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Ca. 152 illus. 30 juan in 30 vols. 8vo, new wrappers, new stitching. [China]: [after 1735?] A rare example of an almanac that belonged to a once ubiquitous genre. Almanacs were "among the most broadly popular of guides to good fortune" in late imperial China. "Western observers in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century China repeatedly commented on the ubiquity of these works. One late nineteenth-century Western observer described these texts as perhaps the most universally circulated book[s] in China. And both Daniel Kulp and James Hayes, visiting south China in the early and middle decades of the 20th century, observed that these works were everywhere in small towns and villages. Drawing on.cosmological calculations.as well as in official and unofficial versions of the state calendars, these texts.provided the lay reader with a wealth of practical information about means of attaining good fortune, especially the selection of auspicious days for particular activities" (Brokaw, pp. 451-52). Our book is relatively voluminous and probably had a more specialized audience than the cheap, small almanacs. Our book indeed contains information for activities that should or should not be performed on certain days. Activities include starting a program of study, going to the doctor, capping a young male, getting married, adopting a son, raising fish or fowl, making jewelry, building a boat, harvesting honey, buying a dog or a cat, dividing up family property, drawing up contracts or engaging in trade, going into the mountains to chop wood, building a house, or buying a slave (including hiring workers or getting a servant). There is also a list of "miscellaneous taboos when giving birth" (taichan zaji ????). One volume contains Daoist talismans. There is a Preface by Xu Shi ?? The book was originally published in the Ming period, hence the use of the Ming s Datong calendar. Our copy has no cover page and no date of publication or indication of publisher. Internal evidence is inconclusive. In places, the book appears to observe the taboo for the character li ?, part of the personal name of the Qianlong emperor, Hongli ?? (r. 1735-96). In the title, li ? is substituted for that character, and in the Preface, li ? is substituted. Note that in the lost parts of the Preface and table of contents that have been supplied in manuscript, the character li ? has been reconstituted by the copyist. Pages 1:1a, 1:8a, 2:28a, the centerfold of juan 5, etc., curiously have instances of li ?, which might also respect the taboo for li ? (Han), or most likely be used merely as a variant character. However, 6:69b unambiguously has the character li ?, which would imply a date of before 1735. The only record in OCLC of this book (34342075), describing a copy held at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, conjectures that that edition was published in 1744. The Library of Congress holds an edition from 1592, with the expected title Xinkan chongkao quanbu fawei lizheng tongshu daquan ??????????????, with li ? as a variant of li ? An edition using the phrase Datong li ??? (respecting the Qianlong taboo) was published in 1896 (Guangxu bingshen), so it was in principle possible to publish an almanac based on the Ming calendar even in the Qing period. We find all this very confusing. Perhaps our edition was published in the Qianlong period or later from old, partially unaltered and supplemented blocks. Very good set, some minor losses, many carefully repaired. Preserved in a new green silk drop box. ? Cynthia J. Brokaw, Commerce in Culture: The Sibao Book Trade in the Qing and Republican Periods (Harvard Asia Center, 2007); Han Chunping ???, "Tan bihuizi yu guji banben jianding" ???????????, Tushuguan gongzuo yu yanjiu 2014, No. 3.
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