Le Kou-Wen Chinois

Paris: P. Geuthner, 1926. First Edition (presumed; no prior editions or printings cited). Large octavo with dark blue leather boards; light blue endpapers; deckle edges; gilt spine title; 2 preliminary leaves, cxxvii, 464 pages; indexes; 25 cm Very good (-); some mild wear to edges and corners of boards; small puncture to spine and white spot to front board; age-toning to pages; handsome personal bookplate to front paste-down; page one is detaching but binding is tight otherwise; pages are clean and unmarked. Hardcover.

In French. Includes errata at end of book. A concise yet erudite study of Classical Chinese (古文, gǔwén), examining its grammar, rhetoric, and enduring influence on the literary and philosophical traditions of East Asia. Written in lucid French scholarly prose, it situates the kou-wen style within its historical evolution from the archaic scriptural prose of the Zhou and Han periods to its later revival among Tang and Song literati. Margouliès, a noted sinologist of the early twentieth century, offers both linguistic analysis and cultural insight, presenting classical Chinese as not merely an ancient mode of expression but a living intellectual framework that shaped the moral and aesthetic foundations of Chinese civilization.