Preface to the Indexes to the Great Chinese Botany Zhiwu Mingshi Tukao 植物名實圖考 of Wu Qijun 吳其濬

The paper focuses on the efforts of the US botanist Walter T. Swingle to disseminate information on Chinese traditional botanical literature, especially facilitating access to the outstanding Zhiwu mingshi tukao by Wu Qijun. For the latter purpose he prepared indexes and correlation tables to cover the then available different editions in Chinese and Japanese. This research tool was never printed but a small number of photostats was circulated among interested scholars. The paper introduces Swingle’s work and presents his preface in which he underlines the importance of Chinese botanical literature and explains the method behind this index volume. In addition it offers the translation of the original prefaces to the different editions of the Zhiwu mingshi tukao, prepared by such scholars as Jiang Kanghu, the historian of literature and Yuan Tongli, later director of the National Library of China.