The Transmission of Wanbao Quanshu 萬寶全書 in Edo Japan

• In Event: Encyclopedic Audiences: Readership of Late Ming and Late Qing Compendia for Everyday Life

Abstract

A group of encyclopedias called wanbao quanshu 萬寶全書 were among the books imported from China to Japan during the Tokugawa period (1603-1868). These compendia, which were mostly Ming dynasty editions, were regarded as “daily use” encyclopedias that were read by the general public in China. Their original Japanese readers were, however, elite intellectuals who had the means to acquire these books.
This study pursues two lines of inquiry concerning the circulation of these editions in Edo Japan. I will first describe both the Chinese editions that were transmitted to Japan in the Edo period and their Japanese reprints (wa kokuhon 和刻本) which were published with Japanese reading marks. The Japanese readers of these Chinese editions and their Japanese reprints were inevitably scholars. This raises the important question of how these Chinese encyclopedias interacted with Japanese systems of values and knowledge. When scholars read these editions, where did they situate this Chinese “daily use” general knowledge in their own existing epistemological structure? My second line of inquiry questions the influence the daily knowledge from the Chinese encyclopedias had on the editing of Japanese encyclopedias, such as the Kokin Wa Kan banpo zensyo古今和漢萬寶全書.
The ultimate aim of this examination of Chinese wanbao quanshu 萬寶全書 in Japan is to illuminate the ways imported Chinese books were read in Japan and how they contributed to the Edo intellectual landscape through their Japanese reprints.

Author

• Kuei-ju Lin, National Chengchi University