Imperially Commissioned Profound Mirror of Ancient Essays, 64 juan

Qing dynasty (1644�1911), Kangxi period (1662�1722)

Selected by the Kangxi emperor (1654�1722; r. 1661�1722); compiled and annotated by Xu Qianxue (1631�1711; jinshi of 1670); five-color edition printed with red, black, yellow, orange, and green inks

Beijing: Wuying dian, 1710

9 columns per half folio; 20 characters per column; small characters in half columns with varying number of characters per half column; annotations in upper margins vary in number of columns, in number of characters per column, and in color of printing; no column lines in the main text sections; fine black folding margin at center of folio with double black "fishtails"; single-line borders; overall dimensions of volumes: 31.7 x 17.3 cm; block sizes of text: approx. 19.4 x 14.2 cm; stitched binding; in original yellow silk covers

Inventory number: 03308

This book is a comprehensive anthology of classical prose compiled by Minister of Justice Xu Qianxue by order of the Kangxi emperor.� It includes pieces from the ancient periods through the end of the Song dynasty in 1279.� It was originally published by the palace printing bureau in 1685.

All editions of the Guwen yuanjian feature marginal annotations and punctuation in red ink in the same places, but various combinations of colors were used for the other commentaries.� Blue was often substituted for orange, and any given critic's commentary may appear in a different color from that used in another printed set.