Han Feizi, Ming dynasty woodblock edition, volume 9

What it is

This is a scan of a Ming dynasty woodblock edition of the Han Feizi, the collected writings of Han Fei, printed in Chinese. The holder's record dates it between 1465 and 1620 and describes it as a copy held by Harvard. The pages are in vertical columns of classical characters, with commentary in smaller double columns, and the heading shows volume 9.

Why it matters

Han Fei wrote the text more than a thousand years before this printing. The edition shows how his Legalist writings were copied, annotated and read by later Chinese scholars and officials. Because it is a printed reproduction, it is not a manuscript written by Han Fei, but it preserves his words for later readers.

Look closer

• What do the commentary columns tell you that the main text does not?
• Why would a printer and a reader in the Ming period want this text, and who might have been able to buy it?
• How can you tell from the image that this is a printed book and not a handwritten manuscript?