Volumes 12 and 14 of the Gyokushu

Chōgyokushū: A Chinese Book That Survives Only in Japan

The Chōgyokushū exists today as two handscrolls kept at Ōsu Kannon, the temple in central Nagoya whose formal name is Kitano-san Shinpuku-ji Hōshō-in. A colophon at the end of each scroll records that they were copied by hand in 747, the nineteenth year of the Tenpyō era. The Chinese original was compiled during the Tang dynasty and then vanished in its home country. These two Nara-period copies, with a single fragment later recovered from the caves of Dunhuang, are close to all that remains of the work anywhere in the world.

The scrolls carry only volumes 12 and 14. Because so little of the book ever reached Japan, and because nothing of it survived in China, what looks at first like a modest pair of old documents is in fact one of the few windows we have onto a text otherwise gone entirely.

What the Text Contains

The Chōgyokushū belongs to a Chinese genre called leishu, often translated as a classified anthology or encyclopedia. A compiler would read widely, pull out passages and anecdotes from earlier books, and file them under subject headings so that a reader could look up a theme and find the relevant stories gathered in one place.

The headings reveal how the compiler saw the world. Volume 12 collects accounts under four categories: keen intelligence, great physical strength, sharp judgment, and karmic response. Volume 14 ranges more widely, with sections on beautiful people, ugly people, the fat and the thin, lovers of wine, those able to distinguish fine flavors, auspicious omens, and strange events. The Dunhuang fragment, catalogued as S.2072, adds further headings such as skilled calligraphy, archery, physiognomy, and the reading of dreams.

How long was the complete book? The sources disagree. A Heian-period catalogue of Chinese works then held in Japan, the Nihonkoku genzaisho mokuroku, lists it at fifteen volumes. Chinese bibliographies, including the Chongwen zongmu and the Tongzhi, record twenty. The compiler left no name, and the date of composition is uncertain; one widely cited study places it between the late seventh and early eighth centuries.

Why It Was Named a National Treasure

The two scrolls were designated a National Treasure on June 9, 1951, in the category of calligraphy and classical texts. Three qualities lie behind that ranking.

First, the manuscript preserves a lost work. The original Chōgyokushū disappeared in China centuries ago and became known there again only when Qing-era scholars reprinted it in the collection Guyi congshu. The Ōsu scrolls are a primary witness to what the book once held.

Second, the copy itself is old and dated. A manuscript written in 747 takes us directly into the reading culture of Nara Japan, showing which Chinese books circulated among scholars there and how they were transcribed. Few dated manuscripts from that century survive at all.

Third, the paper carries a second text on its back. Turn the scrolls over and you find an early Heian copy of volumes 2 and 3 of a collection of court memorials and imperial replies concerning Amoghavajra (known in Japanese as Fukū), the Tang master of esoteric Buddhism who died in 774. Paper was expensive, and reusing a blank side was ordinary practice. Here that habit of thrift left two distinct documents bound together in one object, each valuable in its own right.

What to Look For

If the scrolls ever appear in an exhibition, the first thing worth attention is the writing itself. This is a brush hand from the eighth century, formed by a scribe trained in the conventions of the time, and the columns of characters have a steadiness that rewards a slow look.

The categories repay attention too. A modern encyclopedia would not give equal billing to "the fat" and "the thin," or set "lovers of wine" beside "auspicious omens." Reading the headings is a quick way to sense what a Tang compiler thought worth sorting and remembering, and how different that sense can be from our own.

Then there is the double nature of the paper. The front preserves a Chinese reference book; the back preserves a Buddhist documentary text copied generations later. One sheet of paper, two lives, two centuries apart.

Seeing the Scrolls, and Visiting Ōsu Kannon

The Chōgyokushū is shown to the public only rarely. For decades it was deposited at the Tokyo National Museum, and in 2015 it returned to Nagoya at the temple's request, with the Nagoya City Museum becoming its keeper. That museum is closed for a major renovation, with a full reopening planned for April 2028, so anyone hoping to see the actual scrolls should watch for special exhibitions rather than count on a standing display.

The temple that owns them, Ōsu Kannon, is easy to reach and free to enter. It sits in the Ōsu district, a few minutes on foot from Ōsu Kannon Station on the Tsurumai subway line. The temple holds the Shinpuku-ji Library, also called the Ōsu Bunko, one of the country's important collections of old books and the home of the oldest surviving manuscript of the Kojiki, itself a National Treasure. The surrounding streets form one of Nagoya's liveliest shopping arcades, with antique stalls on the temple grounds on the 18th and 28th of each month.