It has been this writer's great privilege, during his four decades+ association with books, to have handled some truly extraordinary titles: the Gutenberg Bible, the Audubon double-elephant folio, the Kelmscott Chaucer ... to name but a few. But there are books out there so extraordinary that even your faithful blogger has not had the privilege of encountering them.
Among the most extraordinary of all are the jade books that were reserved in traditional Chinese society for the most highly esteemed texts. These books usually are found as thin jade tablets bound along one edge or strung together on one or more cords, upon which text is inscribed:
The 17th century example above is via Cornell University, which notes
[t]his series of ten jade tablets records in Chinese and Manchu the presentation of the temple name of Shih-tsu and the imperial title Chang huang-ti to the emperor K'ang-hsi [in 1661]. Incised with blue and gold script, the plates are strung together with two cords. They are wrapped in a gold embroidered textile and housed in a wooden casket.
The 18th century example below, from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, is an extremely rare example of a jade book in the codex form that is better known in the West. The BNF observes that jade is associated with the five cardinal Confucian virtues --kindness, uprightness, wisdom, courage and purity:
Even more spectacular, perhaps, is the following example from the National Palace Museum (Taiwan), which we recently sighted on Rachel Leow's excellent blog, A Historian's Craft. Discovered in 1931, it is a product of China's Northern Song dynasty, ca. 1008 CE. The "pages" are pale-green white jade bound with gold wire, and the text is incised and filled with gold. The book records the text of the Fengshan Sacrifice ceremonies performed by the Emperor Chen-Tsung, in which he traditionally conveys his wishes to Heaven, e.g. desire for long life, eternal harmony, peace etc.:
Don't bother scouring upcoming auctions for such books -- most known examples are locked away in institutional collections. But it's nice to dream, isn't it...?
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