Between the sixth year of Guangxu (1880) and the tenth year of Guangxu (1884), Yang Shoujing, an outstanding bibliographicist and bibliophile in the late Qing Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty, served as an attaché to the Japanese minister. During his time in Japan, Yang Shoujing searched and copied a large number of Chinese books, and obtained tens of thousands of volumes, some of which were orphaned books that had been lost Chinese mainland, including very precious manuscripts of the Six Dynasties and Tang Dynasty, as well as rare Song and Yuan editions of ancient books. In the tenth year of Guangxu, Yang Shoujing returned to China with his books on his visit to Japan, and the "Chronicle of Japanese Visits" is a summary catalogue of Yang Shoujing's works on these Chinese books. The book consists of 16 volumes, with a total of 235 kinds of ancient books, which are distinguished by edition: 36 kinds of Song engravings, 8 kinds of translational Song, shadow Song and imitation Song ben, 5 kinds of Japanese over-Song ben, 28 kinds of yuan engravings, 54 kinds of Ming engravings, 16 kinds of Korean engravings and movable type books, 23 kinds of Japanese engravings, 41 kinds of old manuscripts and shadow copy ancient manuscripts, 14 kinds of volume books or shadow copy scrolls, and 10 other versions. However, judging from the "Preface to the Visiting Books of Japan" that "there are not all rare books among them, but many surprising secrets have not yet been recorded", there are still many Chinese books that have not been included in the bibliography. Yang Shoujing's letter of visit to Japan is the largest return of foreign Chinese books in modern times, and has made great contributions to the preservation of the national cultural heritage of the motherland. The Chronicle of Japanese Visits is the first bibliography of foreign Chinese books in modern China, which is still a classic of bibliography, and is one of the important catalogs for Chinese scholars to systematically understand Japanese and Tibetan Chinese books, which is of great significance in the history of foreign Chinese studies. Through this catalog, it can also be seen that modern Japanese scholars have contributed to the preservation and circulation of Chinese books.
Collation and cataloguing of Chinese books
Ancient Chinese books flowed east to Japan and have a long history. As early as the Sui and Tang dynasties, Japanese envoys, international students, and monks who studied abroad took a large number of Chinese nationalities from China. Fujiwara Sase's earliest Bibliography of Chinese Books in Japan, The Catalogue of Japanese Kunimi Books, contains a total of 1568 ancient books of the Tang and pre-Tang dynasties, totaling 17,209 volumes, which can be imagined in the grand situation of the eastward transmission of Chinese classics to Japan. From then until modern times, the eastern transmission of Chinese nationality was always the mainstream of Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges.
Ancient Chinese books have been circulating for a long time, repeatedly copied and re-engraved, it is inevitable that there will be typos, derivations, out-of-text and other errors, the collation and collation of ancient books has become the primary work of collecting books and governing learning, and the late Qing Dynasty scholar Ye Dehui even believes that "books are not proofread, it is better not to read." Therefore, modern Japanese scholars have carefully examined and examined the fallacies of the collected Chinese books, making them a rare book for the study of ancient Chinese books.
Synopsis of the Five Volumes of the Visits to Japan, "Zhenguan Politicians": "Zhenguan Politicians, Ten Volumes (Old Banknotes). This is the first year of the bungeon, Awasuke Fujiwara, a member of the kofun and goben schools of the kokumoto and goben. ...... Each volume has the seal of 'Matsuda Bunsen' and the seal of 'Xiangshan Huangcun'. Yu obtained this book from Huangcun, and the similarities and differences of the ancient Japanese texts are all collected. "The popular version of the Zhenguan Politicians is a collection of school texts by the Yuan Dynasty scholar Ge Nao, and Awasuke Fujiwara Wakami used the ancient texts of various "Zhenguan Politicians" in Japan to co-school with Gobun, making it a rare book that collects different versions of different texts and circulates to the world.
Modern Japanese scholars have also compiled a detailed catalog of books according to the collection of Chinese books in various library units in their own countries, which objectively provides valuable clues for the search, preservation, and research of Chinese books. For example, the seven volumes of the "Classics and Visits to the Ancient Chronicles" were co-authored by the modern Japanese scholars Shibue Michijun and Mori Tachibana, and a total of more than 600 kinds of Rare Books in more than 60 Japanese collections were compiled, which was the most complete Bibliography of Japanese-Tibetan Chinese books at that time. After Yang Shoujing arrived in Japan, he became acquainted with Mori Tachibana, who was proficient in sinology, and Mori Tachibana gave Yang Shoujing the bibliography "Sutra Visiting Ancient Chronicles" that specifically recorded the editions and collections of rare Chinese books in Japan, which provided great convenience for Yang Shoujing to search for Chinese books in Japan.
Printing and transcription of Chinese books
Due to long-term man-made or natural destruction, many precious ancient Chinese books are difficult to find. In order not to make these rare books that pin the spirit of the ancients lost, modern Japanese scholars have searched for them in many ways, or re-engraved or copied them, so that they can be incarnated into tens of millions, becoming full books and rare books, which is not only the best form of protecting rare books and secret books, but also improves the utilization rate of literature. Moreover, most of the Japanese engravings or manuscripts are derived from ancient texts, and some overprints and shadow manuscripts have highly preserved the appearance of ancient texts, and compared with other versions of the same ancient books popular in China, the text and layout are different, which has important version value and proofreading value.
Book III of the Visiting Books of Japan: "Four volumes of fragments of the Jade Chapters (inscribed in the Guyi Series). The four volumes of the "Jade Chapter" were divided into four volumes, and after the eighteenth volume, they were originally carved from the Cypress Wood Collection with Western Shadow Illumination Method, and they were not at all unhappy, and the rest were written in the biographical version into woodcuts. Later, the director of the Japanese Printing Bureau, Tokuno Ryosuke, borrowed the first half of the "Department" from Saikyo Takayama Temple, and engraved it with a shadow method, but it was engraved accordingly, and the "Department" was completed from the beginning. "The Jade Chapter" was lost in the five dynasties of the late Tang Dynasty in China, but fortunately there are fragments of Gu Yewang's original scrolls in Japan, which have been circulated to the world through many searches, supplements, and publications by modern Japanese scholars. Another example is "The Three Volumes of the Erya Notes (Re-translation of the Northern Song Dynasty). This book was originally collected by a Japanese doctor, borrowed by Kaneya Wangzhi, and Matsuzaki Akira republished it, and did not write "School Corruption" to attach it. According to the large print and Nguyen Thi school journal, the abstract is deleted". This book has been republished according to the Northern Song Dynasty after being collated and collated by Japanese scholars, and has high documentary value.
Gift and borrow Chinese books
In modern times, due to many conditions such as economy, culture, transportation, and communications, it is not easy to gather books, so in order to prevent the dispersal of books, most collectors cherish and keep books secret. However, some Japanese scholars have generously donated private Chinese books to Yang Shoujing free of charge, or lent them to copy and assist him in proofreading, writing a heavy stroke in the history of sino-Japanese cultural exchanges in modern times.
Book VIII of the Book of Visits to Japan: "Ten volumes of the Collected Notes of the Year of the Prince (Ming Jia Jing Jia Wu imitation Song Ben). Yu Ben got the Forest Lizhi, there are six words of 'Dongshi Huangshi Collection Books', Standing Treasure Love, Yu repeatedly asked for it and then got it. Fragments of the New Language of the World (ancient banknote scrolls). It is a volume of exquisite calligraphy, although there is no year, it is illuminated by ancient Japanese Buddhist scriptures, which were undoubtedly written by the People of the Tang Dynasty. Yu borrowed from Nishita Higashigashi. ”
Yang Shoujing also added more than 20 volumes based on the imitation of the ancient manuscripts given by Sen Lizhi, and published them in the name of "Leaving True Genealogy". The "Liu Zhen Genealogy" contains the ancient books and shadows of Chinese Song and Yuan inscriptions, old manuscripts, Ming Dynasty inscriptions and a small number of Korean inscriptions, which is an important reference book for researching and identifying Chinese ancient book versions, and is also an important reference book for scholars at home and abroad to search for Chinese literature in Japan.
In addition, according to the "Chronicle of Visits to Japan", the Japanese scholar Iwatani Shu successively lent Yang Shoujing the ancient manuscript of "Shangshu Zhengyi", the ancient manuscript of "Spring and Autumn Left Transmission Collection", the Song Periodical of "Jiyun", the Song carved fragment of "Taiping HuanyuJi", the shadow Song ben of "Secret Essentials of Waitai", and the Song periodical of "Fan Chuan Anthology" for yang Shoujing to copy and proofread, and also sent Yang Shoujing the photocopied ancient copy of the volume "Prince Anwen". The collector transferred to Shanhuangcun his collection of the Spring and Autumn Valley Liang Biography and Song Shuben's Bamboo Friends Collection, and then lent the fragments of Mencius Zhanggu to Yang Shoujing to help him revise other editions.
Assist in the search for Chinese nationality
In the process of his visit to Japan, Yang Shoujing received great assistance from a group of Japanese Chinese collectors and sinologists, who either provided clues to the book visit or assisted in borrowing and transcribing Chinese books, which is mostly recorded in the "Chronicle of Japanese Visits".
The "Chronicle of Japanese Visits" Volume 1 "Spring and Autumn Left Transmission Collection" article says: "At the beginning, Sen Lizhi was a remnant, and the amazing secret book of Japan took the ancient banknote "Left Transmission" volume as the first, saying that it was the relics of the Six Dynasties, not the Tang and Song Dynasties, and this book is now in the Fengshan official treasury, and it is not allowed to be published, for fear that it is not obtained by outsiders. When Yuto's clerk Iwatani visited, he did not see it in the official treasury. Yu Shen regretted. It is in the first half of the third volume of kojima Gakusho's engraving of the "True Spectrum", which is intended to be revisited by later generations. This book cannot be lost, and how the club is hidden. Compound to White Rock Valley. Suddenly, the day came to tell, and the cloud book was unharmed. Thanks to the clues and continuous attention provided by Morrisaki, Yang Shoujing borrowed the book through the history museum editing Iwatani Shu and asked people to copy it, so he had to bring it back to China.
A large number of Chinese books have been dispersed from China to Japan, so that some precious ancient books have been lost in Chinese mainland, which is nothing less than a huge loss or even a cultural catastrophe for Yangyang Huaxia. But from another point of view, some ancient books may have been transmitted to Japan in the east to avoid being scattered in modern China, where wars were still frequent. Moreover, Japan, which shares water with China, is deeply influenced by traditional Chinese culture, and scholars cherish The Chinese nationality is very much, and they are committed to the search, collection, collation, cataloguing, printing, and transcription of the Chinese nationality, so that the literary value and academic value of the Chinese nationality have been significantly improved; when Yang Shoujing visited Japan to seek the Chinese nationality, they also assisted them, and even gave their own collection of books to each other. Yang Shoujing was able to bring tens of thousands of rare books back to China from Japan and compile them into the first foreign Chinese book bibliography, "Visiting Books in Japan", and the contributions made by Japanese scholars cannot be ignored. Finally, let's talk about another historical event: during the Xinhai Revolution, fortunately, the Japanese consul in Hankou at that time, Terasai Hidetake, asked the governor For protection from the governor Li Yuanhong, and Yang Shoujing was able to preserve the Han nationality he was visiting from Japan.