[Chinese literature]. Pi-pa-ki, or the Story of the Lute. Ch - Lot 131

[Chinese literature]. Pi-pa-ki, or the Story of the Lute. Chinese drama by Kao-tong-kia. Performed in Peking in 1404 with changes by Mao-Tseu. Translated from the original text by M. Bazin ainé. Paris , Imprimerie Royale , 1841. In-8, XX-275 p., contemporary fawn half-basane, smooth spine decorated with gilt fillets and 4 winged horses stamped in black, red title page, red edges (one corner rubbed). First edition. The most famous work of Chinese theater, written at the end of the Yuan dynasty, probably after 1356. One of the earliest surviving plays of Southern theater. Translated by Antoine Bazin (1799-1863), a pupil of Abel Rémusat and Stanislas Julien, he was professor of Chinese at the Royal Library and the Ecole des Langues Orientales in 1840, and held the first chair of Chinese in 1843. The pipa is a four-stringed lute, one of the oldest Chinese musical instruments, which appears in Chinese texts from the second century BC. Provenance: Henri Joliet, Dijon bibliophile, 19th c. (bookplate); another modern bookplate.