China.- Confucius.- Le Chou-King, un des Livres Sacrés des Chinois, first edition in French, Paris, N.M.Tilliard, 1770

£400 · At auction with Forum Auctions

China.- Confucius.- Le Chou-King, un des Livres Sacrés des Chinois, translated by Antoine Gaubil, edited by J. de Guignes, first edition in French, half-title, woodcut title device and head- & tail-pieces, privilege leaf and 4 folding engraved plates at end, a few contemporary ink manuscript annotations, light foxing, bookplate, old ink library stamp to front free endpaper, head of half-title and first Preface leaf, contemporary mottled calf, rubbed, a few slightly worn patches to covers, rebacked preserving most of old gilt spine, corners repaired, [Cordier BS 1376; Löwendahl 551; Lust 727], 4to, Paris, N.M.Tilliard, 1770. *** The first complete western translation of the Shujing and the first of the Five Classics of Confucianism to be translated into a European language. The translation is by the French Jesuit missionary Antoine Gaubil who established the observatory in the French residency in Peking. He sent his original translation of the Shujing back home to France but died before he saw it published. The work was then edited by Joseph de Guignes (1721-1800), a French orientalist who received Gaubil’s translation and made significant additions, as well as supplementing with several treatises.

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