BOOK REVIEWS
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Yuan CKT Cheng Ch'en-to has also analysed the chu-kung-tiao literature of three different dynasties in great detail. Furthermore, Cheng again devoted a special chapter to CKT literature in the second volume of his Chung-kuo su-wen-hsüeh shih (i.e. History of Popular Literature in China), at pp. 63-154. This work was first printed in 1938 in Shanghai, and reprinted in 1953 in Peking. As to Liu Chih-yüan CKT in particular, Cheng Ch'en-to has also edited it into his Shih-chiai wen-ku (Library of Literature of the world) volume II (1935, Shanghai) pp. 483-508.
Regrettably, just as Aoki's article in Japanese and its Chinese translation was omitted from Grump and Dolezelova-Velingerova's bibliography, so Cheng's contributions were also ignored.
Second, the authors' knowledge of the Liu Chih-yüan CKT is not complete. Whilst the edition of this CKT has been correctly regarded by the authors of this book as “a woodblock print which came from a workshop in the region of P'ing-yang in Shansi province" (p. 5), such an identification would have been far more authoritative and scholarly if the authors had referred to an article written in Chinese by Chao Wan-li, a specialist on Chinese rare books who has served the National Peking Library since the 1930's. The title here referred to is Ch'ung-kao ti yu-i (On the Sublime Friendship). Its subtitle reads chi su-lien cheng-fu tsang-sung ti Liu Chih-yüan chu-kung-tiao ho liao-tsai tu-shuo (Notes on the various-mode of Liu Chih-yüan and the Illustrations of Strange Tales from a Chinese studio as being donated by the Government of the Republic of Soviet). This article appeared in Wen-wu tsan-kao tzu-liao No. 7 (1958, Peking) pp. 15-16, and p. 22. In it Chao Wan-li has not only firmly stated that the printing of the Liu Chih-yüan CKT was woodblocked around the P'ing-yang region at the Shansi province during the Chin period but also specified that the print of this chu-kung-tiao should be identified as the "P'ing-shui edition" since the quality of paper, the format of the block, the style of the carving as well as the forms of the blocked characters of this particular chu-kung-tiao are all in conformity to some other books of the Chin period woodblocked at the P'ing-shui area.
3 The title Liao Tsai here referred to follows that of the annotated edition of a selected English translation made by Herbert A. Giles in 1880 (London, Thos de la rue & Co.), and since reprinted in many editions.