Tenkō kaibutsu 天工開物 [Ch.: Tian gong kai wu; The Exploitation of the Works of Nature]

Numerous full-page woodcut illus. in the text. 18 parts in nine vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. block-printed title-slips, new stitching (some loose). [From colophon]: Osaka: Kawachi Mohachi et al. & Edo: Yamazaki Kinbei, 1771.


First edition to be printed in Japan, in Chinese with Japanese reading marks, of "China's greatest technological classic"-Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 4, Part II, p. 171. This book first appeared in print in China in 1637, and copies soon reached Japan. The Japanese editor was Eda Masuhide 江田益英.


The book is divided into the following sections:


1. agriculture, irrigation, and hydraulic engineering;


2. sericulture and textile technology;


3. agriculture and milling processes;


4. salt technology;


5. sugar technology;


6. ceramics industry;


7. bronze technology;


8. transportation, ships and carts;


9. iron technology;


10. coal, vitriol, sulphur, and arsenic;


11. oil technology;


12. paper-making;


13. metallurgy of silver, lead, copper, tin, and zinc;


14. military technology;


15. mercury;


16. ink;


17. fermented beverages; and


18. pearls and jade.
Needham considered the illustrations in the 1637 edition, upon which the illustrations in our edition are based, to be "the finest of any produced in China on these subjects, and in many cases the only ones" (p. 172).


Song (1587-1666) has been called by Needham (Vol. 4, Part III, p. 382), "China's Diderot."


Nice set, preserved in a box.