Description

Richard WILHELM (1873 – 1930), Translator.
[The Higher Growth. Translated from Chinese]
Tsingtao: 1920.

8°, title page, 22 pp., original patterned wrapper with printed title, stapled (small tears and tiny loss of paper in margins, title page with light foxing, but overall good).

Richard Wilhelm (1873 – 1930) was a notable German sinologist, born in Stuttgart, who learned Chinese while working as a missionary in China. He arrived shortly before 1900 in the Empire of China, specifically the city of Tsingtao, as part of the German East Asia Mission.

In 1908, Wilhelm traveled to China for a second time. During World War I, he faced significant challenges continuing his work at the school and serving as pastor for the German community in Qingdao, as the region was under Japanese occupation. In the summer of 1920, after twenty years of missionary work, he returned to Germany.

Upon his return, he was appointed as an honorary professor to the newly established endowed chair for Chinese History and Chinese Philosophy at Frankfurt am Main University in 1924. In 1925, he founded the China Institute at the University of Frankfurt, which he directed until his death in 1930.

Wilhelm translated several significant German works into Chinese and vice versa. His most renowned work is a translation of the I Ching (also known as Yijing), an ancient Chinese divination text regarded as one of the oldest Chinese classics.

Featured here are six titles authored by Richard Wilhelmm between 1918 and 1920 in Tsingtao, following World War I. The texts blend elements of Chinese philosophy with Eastern evangelical tradition. The pages feature beautiful yet somewhat rustic printing from manuscripts, complemented by elegant original wrappers and bindings that showcase intricate Chinese patterns. Some publications even include mounted images of Chinese landscapes and motifs, which vary from one edition to another.

These publications were likely printed in very limited quantities by an organization associated with Christ’s Church in Tsingtao, which was established in 1910, where Wilhelm played an active role.

The ideas presented draw inspiration from interpretations of the Chinese poems found in the “Classic of Poetry” (Shijing or Shih-ching, also known as the Book of Songs, Book of Odes, or in German, Buch der Lieder). This collection is the oldest existing anthology of Chinese poetry, containing 305 works that date back to the 11th to 7th centuries BC.

We could trace three institutional examples, held at Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig and Universitätsbibliothek Basel

References: OCLC 1284405244. Thomas Zimmer, Richard Wilhelm (1873-1930). Missionar in China und Vermittler chinesischen Geistesguts ; Schriftenverzeichnis, Katalog seiner chinesischen Bibliothek, Briefe von Heinrich Hackmann, Briefe von Ku Hung-ming, 2008, nr. 220.