First and only Franco-Chinese edition, illustrated with six etchings reproduced by Frédéric Chevalier.
A single copy recorded in the CCFr (Bulac).
Sole edition of this contemporary curiosity born of the French vogue for all things Oriental: born in 1831, Tin-Tun-Ling (or Ding Dunling) was a Chinese scholar from Shanxi and a political exile in France. Théophile Gautier met him in Paris, grew fond of him, and hired him to teach Chinese to his daughter Judith. Steeped in Far Eastern culture, she delighted in presenting herself as the reincarnation of a Chinese princess. Tin-Tun-Ling then lived in a pavilion built in the Chinese style, set in the garden of the Pré aux Oiseaux – Judith’s home in Saint-Enogat. After Gautier’s death in 1872, Tin-Tun-Ling married a Frenchwoman, Caroline Julie Liégeois, who later accused him of bigamy (he was in all likelihood already married in China); following a trial in 1873, he was nevertheless acquitted. A triple photographic portrait of Tin-Tun-Ling by Nadar survives, taken in 1874, one year before the publication of this work.
This copy is preserved in its original state, in flexible yellow cloth wrappers showing small spots and, as often, minor marginal tears.