Part of Volume 30 of Governing Principles of Ancient China 群書治要 巻第30断簡グンショチヨウ マキダイ 30 ダンカン

Description

The 50-volume Governing Principles of Ancient China is a political text compiled in 631 under the order of the Tang Dynasty emperor Taizong (598–649). It is a text that was initially lost in China but survived in Japan. The oldest manuscript of the text is a 13-volume copy formerly owned by the Sekke-Kujō family, which is a designated national treasure currently held at the Tokyo National Museum (TNM), and is thought to have been copied in the 11th century. The TNM copy is bound in scrolls, as was common for Chinese classical texts during the Heian period (794–1184), and is made of paper dyed in purple, light blue, and brown hues, and ‘floating-cloud’ paper, all unique to the Heian period. This scroll covers part of volume 30, which is missing in the TNM copy. The 13 lines on ‘floating-cloud’ paper and the 8 lines on brown paper of this version are not connected, but the 21 lines in between can be found at the Tenri Library. It is part of volume 1, which was copied by FUJIWARA no Yukinari (972–1027), who had received the text from SANJŌNISHI Sanetaka (1455–1537) by Prince Kunitaka of Fushimi Palace (1456–1532) on the 16th day of the 11th month of the second year of the Entoku era (1490), and was divided into two parts after World War II. It now comes with a box with calligraphy by HŌNAN Tayama (1903–80) dated 1966, and is known to have been exhibited at the Tokyo Classics Fair in 1963. Description from the exhibition Catalogue "Letter-scape: Century Akao Collection, A World of Letters and Figures", Keio Museum Commons, April 2021