Caractères chinois. Etymologies. - Graphies. - Lexique

Fourth edition reproducing, with only minor variations, the third edition of 1916.

Half tan calf binding, spine with five raised bands decorated with blind fillets, cherry shagreen lettering piece, slight rubbing to the spine, handmade paper boards, marbled endpapers and pastedowns, speckled edges, original wrappers preserved, contemporary binding.

This work is fundamental to the graphic and lexicological development of Chinese characters.

It is entirely unjust, as was done for more than fifty years, to minimise the role and contribution of the Jesuit Léon Wieger (1856–1933) to sinology, in which his work was of major importance despite the narrowness of his religious or philosophical views, on which excessive emphasis has been placed.

It is particularly in the philological field, and in the study and history of the formation of characters, that his books and methods remain of the greatest interest, including from a pedagogical standpoint.

Ink ownership inscription at the head of a marbled endpaper.

Rare and pleasing copy.