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29 CONFUCIUS. Confucius Sinarum Philosophus, sive Scientia Sinensis Latine Exposita. Paris: [Andreas Cramoisy] for Daniel Horthemels, 1687 the first european translation of confucius First edition, with an attractive aristocratic provenance, of the influential first European translation of three of the four canonical books of Confucianism. Belying his popular image as a whimsical philosopher, Confucius was passionately, almost fanatically committed to ritual propriety, self-cultivation, and social order, founding a movement to foster good governance and restore the glory of the Zhou dynasty. “The Confucius Sinarum Philosophus was widely reviewed in Europe and today is recognized as one of the most influential texts in the Jesuit transmission of Chinese culture to Europe” ( China on Paper , p. 173). The roots of Confucianism lie in Confucius’s determination to nurture a band of followers who, as travelling disciples and ministers in China’s various independent states, would realize his vision. “Contemplating his own age, Confucius was appalled by the sorry state of his contemporaries” (Slingerland, p. xxii). The ancient way of the sage kings lay discarded, warlords and nobles usurped the ruling Zhou dynasty’s privileges, and traditional hierarchies, as between father and son or lord and vassal, were breaking down. In the Analects , a record of interactions with his followers collected many years after the master’s death, he uses satire, wit, and cryptic commentary to show the way forward. As he states in Book Four, “having in the morning heard that the Way was being put into practice, I could die that evening without regret”. The present work – comprising the Confucian texts of the Analects , Great Learning , and Doctrine of the Mean , with the fourth canonical text, the Mencius , not here included – was the leading influence on European understanding of Confucianism and Chinese intellectual thought until new translations were made in the 19th century by James Legge and others. “For more than two hundred years, Western intellectuals like Leibnitz and Voltaire read and meditated on the words of Confucius from this Latin version, which
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generated an abundant production of translations, commentaries, and essays in many Western languages . . . The Sinarum Philosophus represents the peak of Jesuit Sinology in the seventeenth century” (Meynard, pp. 1 and 18). Provenance: with the ownership signature of Hans Karl Leopold von der Gabelentz (1778–1831) to the first blank recto; 1914 bookplate of the von der Gabelentz library at the family seat of Poschwitz castle on the front pastedown. Hans Karl’s son, Hans Conon von der Gabelentz (1807–1874), was a scholar of Manchu who devised a system for Romanizing the language and amassed an important philological library at Poschwitz. His son, Hans Georg Conon von der Gabelentz (1840–93), was a leading sinologist and an expert in Chinese linguistics. Folio (320 × 208 mm). 18th-century French tree calf, spine gilt in compartments with brown morocco label, marbled endpapers and edges. Engraved portrait of Confucius (fore edge folded in) and engraved map of China, both for Jean Nolin; engraved French royal arms on title page and at head of dedication, wood-engraved head- and tailpieces. Pencilled annotations at foot of chronological tables on leaf I2. Some judicious restoration to spine, joints, and corners, light retouching of colour to boards and gilding, spots of ink on top edge, faint tidemarks at head of first 3 leaves, occasional light foxing and faint stains internally, map shaved at fore edge when bound with loss of 13 mm to printed area. A very good copy indeed in a handsome binding. ¶ China on Paper 17; Cordier, pp. 1389–93; Lust 724. Thierry Meynard, The Jesuit Reading of Confucius: The First Complete Translation of the Lunyu (1687) Published in the West , 2015; Edward Slingerland, Confucius: Analects – With Selections from Traditional Commentaries , 2003. £20,000 [155868]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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