Le Chou-King, un des Livres Sacres des Chinois

1770. GUIGNES, Joseph de. Le Chou-King, un des Livres Sacres des Chinois qui renferme les Fondements de leur ancienne Histoire, les Principes de leur Gouvernement & de leur Morale. [4], cxliv, 474, [2] pp. Illustrated with 4 fold-out engraved plates. 4to., 250 x 190 mm, bound in contemporary cats-paw calf, red morocco spine label. Paris: Chez N.M. Tilliard, 1770. A fine copy of the first published translation of the Chou-King (the Book of Documents), and also the first of the Five Classics on Confucianism to be translated into an European language. The translation was based on a manuscript which had been sent from Peking by Antoine Gaubil. De Guignes subsequently corrected the translation based on the Chinese original which was found in the Royal Library. He also filled in missing pages and extended it with his own notes.