Wen-hsin Tiao-lung (The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons)

Tags: literary criticism | Ming dynasty | rare books

  

 

This book (文心雕龍) is a 5-color print made by Ling Yun at Wuxing during the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty’s Wan-li period (1573-1619), the Min and Ling families were specialists in adding colors to woodblock printing. The book contains five colors: cinnabar red, ink black, purple, blue, and green, making it the most colored print book in the collections of National Central Library. In addition, the book uses hard fonts (硬體字) for the main texts and soft fonts (軟體字) for the reviews. These different colors and fonts not only make it easier to tell apart the sections, but also make the book more attractive.

National Central Library Chinese Rare Books Collection Digitization Project