#WoodblockWednesday
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sudasana.bsky.social
For this #WoodblockWednesday, a 1757 edition of Illustrated and Explained Treatise on the Response of the Most High (ie. the Dao) 太上感應篇圖說. Originally written in the 12th century, this was one of the most important mass-produced Daoist texts in China.
Title page from the text with a brief note on the text's contents and importance.
November 12, 2025 at 2:04 PM
thianun.bsky.social
Entirely thanks to this image, I've been on a tangent looking for a complete version of this Chinese divination text (related to 28 lunar mansions & their animals) - 演禽三世相法 purportedly written in the Tang but the popular printed tradition starts in the late Ming
#woodblockwednesday
Photograph of page 130 from the Catalogue of the Morrison Collection showing a page from Yanqin sanshi xiangfu showing twelve little illustrations of a chicken encountering various situations and other creatures, arranged around a center explanatory text box.
November 5, 2025 at 2:03 PM
sudasana.bsky.social
For #WoodblockWednesday, this 1908 edition of 重訂教乘法數 (Reprinted Categories of Buddhist Concepts and Teachings) printed by the Tianning Monastery in Changzhou. Composed in the Ming, it lays out how all the various conceptual systems of Buddhism fit together. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NL...
Page 25 from the sixth volume of the text, showing how the Three Thousand Worlds are structured.
November 5, 2025 at 11:04 AM
sudasana.bsky.social
Reposting this for #WoodblockWednesday
sudasana.bsky.social Gregory Adam Scott 史瑞戈 @sudasana.bsky.social · Dec 22
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 22 December - Painting Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden 芥子園畫傳, ca. 1679 or 1701 - learn to paint rectangular, round, and fan shaped! 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
Two sample two-page spreads from the fifth fascicle of the book, showing landscape paintings. Rectangular landscape compositions this time, two examples.
October 29, 2025 at 7:33 AM
sudasana.bsky.social
For #WoodblockWednesday here's 釋氏源流 (Origins of the Shakya Clan), with a preface dated 1490 CE. Printed in the Joseon dynasty in Korea. Illustrations and short texts tell the story of the Buddha's life and manifestations of his power in history.
Baby Buddha receives a prediction of his future greatness
October 22, 2025 at 6:37 AM
thianun.bsky.social
In my offline life, I'm trying to stretch more by following yoga videos most mornings, but if I'd been alive in the Ming & Qing, I would need a book like this!

萬壽僊書 via ANU library, openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/items/f57a10... (v3 has the illustrations!)

#WoodblockWednesday
Two facing pages from the book on health with illustrations of a shirtless man doing stretches. On the R, his hands are behind his head, elbows out, and he's leaning to the side. On the L, his arms are raised about his head, hands facing out, with his head turned slightly. He looks like he's having a great time!
October 15, 2025 at 9:41 PM
thianun.bsky.social
This #WoodblockWednesday, musing over the creativity of this Guangzhou publisher's branding on nearly every page of its printed lists of successful provincial exam candidates. Making a dry subject just a little cute, page by page.

All from fasc reprint 清歷科廣東鄉試錄 search.worldcat.org/title/34561437
Nine little line drawings of flowers, vases, and other objects with the publisher's name, 錦書堂, incorporated into the design. Slightly more elaborate ad design, as if written on a curling scroll of paper, reads: 貴客光顧請認省城學院前錦書堂為記.
October 1, 2025 at 7:51 PM
thianun.bsky.social
Thanks for the reminder it's #WoodblockWednesday!

Below, @sudasana.bsky.social shares a link to vols 1-8 of 32 from an incomplete copy of Shi Chengjin's (~1658-after 1739) 家寶全集.
BSB also holds a second, complete, & lower budget edition produced later 1/ www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/search?fi...
Title page of the lower budget edition - the quality issues are not immediately obvious here, but once the body text begins a few pages later, the difference in carving quality and detail becomes clear.
September 17, 2025 at 5:18 PM
sudasana.bsky.social
It's #WoodblockWednesday again! Here's a bonkers book of 2000+ pp. in which the author records his thoughts on anything and everything under the sun, basically an 18th century literatus substack. Shi Chengjin 石成金 (1739-1795), 家寳全集, www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/view/bsb0...
Title page from the copy in the Munich State Library First page of the preface Thoughts on health and medicine? Not going to let a gourd tell me what not to do
September 17, 2025 at 9:59 AM
sudasana.bsky.social
The birth of Shakyamuni Buddha, painlessly from his mother's side, as depicted in 釋迦如來應化事迹 (Shakyamuni's Manifestations), possibly a 1869 printing. Harvard University Libraries #WoodblockWednesday curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/chinese-rare...
A woodblock illustration of Shakyamuni's birth, under a tree and painlessly from his mother's side.
July 16, 2025 at 6:50 AM
sudasana.bsky.social
Reposting this for #WoodblockWednesday, a scan of a copy in the @thejohnrylands.bsky.social and available online: www.digitalcollections.manchester.ac.uk/view/PR-CHCR...
April 23, 2025 at 10:51 AM
thianun.bsky.social
Another Qing image & block pair from 中國木版年畫集成 for #WoodblockWednesday - love the depiction of women at work on spinning and weaving, irked that whoever was responsible for this page didn’t notice they put the photo of the block in upside down. Still utterly enchanted by this whole collection
A woodblock and its resulting printed image of ten women at work spinning, winding yarn, and weaving on different types of looms.
April 16, 2025 at 7:03 PM
sudasana.bsky.social
Reposting today for #WoodblockWednesday #木版週三
Some great markup in the text and delightful characterisations in the illustrations
sudasana.bsky.social Gregory Adam Scott 史瑞戈 @sudasana.bsky.social · Dec 19
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 19 December - A Branch from the Forest of Lyrics 詞林一枝, 1606/7 - an anthology of scenes from plays 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
The book uses a three register page layout An example illustration from the book
April 16, 2025 at 8:11 AM
sforrest.bsky.social
Came for the lovely script (to use in my paleography class), stayed for the long-suffering expressions (can we massage the pain away?)
--a couple of spreads from _Kōkei saikyūhō_ 『広恵済急方』 (Kansei 寛政 1 [1789]) for #WoodblockWednesday, via the Waseda Kotenseki collection. Link next...
#WoodcutWednesday
first volume of _Kōkei saikyūhō_ 『広恵済急方』 open to the title page (at right, with pub. date) and first page of the preface which begins, "それ、人の世に有る折にふれて、病無きこと能はず" (roughly, "As we know, there is no way through life without getting sick at some point"). The preface text is in a beautifully soft, flowing but clean and evenly spaced cursive hand, kana and kanji mixed (no furigana). A double spread from volume 1 (the book is in 3 vols) showing the heads of two patients, each being squished/poked by big strong hands--the patients' expressions are both dull and pained at the same time.
April 9, 2025 at 11:53 PM
thianun.bsky.social
For #WoodblockWednesday, another delight from the 中國木版年畫集成 - a Qing print of the cat king ordering an attack on the mice spirits, in color and with the original block and an uncolored print too
Colorful block printed nianhua of some wonky cats going into battle against some very large mice. Both the cats and mice appear to be riding dogs. Some of the animals are clothed like Chinese opera actors, others are naked as the good lord intended animals to be. Photograph of the block used to print this and a version of the print without the colors added.
April 9, 2025 at 9:15 PM
sforrest.bsky.social
Today is #WoodblockWednesday, so here's one from the steeped tea 煎茶 files: a portrait of the Sage of Sencha, Baisaō 売茶翁 himself, from a sketch done by Itō Jakuchū 伊藤若冲. The image serves as frontispiece for the Old Tea Seller's posthumous collection, _Baisaō gego_『売茶翁偈語』...
#WoodcutWednesday
Japanese woodblock printed book open to the title page (right), i.e. the inside front cover, and frontispiece (left), i.e. verso of folio 1. The image shows a gnarly old guy with straggly hair and unruly if short facial hair, with a protuding chin -- it's a striking image, the more so as it's a monochrome line drawing. The title page is in a clear but soft seal script, with my transcription pasted in in blue, thus: 金龍道人題辞／売茶翁偈語／附名公茶器銘／平安／通書堂梓 Above the portrait the name Jakuchū is inscribed, plus one of his seals (?) and some ownership seals are in the page gutter.
April 2, 2025 at 11:42 PM
thianun.bsky.social
Only today discovered that my library has a set of the monumental reprint collection dedicated to woodblock nianhua and other folk prints - 中國木版年畫集成 - with amazing photos of the blocks themselves when available. Utterly in love with this 1980s judgmental 觀音
#WoodblockWednesday
Photo of two facing pages from one of the books on nianhua, on the left is the block and on the right is its print. Guanyin is giving us serious side eye with a small frown. As she well should, she may be infinitely merciful but also look at us, guys.
April 2, 2025 at 9:57 PM
sforrest.bsky.social
For #WoodblockWednesday a couple of images from a remarkable copy of a fascinating book--came across it in my seminar on sencha 煎茶, but it connects to so many other things. The book is _Fusō Kindai yasa inja_ 『扶桑 近代艶隠者』, written by Ōbaku 黄檗 zen monk Sairoken Kyōsen 西鷺軒橋泉 (n.d.)...
#WoodcutWednesday
Dark blue cover of traditional Japanese stitchbound book with printed title slip (daisen 題箋） reading _Kindai yasa inja_ 『近代艶隠者』, with the foretitle (tsunogaki 角書き) "Fusō" 扶桑 (i.e. Japan), and the volume number 1. same volume open to last page of table of contents (right) and first page of opening story (left). Script includes extensive kanji usage, but nearly all have furigana glosses for easier reading. first double-spread (mihiraki 見開き) illustration from the first story in vol. 1 of same book: depicts a figure (Kannon?) holding a lotus blossom, half-kneeling, resting cheek on hand, beside a rocky shored pond with lotus blossoms and leaves.
March 19, 2025 at 9:56 PM
sudasana.bsky.social
Reposting this one for #WoodblockWednesday
sudasana.bsky.social Gregory Adam Scott 史瑞戈 @sudasana.bsky.social · Dec 22
Chinese Woodblock Print Advent Calendar 2024 - 22 December - Painting Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden 芥子園畫傳, ca. 1679 or 1701 - learn to paint rectangular, round, and fan shaped! 🀄📚 #AdventCalendar2024 #WoodblockAdvent @thianun.bsky.social
Two sample two-page spreads from the fifth fascicle of the book, showing landscape paintings. Rectangular landscape compositions this time, two examples.
March 19, 2025 at 9:17 AM
sforrest.bsky.social
For #WorldBookDay, and late entries for this week's #WoodblockWednesday & #ManuscriptMonday while we're at it, pics from Tuesday's visit to view Lyman Collection copy of _Miyako meisho zue_ 『都名所図会』. It's a tourist guide to Kyōto from 1780, full of lovely images & fascinating details of local scenes.
two volumes of _Miyako meisho zue_ lying on a table next to their box. Cover has faint brocade pattern of roundels and flowers; title slip is printed in soft, clear characters on cream-colored paper, with volume title mae: Suzaku 前朱雀 indicating the part of the capital that is covered in it. illustrated page (right-hand half of a double spread) from same book, showing teapickers (male and female) by a row of bushes in the background. In the foreground from right a woman and a girl bring a pot of tea, cups, and snacks as from left two women pickers carry away their loads of picked leaves. Explanatory text fills the top 1/4 of the page. First page of elegantly calligraphed preface to the book, beginning, "Ito mo kashikoki uchiwatari ha sara nari..." い登もかしこき内王多り八更 なり, and in red above the text at right a seal reading Raiman 来曼 (i.e. Lyman). Also visible is the hole-pinched stamp of the Forbes Library of Northampton Massachusetts, former owner of the book. Final page (of five) of the preface, ending with the date An'ei 9 (1780) and the calligrapher's identity (in block print) next to his signature (also printed, in fact, but carved from his manuscript calligraphy). His identity is Gojō Shikibu Dayū Sugawara no Tametoshi kyō, and he signs as Seikakan shujin 栖霞館主人.
March 6, 2025 at 2:50 PM
thianun.bsky.social
This #WoodblockWednesday, I'm grateful to the publisher of the 1499 edition of 西廂記 for including such clear folio numbers, and for West & Idema for finding a modern publisher who would allow them to include those numbers in their translation - The Story of the Western Wing - because 1/2
Screenshot of two facing pages from a facsimile edition of the 1499 deluxe edition of Xixiang ji - pages 102b and 103a specifically. The top half of each page is taken up by an illustration and the play's text runs along the bottom half. Photograph of the corresponding page in the English translation, page 209, with the references to the original woodblock print pages 102b and 103a circled in the margins.
March 5, 2025 at 7:47 PM
sudasana.bsky.social
A quick post for #WoodblockWednesday - the reprint edition of Poxie xiangbian 破邪詳辯 (A Detailed Refutation of Heresies) by Huang Yupian, 1883, a text that I originally studied during my Master's at University of Toronto, and to which I'm returning recently for... secret reasons...
The cover of the first fascicle The title page of the book The first page of the original preface by Huang
March 5, 2025 at 2:46 PM
sforrest.bsky.social
Late in the day, but just time for a #WoodblockWednesday post: from a kibyōshi we're reading this week, w/ Jippensha Ikku 十返舎一九 doing dual service as author & illustrator. The book is a collection of tall tales told over a cup of tea to while away the tedium of early spring rain...
#WoodcutWednesday
double-page spread illustration with embedded text, from Ikku's kibyōshi 黄表紙 (about which more in next post). There is story text above the image, and some dialogue in the picture itself. At right a large wolf (well, a human shape with a wolf's head) looks intently from behind a tree at a man in courier's gear, carrying a message stick, running away on the left-hand page.
February 20, 2025 at 1:13 AM
xiaoshuoing.com
Is it #WoodblockWednesday?? Here's an excellent Kangxi-era imprint of Investiture of the Gods, a novel about the decline of the Shang Dynasty under the corrupt King Zhou.

Commentary ascribed to Zhong Xing.
封神演義内容及目録-識典古籍
《封神演義》，[明] 許仲琳 撰、[明] 鍾惺 批評 · 康熙四雪草堂刻後印本。查看《封神演義》完整目録，深入内容概括要點剖析主題，在精彩之處摘抄讀書筆記，探究作者及創作緣由，品析金句、名句和好詞好句，助力《封神演義》的全面認知與學術研究。
www.shidianguji.com
February 19, 2025 at 7:58 PM
thianun.bsky.social
It's #WoodblockWednesday! A super early stage project, so early that it's going to stay secret for a while, has led me back to looking at some early Qing sectarian 寶卷. Printed in sutra style, this one, 靈應泰山娘娘寶卷, has a gorgeous fabric cover and the cutest opening image of the goddess & her friends
Outer cover of the first of two volumes of this book. It's very tall and not very wide (sutra style binding) and the fabric is a deep blue with botanical accents in pink, light blue, green, and gold. This fragile text has broken across the folds in the large opening image so I couldn't unfold it in one photo - this shows just two facing pages depicting 3 goddesses, including Taishan niangniang herself at center. She is flanked by a goddess dedicated to eyesight and a goddess dedicated to giving children. The child-giving goddess has a little baby in front of her sitting with its hands folded in prayer. The eyesight goddess has some assistants holding a bowl with a large eye (and eyebrow above) in it. Detail of the assistants to the eyesight goddess with their bowl and its eye, staring at you forever from the past, brightly.
February 19, 2025 at 7:38 PM