Most of the plates are mounted.
Plates (Pts. I and II) are preceded by half-titles not included in collation.
Originally pub. in 1210 by Lou Shou and consisted of 21 pictures descriptive of agriculture and 24 pictures descriptive of weaving, the pictures were accompainied by verses. In 1696 the work was remodeled by Emperor Kangxi, new pictures made by Jiao Bingzhen and new verses added to those of Lou Shou, several translations of this edition have been made. In 1739 the work was republished by Emperor Qianlong, new verses and prose descriptions added to the verses of Kangxi, nothing of the original work being left but the titles of the pictures.
This ed. includes the Chinese text and translation of the Chʻien Lung editions and reproductions of the original 45 plates taken from a Japanese reprint of 1462, and reproductions of the 46 plates of the Qianlong edition.