Essai sur l'histoire de l'instruction publique en Chine et de la corporation des lettrés, depuis les anciens temps jusqu'à nos jours ; ouvrage entièrement rédigé d'après les documents chinois

Second edition, the only complete one (cf. Cordier, Sinica, 1430).

Spine split with small angular losses, scattered foxing.

It deals with educational institutions, examinations, and public instruction under the various dynasties.

Appended are notes on the method used in China to study the pronunciation of characters, on the organization of the Chinese administration, and on a collection of examination questions for candidates to literary degrees.

Two memoirs bound in one volume with continuous pagination. The engineer Edouard-Constant Biot (1803-1850), son of the mathematician Jean-Baptiste Biot and pupil of Stanislas Julien, rapidly became an outstanding sinologist whose works are still consulted today.