya, Chtimaya kniga..., pp. 965–974.
• For further elaborations on this, see: Nikita Yakovlevich Bichurin (transl.), Vladimir Mihaylovich Mayorov, Mariya Aleksandrovna Smirnova and Lidiya Vladimirovna Stezhenskaya (transcrib.), V. M. Mayorov (ed.), “Drevnyaya kitayskaya istoriya” N. Ya. Bichurina [The Ancient Chinese History (translated by) N. Ya. Bichurin], Мoskva: IDV RAN, 2015, p. 521. The Russian Academician V. P. Vasiliev (1818–1900) used Manchurian translations as an arguement in his judgement on the content of Shujing. For more detail, see: Vasiliy Pavlovich Vasiliev, Ocherk istorii kitayskoy literatury. Pereizdanie na russkom i kitayskom yazykah [Review of Chinese Literature History: Reprint in the Russian and Chinese Languages], Sankt- Peterburg: Institut Konfuciya v SpbGU, 2013, p. 168. A. M. Karapetyants does not consider Shujing a historical source. In his opinion, the canonical character of Shangshu in the Confucian school was seen as «the system of reality reflection, its classification by specific language means, and not as a simply historical document”. In this sense, it stood close to Yijing [The Book of Changes], which was seen by the Confucians as “the list of standard situations”. See: Artemiy Mihaylovich Karapetyants, ‘Formirovanie sistemy kanonow v Kitae’ [‘Canons’ System Forming in China’] in Etnicheskaya istoria narodov Vostochnoy i Yugo-Vostochnoy Azii v drevnosti i srednie veka [Ethnic History of the East and South-East Asia Peoples in Antiquity and Middle Ages], Mihail Vasilievich Kryukov and Mihail Viktorovich Sofronov (eds.), Мoskva: Nauka, Glavnaya Redaktsiya Vostochnoy Literatury, 1981, pp. 240–241 and 245.
• Qin ding Shujing tu shuo, Vol. 1, juan (scroll) 1, p. 1a.
• Qin ding Shujing tu shuo, Vol. 1, Zou zhe [Reports], p. 3a.
• Qin ding Shujing tu shuo, Vol. 1, juan (scroll) 2, p. 39b.
• For more discussion on these editions see: Bichurin, Drevnyaya kitayskaya istoriya…, p. 513–518.
• Qin ding Shu jing tu shuo, Vol. 11, juan 29, p. 3a; Vol. 13, juan 33, p. 4b.
• Qin ding Shu jing tu shuo, Vol. 1, juan 1, p. 16a.
• Ibid., Tiao li (Regulations), p. 2b–3a.
• Qin ding Shu jing tu shuo, Vol. 1, Tiao li [Regulations], p. 1b.
• See further details of these editions in Chtimaya, Drevnekitayskie teksty..., p. 987–989; Bichurin, Drevnyaya kitayskaya istoriya…, pp. 513 and 517–518.
• Qin ding Shu jing tu shuo, Vol. 1, Tiao li [Regulations], p. 1a.
• Ibid., p. 1a–1b.
• Qin ding Shu jing tu shuo, Vol. 1, Zong mu [General Contents], p. 1a–4b.
• Qin ding Shu jing tu shuo, Vol. 1, Tiao li [Regulations], p. 1b.
• For a little different interpretation of these terms see: Tatiana IgorevnaVinogradova, Mir kak “predstavlenie”: Kitayskaya literaturnaya illyustratsiya [Universe as “Imagination”: Chinese Literature Illustration], Sankt-Peterburg: Biblioteka Akademii Nauk, Al'faret, 2012, pp. 178–179.
• Qin ding Shujing tu shuo, Vol. 1, Zou zhe [Reports], p. 1b; Tiao li [Regulations]), p. 1b–2a.
• Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 3, Civil Engineering and Nautics, Cambridge: University Press, 1971, pp. 41, 44, 83 and 233.
• Qin ding Shu jing tu shuo, Vol. 1, Zhzi ming, p. 2a.
• Ibid., Zou zhe [Reports], pp. 1b and 3b; Tiao li [Regulations], p. 3а.
• Qin ding Shujing tu shuo, Vol. 1, Zou zhe [Reports], p. 3b.
• Narrative illustration is a conventional term in Western fine arts studies designating one of the categories of traditional Chinese painting, see: Julia K. Murray, Mirror of Morality: Chinese Narrative Illustration and Confucian Ideology, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007, p. 1.
• Qin ding Shujing tu shuo, Vol. 1, Zou zhe [Reports], p. 3b.
• Qin ding Shujing tu shuo, Tiao li [Regulations], p. 3a.
• The same print inscription is available on the copy kept by Academia Sinica in Taiwan. The other copy in Moscow does not have it.
• Qin ding Shujing tu shuo [The Highly Approved Book of Historical Documents with Illustrations and Commentary], 3 Vols., Taipei: Wenhai, 1968.
• ‘Qin ding Shu jing tu shuo’ [‘The Highly Approved Book of Historical Documents with Illustrations and Commentary’] in Zhongguo Qingdai gongting banhua [Chinese Qing Dynasty Printed Pictures from the Palace Collection], Vol. 40, Hefei: Anhui meishu chubanshe, 2002.
• Qin ding Shu jing tu shuo: 50 juan [The Highly Approved Book of Historical Documents with Illustrations and Commentary in 50 Juans], 16 Vols., in 2 casings, Tianjin: Tianjin guji chubanshe, 2007.
• Shangshu tu jie [The Esteemed Book with Illustrations and Commentary], Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 2001.
• Tu jie Shangshu – Li ji [The Esteemed Book and The Notes on Ritual with Illustrations and Commentary], Shenyang: Wanjuan chuban gongsi, 2008.
• Tu jie Shangshu [The Esteemed Book with Illustrations and Commentary], Chong Xian (transl.), Hefei: Huangshan shushe, 2016.
• Zhou Dianfu (ed.), Shangshu zhi yao [The Main Methods of Government According to The Esteemed Book], Beijing shidai huawen shuju, 2014.