The title page gives the title (Zhang gelao jingyan Sishu zhijie), the place of publication (Deju tang) and the publisher (Chen Changqing): 正字全編，張閣老經筵四書直解，德聚堂陳長卿梓. On top there is a red, round seal with a design of the god of literature (Kuixing 魁星) and a dragon. Below there is a red seal in seal characters, giving the place of publication: 德聚堂. An inscription on the first folio of juan 1 gives the title, the author (Zhang Juzheng) and the collaborators (Shen Li 沈鯉, Tao Gong 陶珙 and Fang Qixun 方奇峋): 新訂四書直解正字全編相國太岳張居正直解龍江沈鯉正字後學滇南陶珙訂新安方奇峋校.
There is a preface by Tao Gong 陶珙 of Yunnan, dated 15.VIII Chongzhen jiaxu 崇禎甲戌中秋 (6 September 1634), another preface by Ye Can 葉燦, dated 9.IX Chongzhen 8 (崇禎八年乙亥, 19 October 1635) and a prologue by Shen Li to the list of standard characters used for free private schools with the signature: “an elder of Longjiang” 龍江老人. At the end it gives the names of the supervisors of the printing of the book, Chen Youzhi and Chen Yuzhi, sons of the publisher Chen Changqing 陳長卿: 男有芝，毓芝督梓.
For Shen Li (1531–1615), see MJCC, p. 179; DMB 1:616; for Tao Gong, see Wang 1983, p. 351. Ye Can (1566–1643) was a native of Tongcheng 桐城 (Anhui) and a jinshi of 1613, see Wang 1983, p. 667.
The main text has eighteen characters to each column. Annotations and commentary are given in smaller print with seventeen characters to each column.
This book is a collection of lectures which were given to the Wanli emperor in the early days when the latter was still a minor and Zhang was his tutor. The style is simple and clear; it was probably revised before it was printed. Cf. Zhang Taiyue ji 張太岳集 (Shanghai, 1984), juan 38, folio 14b. This book consists of:

1. Daxue zhijie 大學直解, juan 1 (one ce);
2. Zhongyong zhijie 中庸直解, juan 2–3 (two ce);
3. Lunyu zhijie 論語直解, juan 4–12 (nine ce);
4. Mengzi zhijie 孟子直解, juan 13–26 (twelve ce).

The Siku tiyao does not list this book, but it does mention another book of Zhang Juzheng, the Shujing zhijie 書經直解 in thirteen juan (SKTY 1:269), a series of lectures given to the Wanli emperor and written about the time of the Lunyu zhijie. Cf. Wang 1983, p. 44.

The Naikaku Bunko owns a number of editions of this book by Zhang Juzheng (NBC, p. 37); other editions are mentioned by Shao Yichen (TTSK, p. 148). None of them, however, consists of twenty-six juan in twenty-four ce. Cf. Courant 2844–2846, 2847–2848 and 2849 (see K. Lundbaek, “Chief Grand Secretary Chang Chü-cheng & the early China Jesuits” and D. E. Mungello, “The Jesuits’ use of Chang Chü-cheng’s commentary of the Confucian Four Books (1687),” in China Mission Studies Bulletin 3, 1980, pp. 2–11 and 12–22).

Source: Albert Chan, SJ, Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 13-14.