Imitations and Copies of Rare Books

「The rare books from the "T'ien-lu lin-lang" library, as the special collection of the Ch'ing court, have long been regarded as the cream of the crop. However, close examination of surviving editions from the T'ien-lu lin-lang Library reveals an occasional imitation. This suggests two phenomena: first, even imperial collectors made mistakes concerning authenticity. The other is that the imitation must have been superlative in order to pass the scrutiny of imperial connoisseurs, meaning that even the emperor was fooled. To understand more, we need to learn about the history of making imitation rare books. Imitating books in China began when collectors gathered rare or fine examples and had imitations or close copies in terms of format and print made so that others could learn about them. The original intent behind them was good, but unscrupulous book dealers took advantage of their high quality by removing marks and notes to pass them off as the originals in order to make a hefty profit. In other words, the person behind the production of the copy often clearly indicated that it was an imitation, but some booksellers later did whatever they could to conceal its evidence as a copy. In order to deceive, booksellers changed or removed the date, place, person's name, or event behind the production of the copy, even sometimes going so far as to replace marks and texts with others to make it difficult to determine the actual date of imprint. In any case, the Chia-ch'ing Emperor's rush to scour the land and reassemble the "T'ien-lu lin-lang" library resulted in even learned scholars making errors of judgment and allowing fine imitations and copies of rare books to slip into the court collection unnoticed at the time.

Illustrations to the Three Rituals

Collected annotations by Nieh Ch'ung-i, Sung dynasty
1680 explanatory edition from the T'ung-chih Hall, Ch'ing dynasty
Effaced from the book are the printed record for "K'ang-hsi ‘ping-ch'en' (1676) Preface by Na-lan Hsing-te" at the front and four characters for the note "The Latter Student Hsing-te." This indicates it is a Ch'ing imprint that had been passed off as a Sung edition.

Nieh Ch’ung-I, Sung dynasty, interpreted Three Rituals, that is Chou Ritual, Etiquette and Ceremonials and The Book of Rites, by illustrations and text. The institutions and speciality recorded was interpreted and verified entirely, systematically. Continuation of the T’ien-lu Lin-lang Catalogue recorded it as Sung edition. NPM also has another one Illustrations to the Three Rituals which was explanatory edition by the T’ung-chih Hall (通志堂) in 1680 and revamped in 1785. Except paper quality is different, layout and script are same as the collection one in T’ien-lu lin-lang. But effaced from the book is the printed record for “K’ang-hsi ‘ping-ch’en’ (1676) Preface by Na-lan Hsing-te” on the front and four characters for the note “The Latter Student Hsing-te” on the end. It is clear that Ch’ing imprint had been passed off as a Sung edition.

Records of the Grand Historian

Written by Ssu-ma Ch'ien, Han dynasty
Examples by Ssu-ma Chen with annotations by Chang Shou-chieh, T'ang dynasty
Collected explanations by P'ei Yin, Liu-Sung dynasty
1534 edition by Prince Ch'in after a Sung dynasty (960-1279) imprint, Ming dynasty
The record for "Imprint of the Wan-chüan Tower Library in the summer of the Chia-ting sixth year, ‘kuei-yu' (1213)" was added to this imprint, falsely indicating it is a Sung edition.

In order to avoid knighted vassals to machinate, Ming dynasty knight princes as vassals to the regions, offered them munificent infeudation and granted books, such as sutras, poems, lyrics, songs, odes and so on to sympathize the Holy mind, cultivate their mind. Those books also included many rare books of Sung and Yüan dynasty. There are many vassals like to edit, proofread books and made new engraving with good quality as per the rare books of Sung and Yüan dynasty. This Records of the Grand Historian, Sung edition was edited by Prince Ch’in in 1534. the Continuation of the T’ien-lu Lin-lang Catalogue recorded it into Sung edition. The book cover signed “Records of the Grand Historian of Sung Edition.” The main authority of writing is the record after table of contents “Imprint of the Wan-chüan Tower Library in the summer of the Chia-ting sixth year, ‘kuei-yu’ (1213)” (嘉定六年歲在癸酉季夏萬卷樓刊). If check the page of engraved public note carefully, it will be found that it was remove off and made the fake one on. The script and ink color of the public notice is different from the text on the book. It is easier to understand that bookman fabricated it very carefully as people favored Sung edition at that time.

Illustrations of the Book of Etiquette and Rites

Written by Yang Fu, Sung dynasty
Imprint by Mr. Yü's Chin-yu Hall of Chien-an, Yüan dynasty (1279-1368)
The book includes a record that reads, "Printed by Yü Chih-an of Ch'ung-hua at the Ch'in-yu Hall." However, it was not until the Yüan dynasty that the Ch'in-yu Hall belonged to Yü Chih-an, indicating that this is actually a Yüan dynasty block-print edition.

This Illustrations of the Book of Etiquette and Rites was recorded in Sung edition, of Continuation of the T’ien-lu Lin-lang Catalogue with printed record “Printed by Yü Chih-an of Ch’ung-hua at the Ch’in-yu Hall. (崇化余志安刊於勤有堂) .” The both towns Ch’ung-hua and Ma-sha are the most famous “Books prefecture” in Chien-yang, Fu-chien as the area with prosperous bookstores. The “Wan-chuan Hall” and “Ch’in-yu Hall” of Mr. Yü are the most famous bookstores and they are even still famous until Yüan dynasty. So, the public notices with “Ch’in-yu Hall” unlikely represent that is block-printed edition of Sung dynasty. The bookstores of Mr. Yü in Chien-an, “Wan-chuan Hall” of Mr Yü Jen-chung, is the representative in Sung dynasty but changed to “Ch’in-yu Hall” of Mr. Yü Chih-an after Yüan dynasty. The birth and dead date of Mr. Yü Chih-an can not be found but according the information from the records of book collection, most block-printed books engraved by “Ch’in-yu Hall” of Mr. Yü Chih-an are printed during 1304-7. It’s about 20 years more since Sung dynasty and Mr. Yü Chih-an is Yüan people affirmably, impossible up to Sung dynasty. So, it’s not enough to judge the time of ancient book by the engraving bookstore only. This writing is the best actual evidence.

Literary Anthology

Edited by Hsiao T'ung, Liang dynasty
Annotated by Li Shan and five other officials, T'ang dynasty
1549 Chia-ch'u Hall edition of Mr. Yüan of Wu Prefecture based on a Sung edition of Mr P'ei of Kuang-tu, Ming Dynasty
Yüan Chiung's "Chia-ch'ü Hall" produced such fine imitation recarvings of Sung dynasty imprints that booksellers would often efface the prefaces or remove the marks to pass them off as originals for profit.

There are many book collectors like Sung editions, as the scrip is pretty, elegant, simple and vigorous and printed by smelled good ink on good color paper. They did not only to collect the rare book of Sung edition but also made new engraving as per their own good rare book collected. Those recarved edition of rare books are not only collected and offered as gift to friends and relative, it also became the target which bookmen want to buy often. The block-printed books have some obvious characteristics in Wu Prefecture (Su-chou) area, such as Government publishing is good at the printing of local history, family publishing and commercial publishing are mainly to print the books and records with higher academic value, the Chia-ch'u Hall is the ideal. Mr. Yüan Chiung (袁褧) was a book collector, proofreader and book engraver. Normally, he proofread by himself and asked good engraver to work on book engraving. As the Chia-ch'u Hall of Mr. Yüan Chiung produced such fine imitation engraving of Sung dynasty, booksellers ripped the prefaces and remove the marks to pass them off as Sung edition for profit.