Page with marginalia in the head margins

Title page of the 皇朝中外壹統輿圖

Page with hand-drawn repairs to the map

Some more notes in the head margins, this time in red ink

This #MarginaliaMonday, let‘s look at this 1863 copy of the 皇朝中外壹統輿圖, a collection of detailed #maps of China and beyond. A previous owner added annotations, amended map, adding mountains, lakes, and borders, and even restored parts of the maps by hand. A true marvel! #Sinology #ChinaBooks

至子祀

開端丰端

To all the Sinologists: I keep finding little dedications on the first volumes of books at the bottom within the stitching of the spine (both front/back). Is there a specific term for this?
As far as I can decipher them, the two examples here read: 至子祀 and 開端丰端
#ChinaBooks

三門砥柱圖

中鎮霍山圖

邊口圖二

Here are some more from the 山西通志 and the 永平府志. #ChinaMaps #ChinaBooks #Sinology

水芳巖秀

芝逕雲堤

松鶴清越

I feel that most people underappreciate Local Gazetteers #地方志 for their artistic value. They often contain lots of beautifully drawn pictures and maps of natural and populated areas in the region. Check out some of these pictures from the 熱河志!

Oh wow, thanks for all this! That really sounds like a likely possibility due to their personal connection.

Sure, no rush! And thank you for the help.

Yes, indeed. Since Joseph Mullie was a professor working on Chinese & Central Asian linguistics himself, could it also be that these are (partially) his own reconstructions? Or are these definitely Haenisch‘s/Ramstedt‘s?

Oh wow, that‘s super interesting! I guess that would either date these marginalia to later than the 1940/50s if this is Jozef Mullie‘s handwriting in the 00s if this is someone else‘s and Mullie brought the books back in 1908. Thanks a lot for this helpful insight!

For this week‘s #MarginaliaMonday, I have a copy of the 元朝祕史 in store: The text is written in Chinese characters phonetically representing #Mongolian. The annotator seemingly tried to represent it in Mongolian, Western transcriptions, and other Chinese characters. #ChinaBooks #Sinology

Manuscript

Print edition

Ever seen a hand-copied Chinese #map?
I came across a #manuscript copy of the 欽定盛京通志 in our collection this week. If you look closely, you can spot subtle differences from the print edition of this map of Mukden (modern-day Shenyang 沈陽)! #ChinaBooks #Sinology

There is no explicit name given, but the chapter 中山經 states that the daughters of Di 帝 live at 洞庭之山: "The two daughters of Di reside there, they usually wander among the rivers and pools" (帝之二女居之，是常游于江渊).

Title page of the 繪圖廣注山海經

Depiction of various creatures from the 山海經

Creature riding a dragon

Two women walking on water

Found a beautiful Shanhai jing #山海經 in our collection today. While the #illustrations in our 繪圖廣注-edition are reminiscent of Jiang Yinggao’s 蔣應鎬, they have something far more ornamental to them and at times feel almost comical. Really enjoyable read! #ChinaBooks

Alfred Forke: Der Ursprung der Chinesen

Found this little known book by Alfred Forke this week: The Origin of the Chinese on the Basis of their Old Pictograms. He discusses #etymology and connects it to early Chinese philosophy, cosmology, and culture. The 1925 volume focuses on agriculture, urbanism, and government. #Sinology

Some additions to the depictions of water in pre-modern Chinese books: the East China Sea off the coast of Fujian #福建 and Zhejiang #浙江 in a 1699 copy of the 元朝祕史 plus its interesting way to depict a desert - as a black void. #ChineseMaps #Cartography

Finally some pictures from the 撼龍疑龍二經, two texts on #Fengshui #風水 compiled in the late 1800s. The pictures show maps of mountain and river landscapes almost looking like abstract paintings. The last picture contains illustrations of various landscape features. #ChinaBooks #Sinology

Thank you very much!

Thanks a lot! Super stoked about it

Presenting my research

My committee and me

Yesterday, I finally defended my dissertation with great success. Everyone enjoyed listening to a few #revenge stories from the Gongyang zhuan #公羊傳. And I am proud to have become the first doctor in my family. And a heartfelt thank you to all of my committee members! #Sinology #ChineseStudies

Finally got my personal copy of the #dissertation today. Feels great to bring this chapter to a close and looking forward to what’s next to come academically after my defense on Friday!

Map of early antiquity / 古初地圖

Map of the Shang dynasty / 商地圖

Here are also Ma Su‘s maps for early antiquity and the Shang Empire #商代 as examples of the interesting reconstruction work he did! #AncientChina #Sinology

Came across Ma Su‘s 馬驌 (1621-1673) Yishi 繹史, the first historical work that included #maps of ancient admin structures. While these maps are interesting in their own right, I am fascinated by the ways water is depicted on each of them. Happy that I came across this! #China

Title page of the 御製繙譯書經.

A page with marginalia in the head margins and added punctuation in red

Dating of the preface (1760)

Since #marginalia seem popular on here: Came across this Manchu-Chinese #Shujing #書經, dating to ~1760, with some beautiful Chinese glosses in the head margins. A previous owner seemingly also added his own punctuation in red over the original punctuation in black. #ChinaBooks

Oh that's good to know! Thanks a lot for pointing out this connection.

The conference follows a two-day workshop by Prof. Cornelia Reiher on qualitative research in #AsianStudies, organized by the Deutsch Gesellschaft für Asienforschung e.V. #ChinaStudies

CfP: China AG / China Workgroup 2026 (June 13-15, 2026)
This year's #conference will take place at JMU in Würzburg, Germany. We welcome all topics concerning China or the Sinophone sphere.
Young scholars (BA to Postdoc) are invited to send their abstracts to Raffaela Rettinger. #Sinology

Judging from the handwriting I would say that this is around 1900. The Latin writing is probably earlier (2nd half 19th ct). But the glossary contains English, French, and here and there other languages. Possibly a multilingual Belgian or even a non-Belgian scholar who sold this to a Belgian.

In this copy, one reader added character glosses in the top margin of the Mengzi #孟子, often giving Latin translations. A second reader created a small dictionary that is sewn into the front page of the volume.

First page of the Mengzi on the left with annotations in the top margins. On the right, you see a little glossary created by another scholar.

Closer view of the glossary

As a scholar of #Confucianism, I‘ll have to start with the Four Books: Last week, I came across this beautifully annotated copy of the Four Books #四書 (ca. 1850), which will make any scholar of intellectual history or provenance more than happy!

After retiring, Mullie continued his research at the library of KU Leuven. He ultimately left thousands of Chinese volumes, some of which date to the early 1700s. These books offer much insight into the research of missionaries in/on China and early Belgian #Sinology. #Chinabooks

Photograph of Jozef Mullie

Between 1909-1931, Mullie lived as a missionary in China. During this time, he studied local languages, published on Chinese linguistics, and discovered the tombs of three Liao #遼 emperors. Returning to Europe, he became Professor of Chinese Language and Literature in Utrecht. #ChineseHistory