Beschreibung:

Title: Rare essay on Chinese musical lore before World War II Author: Dr. R.H. Van Gulik Place: Tokyo, Japan Publisher: Date: 1939 Description: “The Lore of the Chinese Lute, An Essay in Ch’in Ideology”, Part 3 (of 4), Pp. 77-104 in Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. II, No. 2 (Sophia University, Tokyo, July 1939) Possibly once an ex-library copy, with rubberstamp identification removed from front wrapper and title page, both of which are also dampstained in lower margins. Ten years before the Dutch diplomat Robert Van Gulik wrote the first of his Judge Dee historical mystery stories, based on an 18th century Chinese novel he translated, about an “old Chinese detective” who played the guqin, a seven-string musical instrument. During World War II, Van Gulik himself, while stationed in China, became a guqin virturoso. After a post-war Washington posting, while on a four-year assignment in Japan, he began writing his now-famous Judge Dee mysteries. Fascinated by guqin lore, Van Gulik, on a first Japan posting, just before the start of World War II, wrote a lengthy essay on the subject, published serially in this scholarly Japanese periodical. This was the third part of the essay; the first appeared in July 1938, the second in Jan. 1939 and the last in January 1940, after the war had begun. Despite Japan and Holland being belligerents - Van Gulik, with the rest of his diplomatic countrymen, were forced to leave Tokyo -the full essay was then published by Sophia University as a single volume in 1940. Copies of the original now fetch four figures on the antiquarian market. Lot Amendments Condition: Very good. Item number: 288662