Yun Gui Yue Zhi 運規約指 [Practical Geometry]

Numerous in-text illustrations. 3 juan in one volume. Tall 8vo(27x16.5cm), orig wrappers. Jiangnan Arsenal (江南製造總局), ca. 1870.

Translated by John Fryer (傅蘭雅) and Xu Jianying (徐建寅) from Richard Burchett’s Practical Geometry, and represents the first Western scientific work translated and published by the Jiangnan Arsenal.

Following the devastations of the Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion, the late Qing government initiated the Self-Strengthening Movement in an effort to learn from the West’s advanced science and technology. In 1865, the Jiangnan Arsenal (江南製造局) was established in Shanghai as part of this modernization drive. Recognizing that “translation is the foundation of manufacturing,” the official Xu Shou (徐壽) memorialized Zeng Guofan (曾國藩), emphasizing the necessity of systematic translation. Responding to this, the Translation Bureau of the Jiangnan Arsenal was founded in 1868—the first government-sponsored institution in China dedicated to translating and publishing Western scientific and technical works.

The British scholar John Fryer (傅蘭雅) was first appointed as director of translation, and a total of 59 scholars—including 9 foreign and 50 Chinese—subsequently participated in the Bureau’s translation work. Among the foreign contributors were Alexander Wylie, F. Huberty James, Carl T. Kreyer, Young J. Allen, Daniel Jerome MacGown, and Edward T. Williams; notable Chinese collaborators included Xu Shou, Hua Hengfang, Shu Gaodi, Li Fengbao, Zhao Yuanyi, Xu Jianyin, Zhong Tianwei, and Qu Anglai.

The translation method, known as xi yi zhong shu (西譯中述), involved foreign scholars providing oral explanations while Chinese scholars rendered and refined the text into polished literary Chinese. The guiding principles of translation emphasized: (1) retaining existing Chinese terminology whenever possible; (2) coining new terms where necessary; and (3) compiling these new terms into the Zhongxi mingmu zi hui (《中西名目字彙》, Glossary of Chinese and Western Technical Terms).

The Bureau operated its own printing workshop—initially employing woodblock printing and later adopting movable type—and produced a wide range of works on science, engineering, and technology. Its first publication, Yun Gui Yue Zhi (Practical Geometry), a treatise on applied geometry and surveying, was described at the time as “a translation of utmost importance” (teyi jinyao zhi shu 特譯緊要之書). As the earliest translated scientific work issued by the Jiangnan Arsenal, it laid the foundation for the systematic introduction of Western mathematical and technical knowledge to China, marking a crucial milestone in the intellectual and industrial transformation of the late Qing period.

In very good condition.

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