Le Saint Edit, Etude de Litterature Chinoise by A. Theophile Piry - 1879

Shanghai: Bureau Des Statistiques, Inspectorat General Des Douanes, 1879. 1st Edition 1st Printing. Hardcover. Very Good. 4to - over 9¾ - 12" tall. Text in French and Chinese. Blue embossed cloth with gilt title on front cover. Gilt letters on spine. Spine head, top of front cover, back cover spine joints slightly worn. Internally clean, tight and very good. Chinese text and French translation on opposite pages. A French edition of the revised version of the "Sacred Edict" (Sheng-yü kuang-hsün), for the improvement of manners in China. Containing sixteen maxims of Kang-hsi emperor, amplified by his successor the Yung-cheng emperor, together with a paraphrase on the whole by a mandarin which can be regarded as the basic laws of China during the Ch'ing dynasty. Alexandre Théophile Piry was a commissioner of Customs for the Qing Empire and first Postmaster General of the Imperial Postal Service. He was usually published as A. T. Piry or A. Théophile Piry. Size: 9.2X11.4X1.3 inches 244 pages.