Illustrated edition Liao Zhai Zhiyi Tuyong, published in 1886: reprints and imitations

Abstract

Editions of the famous story collection “Liao Zhai zhi yi” (聊齋志異, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio) by Pu Songling (蒲松齡, 1640–1715) were numerous and various in the 19th century. A special place among them holds the lithograph, printed in 1886 on the funds of tycoon Xu Run (徐潤, 1838–1911); the edition contains an abundant collection of illustrations and specially written poetic inserts. The lithograph was titled “Xiangzhu Liao Zhai zhi yi tuyong” (詳註聊齋誌異圖詠, Illustrated and Commented “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio”) and begot a great number of imitations and fakes among Chinese editions of the end of the 19th — beginning of the 20th centuries. Sometimes they were done so beautifully that happened to be practically undistinguishable from the original; sometimes they deliberately demonstrated their individuality, having become autonomous works of printing art with aesthetic peculiarities of their own. Along with that beginning of the 20th century generated a number of typographically printed editions, but their design either repeated or stood very close to the original Shanghai publication. The tradition happened to be very tenacious, so that contemporary editions continue copying exterior of the 1886 collection. Purpose of this article is to outline the main features of the original 1886 lithograph and its major later reprints until 1930s and their significant for attribution codicological peculiarities.