CONFUCIANISM - DENG, Tui'an (comp.).

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Zengding si shu buzhu fukao beizhi ("The Four Books of Confucianism, with Extended Commentaries"). One of the Chinese books acquired by the bibliophile and antiquarian Sir Thomas Phillipps for his famous library at Middle Hill. Phillipps bought at some of the major mid-19th-century London auctions of China-related material, including the Macartney (1851) and Staunton (1860) sales, and likely acquired this copy as part of a lot of miscellaneous Chinese books.In his collection of 100,000 printed books and 60,000 manuscripts, Phillipps's interest in China was reflected in his acquisition of Jesuit publications and manuscripts, the Macartney Embassy papers, Chinese paintings and documents, and specimens of Chinese printing. This example presents the Analects and other core Confucian texts as edited by the Yuan dynasty literatus Deng Tui'an (Deng Lin, 1374-1434) and glossed by Qiu Zhao'ao (Qiu Cangzhu, 1638-1717). Phillipps's pressmark (XLIX.b.13) is found on one of the wrappers and on the inside of the box. A manuscript shelf label on the spine is likely also his.After Phillipps's death, the majority of his Chinese-language material passed into the hands of the London booksellers Philip and Lionel Robinson, who acquired the residue of the Phillipps collection from his descendants in 1946. This example was offered as lot 39 in the Robinson sale of Chinese books at Sotheby's, London, 22 November 1988.

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