ORB 30/170

Variant title: Hyōdai kukai Kōshi kego 標題句解孔子家語

Variant title: Shinkan hyōdai kukai Kōshi kego 新刋標題句解孔子家語 [新刊標題句解孔子家語]

Author/compiler: Unknown, but formerly attributed to Wang Su 王肅, who annotated the work. This edition is said to have been compiled by Wang Guangmou 王廣謀 of the Yuan period, whose name appears at head of text.

Imprint: Fushimi 伏見, Jigen 慈眼, Keichō 4 慶長四年, 1599. Last two lines of long kango read: 慶長第四龍集己亥仲夏吉辰 ／ 前學校三要野衲城南於伏見里書焉 ／ 慈眼刋之.

Description: 4 kan, formerly in 4 satsu, now rebound in 1 vol. western style. (Maki 上) ff. 3 (目録), 58; (maki 中) ff. 53; (maki 下) ff. 35; (fukan 附巻) ff. 7 (後序), 2 (事記目録), 21 (新刋素王事紀), 27 (聖朝通制孔子廟祀). 31.5 x 20.9 cm. Fukurotoji.

Movable type. Printing frame 26.5 x 16.5 cm. (average). Double-line borders all round. Additional continuous single-line border delimiting printed area in upper margin. Vertical rules between columns. 'Flower petal' fishtail design on hanshin.

Kanbun text without kunten or reading marks. Printed (katsuji 活字) headnotes in upper margin, and also topic headings printed inkoku. 7 lines to page (large characters), 14 lines (small characters), 17 characters to line.

Original dark blue front cover of maki 上 only, with original printed title slip. Gedai: 孔子家語巻上. Naidai (at head of honmon 本文) : 標題句解孔子家語. Title at head of mokuroku 目録：新刋標題句解孔子家語. Hashiragaki: (maki 上, 中, 下) Kego 家語 + folio no.; (supplement 1) Jiki 事紀 + folio no.; (supplement 2) Kōshi byōshiki 孔子廟式 + folio no. In a modern western style half-leather binding.

Edition: Fushimi-ban, printed from newly cut wooden movable type by order of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who instructed the Gozan monk San'yō 三要 (also known as Genkitsu 元佶) of the Ashikaga Gakkō, to collate various Chinese versions of the work and publish this first Japanese edition. The kango or batsubun written by San'yō describes the genesis of this publication. At the end of the kango, the printer / publisher of this edition is identified as Jigen 慈眼 (see Imprint above). Kōshi kego 孔子家語 was published in the same year as two other Fushimi-ban, Sanryaku 三略 and Rikutō 六韜, but is believed to have been the first of these to be printed. Although all surviving copies of the Fushimi-ban Kōshi kego are of the same edition, the last folio (containing kango) of the present copy is printed from re-set type (異植字), differing from all other copies and making the BL copy apparently unique in this respect (see Kokatsujiban no kenkyū, pl. 18).

Contents: Kongzi jiayu. A collection drawn from earlier Chinese literature, purporting to record sayings of Confucius, anecdotes about him, and dialogues with his disciples, with notes by Wang Su 王肅, and supposedly compiled by him. The present version, with explanatory notes by Wang Guangmou 王廣謀, contains two appended works, 素王事紀 and 聖朝通制孔子廟祀, the former reproducing the date of the original Chinese edition, 泰定甲子 (1324) at the end of its mokuroku 目録.