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Jianmingshu 兼明書

Sep 11, 2023 © Ulrich Theobald

Jianmingshu 兼明書 "Book on all-sided elucidation" is a book on miscellaneous issues written during the late Tang period 唐 (618-907) by Qiu Guangting 邱光庭 (丘光庭) from Wucheng 烏程 (today's Wuxing 吳興, Zhejiang). He was an erudite (boshi 博士) at the National University (taixue 太學).

The bibliographical chapter of the official dynastic history Songshi 宋史 (202-209 Yiwen zhi 藝文志) says, his book had a length of 12 juan, while the book catalogue Zhizhai shulu jieti 直齋書錄解題 speaks of 2 fascicles. The received version has a length of 5 juan.

The first fascicles quotes from and comments on various books, while the second and third juan are dedicated to the Confucian Classics. Fascicle 4 speaks of the anthology Wenxuan 文選. The final part of Qiu's book consists of miscellaneous remarks, many of them concerned with books of the type "lesser learning" (xiaoxue 小學).

Many quotations are not completely exact, but Qiu's critical comments are of great value. The book is found in the series Baoyantang miji 寶顏堂秘笈, Shuofu 說郛, Siku quanshu 四庫全書 and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編.

Source:
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文鬰, eds. (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 2, 1916.