Walravens H. Preface to the Indexes to the Great Chinese Botany Zhiwu Mingshi Tukao 植物名實圖考 of Wu Qijun 吳其濬 // Pis'mennye pamiatniki Vostoka. Vol. 18, no. 3 (46), 2021, pp. 187–206.
The paper focuses on the efforts of the US botanist Walter T. Swingle to disseminate
information on Chinese traditional botanical literature, especially facilitating access to the outstanding
Zhiwu mingshi tukao by Wu Qijun. For the latter purpose he prepared indexes and correlation tables
to cover the then available different editions in Chinese and Japanese. This research tool was never
printed but a small number of photostats was circulated among interested scholars. The paper introduces
Swingle’s work and presents his preface in which he underlines the importance of Chinese
botanical literature and explains the method behind this index volume. In addition it offers the translation
of the original prefaces to the different editions of the Zhiwu mingshi tukao, prepared by such
scholars as Jiang Kanghu, the historian of literature and Yuan Tongli, later director of the National
Library of China.
The 4th International Academic Conference “The Written Heritage of the Orient” dedicated to the 220th anniversary of B.A. Dorn (1805–1881) will be held at the IOM RAS on April 14–16, 2025.
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