JapSin I, 8
Gu Zhouli 古周禮.
Manuscript, twenty-two folios, written in the standard script in fairly good calligraphy. Bamboo paper in one ce. 21 x 15 cm.

The Latin inscription on the title page reads: “Textus originalis libri cheu-li seu Rituum Imperii cheu.”

The Zhou Li, known also as Zhou Guan 周官 “Offices of Zhou” or Zhou Guan Jing “Canonical offices of Zhou,” was actually a description of the constitution of the Zhou dynastic government. It has practically nothing to do with rites, as the title suggests. It was composed of six neatly organized sections, each dealing with a major component of the Zhou dynastic government: the Office of Heaven 天官, or the Prime Ministry; the Office of Earth 地官, or the Office of Education and Social Welfare; the Office of Spring 春官, or Office of Rites and Ceremonies and Protocol; the Office of Summer 夏官, or the Department of Defense and Security; the Office of Autumn 秋官, or the Department of Justice and Punishment; and the Office of Winter 冬官, or the Department of Public Works and Economic Production. In its present form, the last chapter is missing and replaced by a curious document entitled Kao gong ji 考工記 or “A Record of Researches on Manufacture.”
The Zhou Li has been translated by William Raymond, The Ceremonial Usage of the Chinese (Chow lé), (Gingell, London, 1852) and Edouard Biot, Le Tcheou-li ou rites des Tcheou (Paris, 1851/Peking, 1939).

For another version, see Jap-Sin I, 34/37, 4/1–4/2 (Zhouli zuanzhu).
Source: Albert Chan, SJ, Chinese Books and Documents in the Jesuit Archives in Rome, pp. 6-7.

"這兒所呈獻出的金文叢考是把原有的金文叢考, 金文餘釋之餘, 古代銘刻彙考和續編中的金文部分匯集起來的, 略略有些刪改和補充"