Lost Books of Medieval China.

• Author: Kroll, Paul W.
• Position: Reviews of Books

Lost Books of Medieval China. By GLEN DUDBRIDGE. The Panizzi Lectures, 1999. London: THE BRITISH LIBRARY, 2000. Pp. 79. [pounds sterling]18 (paper). [Distrib. in N. America by Univ. of Toronto Press]

The general title of Glen Dudbridge's Panizzi Lectures of 1999, here published in an attractive booklet by The British Library, recalls R. M. Wilson's classic study, The Lost Literature of Medieval England (London: Methuen, 1952). The development and textual traditions of all genres of Old and Middle English literature comprised Wilson's topic; although Dudbridge, given the limits imposed by the occasion, could not attempt something as comprehensive, the three lectures (or chapters) presented here give a lively and fascinating view of particular aspects of medieval Chinese prose literature. The engaging style of the book is a reminder of its original, oral setting.

The epithet "medieval" when applied to Chinese history normally refers to the period lasting from the fall of the Han in 220 to the fall of the Tang in 907. In his first chapter, "Documenting the Loss," Dudbridge begins by describing the bibliographic landscape shortly after the close of medieval times, during the reign of the Song emperor Taizong (976-98). "Three developments stand out in it: the reassembling of an imperial library collection after the losses through war; the commissioning of three large encyclopedic compilations based on earlier literature; and China's transition from the manuscript age to the age of print" (p. 1). For many readers this chapter will be the most valuable section of the book. The collection and maintenance of a comprehensive court library was a concern of most dynasties throughout China's imperial history. While the cynic may regard this activity as a means of discovering and, if need be, censoring dissident political views, in fact it usually represented a liberal and honest attempt to preserve the writings of earlier times, a laudable humanistic imperative that derives ultimately from Confucian teachings. This story has been told up through the Tang dynasty by Jean-Pierre Drege in his informative Les bibliotheques en Chine au temps des manuscrits, jusqu'au Xe siecle (Paris: Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient, 1991). Dudbridge picks up the chronological thread in his, first chapter at the point where Drege left it, but he is more interested in the precise implications and significance of book collection, reclamation, and loss during this period than the institutional history of the capital libraries.

Despite several bibliographic disasters from the 750s to his own century, Song Taizong's library seems to have been well stocked with texts...