HOPKINS, Lionel. C.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Six Scripts. First edition, a rare Amoy imprint, of this translation of parts of the Liu Shu Gu, an old Chinese text exploring the origins of the Chinese language through bronze inscriptions.Written by Dai Tong (1200-1285), the Liu Shu Gu (On the Origins of the Six Types of Chinese Characters) also sought to classify characters according to a base set of 479 radicals. Of note is this translation's reproduction of older pictographic forms of characters for "sun", "moon", and other common words. These inclusions increased the complexity of printing.The author (1854-1952), the brother of Gerard Manley Hopkins, served with the British consular service in China between 1874 and shortly before the First World War. Stationed in cities including Tianjin and Chefoo, Hopkins cultivated a specialist knowledge of early Chinese linguistics. In 1912, he intervened in the controversy over the authenticity of the so-called "Bushell Bowl", a Chinese bronze purchased by Stephen Bushell (a sinologist) in the 1870s from a member of the Chinese imperial family. In an article in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, he supported the idea that the artefact was a fake.Presentation copies are found in a brown sand-grain cloth primary binding, suggesting that this copy may be from a distinct Shanghai or remainder issue.

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.