Les Bibliothèques en Chine au temps des manuscrits (jusqu'au Xe siècle) by Jean-Pierre DrègeReview by: Cheryl BoettcherLibraries & Culture, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Summer, 1994), pp. 332-334Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25542666 .

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332 L&C/Book Reviews

Chapter 8 explores how personal correspondence facilitated human bonding over great distances, and Chapter 9 hypothesizes how these feelings combined with

materialistic motives to augment the desire to become literate. Here Zboray argues that a dominant utilitarianism in antebellum America discouraged novel reading and suggested the novel reader was "perhaps a bit deviant" (133). Taken together,

chapters 1 through 9 focus on cultural fractures in antebellum America created by a

transforming economy as it affected the book trade, a sense of community, liter

ary socialization, and personal motives.

Chapters 10 and 11 present case studies to demonstrate conclusions argued in

previous chapters. Chapter 10 examines the organization of reading materials in

Homer Franklin's New York bookstore in 1840; Chapter 11 analyzes the reading

patterns which New York Society Library charge records reveal about its subscrib

ers. Here Zboray finds no evidence that a literary canon guided reading and little

difference in the reading patterns of men and women. He fully recognizes, however, that gender definition probably influenced the way these texts were interpreted and constructed (L&C readers may remember Zboray covered this same ground in

a 1991 article, "Reading Patterns in Antebellum America: Evidence in the Charge Records of the New York Society Library," Libraries & Culture, 26 [1991]: 301-333), and concludes that neither bookstore stock nor library circulation records show an

organized approach to knowledge acquisition.

Chapter 12 builds on this thought by examining the difficulty antebellum Amer

icans had constructing their definition of reality in the midst of a rapidly trans

forming economy. Fiction seemed best suited to a necessary process of constructing texts in ways that authors and publishers never intended and helped articulate

symbolic forms and cultural practices defining a national identity in a time of eco

nomic transformation. "From this perspective," Zboray argues, "antebellum read

ers did not so much consume literature as produce it" (193); that's how, he

concludes, they became "a fictive people." For students of library history, Zboray's impressively researched effort points to

exciting possibilities. If American library historians begin looking at their subject matter through some of the same lenses Zboray harnesses in A Fictive People, in

stead of more traditional institutional lenses evident in previous historiography,

contemporary generations of library professionals might develop a better historical

perspective on the library's social and cultural role. On the way, library historians

might even be able to build a convincing case that libraries have been major play ers in the history of print culture. But there I go again.

Wayne A. Wiegand, University of Wisconsin ?Madison

Les Biblioth?ques en Chine au temps des manuscrits (jusqu'au Xs si?cle). By Jean-Pierre

Dr?ge. Paris: Ecole Fran?aise d'Extr?me-Orient, 1991. 322 pp. ISBN 2-85539

761-8

This work covers all aspects of the history of libraries, books, classification, and

bibliography in China before the Sung period, i.e., from 221 b.c. to a.d. 960. In it

one may find information on such diverse topics as the repeated destruction and

resurgence of Chinese literature as dynasties rose and fell, biographies of biblio

maniacs, variations in classification schemes over a thousand years of use, specula

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333

tions on the function of sumptuous copies of sutras that were commissioned by

pious Buddhists, and excerpts from what might be considered aTaoist "Advis pour

dresser une biblioth?que." To my knowledge, no other scholar has ever attempted such an ambitious overview of medieval Chinese history of books and library his

tory.

Dr?ge's approach to his material might best be described as "sinological," fol

lowing the European tradition that emphasizes the primacy of Chinese textual

sources. His bibliographies of primary and secondary literature in Chinese, Japa

nese, and Western languages are valuable sources in themselves. And not only does

he present significant evidence from more than a dozen Chinese dynastic histories,

but he also has examined numerous manuscripts from the Tunhuang grottoes in

the collections of the Biblioth?que Nationale. The extent of his research is com

mendable.

Like many dissertations, this work exhibits some flaws as a book. Its broad scope and dense quotation of Chinese sources provide little "narrative" to keep the text

moving. Those who wish to consider Dr?ge's theses on the pre-printing manuscript would be advised to consult his other works (particularly the essay entitled "Du

rouleau manuscrit au livre imprim?" in Le Texte et son inscription, edited by Roger

Laufer, Paris: Editions du Centre National de la R?cherche Scientifique, 1989, 43

48). Those who wish to delve into unsuspected aspects of Chinese libraries, how

ever, should begin with the chapter on private book collections, the most accessible

section of the dissertation. As always with translations of Chinese biographical

sources, one is struck by their immediacy: they provide stories that detail the Chi

nese literati's thirst for reading and study, as well as all possible variants of biblio

graphic desire. The other chapters will yield to persistent readers interested in such

topics as classification or Buddhist libraries, but they are for the most part hard to

follow.

Dr?ge's work is less satisfying as a piece of library history than as an entr?e into

a little-explored aspect of Chinese history, because he does not directly confront

the critical question: "What was a library in early China?" He is undoubtedly con

strained by his Chinese sources, which are forthcoming about the reading biogra

phies of famous men, but not about the administration of Buddhist temple libraries. Only the section on Taoist libraries presents several texts that consider

the regulations and organization of libraries. Thus, it is a major shortcoming in the

work that the reader is left without any sense of the social role of the library as

institution.

Dr?ge has written several pieces about block printing's influence on change in

Chinese books, but his theses on the transition from manuscript to print are based

on scanty evidence. In this work he considers the issue of block printing only in the

conclusion, and he can only cite himself and some Ming dynasty (1368-1644) scholars to support his argument. Although Dr?ge highlights the technological

change in book production by looking forward to the Ming (and includes Henri

Jean Martin in his acknowledgements), it is difficult to see this study as an exam

ple of histoire du livre. The territory he sets himself to cover is so vast that his

energies were spent more in marshaling evidence for all book-related activities than

in considering the manuscript-to-print question invoked by his title.

In conclusion, let it be said that the above comments are not meant to de-em

phasize the fact that Dr?ge's contribution to the study of Chinese libraries and the

history of the book in the manuscript period is considerable. It is only because this

book is now available, that one can begin to consider such questions as "What was a library in pre-Sung China?" or "What was the role of manuscript versus print

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334 L&C/Book Reviews

book production?" The work's achievement as a general discussion which brings the Chinese sources to light is unparalleled.

Cheryl Boettcher, University of California, Los Angeles

Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning, and the Gods. By Jean Bott?ro; translated by Zainab

Bahrani and Marc Van De Mieroop. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

x, 311 pp. $39.95. ISBN 0-226-06726-2.

This volume is an elegant collection of essays written by a well-respected French

orientalist who has devoted nearly fifty years to the exploration of ancient Meso

potamian culture. The essays were written originally over a period of years and are

now collected in a felicitous translation. There are terse comments among the es

says to link the subject matter of one essay to that of another, and some examples of modest updating of references or editing of material where the author thought

necessary. Bott?ro informs the reader that the subject matter of the book is Mesopotamian

civilization, more particularly what he terms a "discrete silhouette" (2) of the

topic. The essays are arranged under four headings: Assyriology, Writing, "Rea

sonings": Institutions and Mentality, and "The Gods": Religion. In addition, to

assist the general reader there are maps, a glossary of terms, a brief chronological

overview, and an annotated bibliography. The author ranges widely over his subject matter, seeking to show, among many

other things, the links between the particular investigation of ancient Mesopota mia and the perennial quest for human understanding. Thus his introduction is

entitled "The Birth of the West" and his first essay is entitled "In Defense of a

Useless Science." Even in those essays where the subject matter is more special

ized, this concern to link past existence with current attempts at human self-un

derstanding is never far away. There are a number of elements among the essays which deserve evaluation, but

in this brief review only the following will be mentioned. In the essay on the famous

Code of Hammurabi, the great king of Babylon, Bott?ro argues persuasively

against the common understanding of the inscribed stone as a lawcode or state law.

He reminds us that among the thousands of cuneiform administrative and legal tablets known from Mesopotamia, none make reference to Hammurabi's "code." The

inscription is more likely a testament to the deity Shamash of what Hammurabi

believed illustrated justice. The case "laws" from the inscription may (my italics)

preserve some actual verdicts, but they are not state law. More particularly, Bott?ro states, the "code" is a "self-glorification of the king

. . . and a political charter that synthesizes an entire detailed and organized vision of the 'right' exer

cise of justice" (183). In the essay on

" 'Free Love' and Its Disadvantages," the author argues against

any perception of the ancient Mesopotamians as prudish

or uninterested in sexual

expression outside the bounds of family and procreation. Instead the cuneiform

documents clearly demonstrate classes or groups of men and women whose work

(sacred and profane) included sexual practices. According to Bott?ro, the "disad

vantages" referred to in the title apply to the professionals, not to the persons who

participated in the activities. One the one hand, "free love" was an "ornament of

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