Manuscript collection of many of his poems, compiled in Korea, entitled in manuscript on upper cover "Gu shi" ?? or, in Korean "Kosi" ["Ancient Poems"]

LI, Bai ??

About this Item

43 folding leaves (mostly split at fore-edges, with no loss of text). Small folio (344 x 233 mm.), orig. wrappers (soiled), new stitching. [Korea: late 18th or early 19th century]. A beautifully written manuscript collection of about 400 poems by Bai Li (701-62), one of the two greatest poets of the Tang dynasty, and certainly China s greatest poetic personality (see Lewis, China s Cosmopolitan Empire, 254). The manuscript presents a number of mysteries that demand further research by scholars. The last line in the manuscript, which is in a more modern hand, states: "Yon Pyong-guk, descendant in the sixth generation, tearfully wrote this onto the manuscript inherited from his late sixth-generation ancestor Yon Ha, courtesy name Um-ch ong, who served as T ongdongnang [an official position, rank 5a]." Yon Pyong-guk flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century and therefore his ancestor would have been alive in the late 18th or early 19th century. In good condition. References Lewis, Mark Edward. China s Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2012.

Seller Inventory # 8028

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Manuscript collection of many of his poems, compiled in Korea, entitled in manuscript on upper cover "Gu shi" ?? or, in Korean "Kosi" ["Ancient Poems"]
• Binding: Soft cover
• Seller catalogs:
  • Chinese
  • Korean
  • Literature
  • China
  • Manuscripts