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Zeng Guofan quanji 曾國藩全集

Jan 11, 2014 © Ulrich Theobald

Only three years after the death of the great statesman Zeng Guofan 曾國藩 in 1875 the imperial court of the Qing dynasty 清 (1644-1911) ordered Li Hanzhang 李翰章 to supervise the compilation of his collected works, in order to establish a literary memorial for the great politician. The result of this official compilation was a 156 juan "scrolls" long collection Zeng Wenzhenggong quanji 曾文正公全集. Yet this book did not include a lot of material that was still in private hands, like the diary that was in the hands of Zeng Guofang's great-grandson Zeng Yuenong 曾約農 (died 1986) who lived in Taiwan. It was therefore necessary to bring together missing documents from many places, like the Zeng familiy's mansion (Zengshi laozhai 曾氏老宅), or the Palace Museum 故宮博物院 in Taibei. The Zeng Guofan quanji, published between 1985 and 1994 by the Yue-Lu shushe 岳麓書社 in Changcha under the supervision of Tang Haoming 唐浩明, is the largest book of the quanji 全集 type that was ever produced. It includes all surviving documents written by Zeng Guofan himself, from memorials to the throne and official correspondence to poems, private notes, diaries, and "family instructions" (jiaxun 家訓).
In 1994 Chen Guoqing 陳國慶 and Zhang Keping 張克平 published an excerpt of this collection, called Zeng Guofan quanji jinghua 曾國藩全集精華 (Xibei daxue chubanshe), and another short version, Zeng Guofan quanji jingbian 曾国藩全集精編, was published in 2002 by the Gansu wenhua chubanshe. The whole collection was reorganized and published in a new shape in 2009 by Cheng Lin 程林 by the Yanshan press 燕山出版社 in Beijing, without changing the title.

Contents
1-12 奏稿 Zougao Memorials
13 批牘 Pidu Rescripts
14 詩文 Shiwen Poems
15 讀書錄 Dushulu Records on reading
16-18 日記 Riji Diary
19-20 家書 Jiashu Family letters
21-30 書信 Shuxin Letters Inscriptions
Source:
Li Xueqin 李學勤, Lü Wenyu 呂文郁, eds. (1996). Siku da cidian 四庫大辭典 (Changchun: Jilin daxue chubanshe), Vol. 2, 1596.