The Book of Saving Lives

Lü KunThe Commercial Press · ChinaJun 2024

3.8

Word count: 11K words
Chapters: 7

Summary

Lü Kun, courtesy name Shujian, sobriquet Xinwu, was a native of Ningling, Henan. He was born in the fifteenth year of the Jiajing reign of Emperor Shizong of Ming (1536) and died in the forty-sixth year of the Wanli reign of Emperor Shenzong (1618). The great affairs of this county lie in its walls and dikes; what the two gentlemen labored and planned for was likewise nothing more urgent than the walls and dikes. Within [the walls] one must absolutely not plant trees, which would block the view from the city wall and conceal the bodies of bandits outside the city. [V] The character following “yi” is effaced; the Lailutang edition and the Chubian edition read “ri,” and it is restored accordingly. The purport is largely to insist that city walls and dikes should be repaired, that civilian levies should be drilled, and that plans should be made early so as to be invincible. The Book of Deliverance was published together with it, so that both warfare and defense might have models to follow.

Editor's review

The Book of Deliverance was written by Lü Kun of the Ming dynasty and is a photo-offset reprint of the original Commercial Press (Minguo) edition. Judging from the surviving text, the book’s concerns are extremely concrete: the repair and defense of walls and dikes, the organization and drilling of civilian levies, and details such as planting trees inside the city that block the view and conceal bandits—all point toward defensive preparation, “planning early so as to be invincible.” Its value lies in turning abstract anxiety into operable items of city defense; it carries both the practical worries of a local official and a tone of mobilization aimed at gentry and commoners. The photo-offset edition preserves the appearance of the original printing and its collation marks, allowing readers to observe how traditional texts on famine relief and defense against bandits were reissued in modern publishing. It should be read as a local defense manual with a clear sense of scene, not as a systematic military treatise; note the interconnections among walls, dikes, levies, and trees, and attend to the textual transmission issues suggested by variant readings.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Historians studying Ming local governance, city defense, and gentry mobilization
Readers interested in traditional famine-relief and bandit-defense texts and emergency practice
Scholars of rare books concerned with photo-offset reprints and textual collation
Readers who enjoy understanding ancient crisis response through concrete items

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking modern emergency-rescue technology or systematic management solutions
Readers expecting a complete military-theory system or general treatise on strategy
Beginners impatient with old-style typography, classical Chinese entries, and collation symbols

Reading tips

First read the table of contents and prefaces to understand the sequence linking city defense, dike works, civilian levies, and tree planting, then read in sections.
Restore each recommendation to a concrete scene: who executes it, when, and under what constraints; annotate what is operable and what is doubtful.
Slow down at collation marks such as “effaced” and “restored accordingly,” and judge from context how variant readings affect the meaning.
Read alongside Ming local gazetteers on wall and dike repair to test the feasibility and limits of the book’s proposals in local practice.

About the publisher

The Commercial Press China · Founded in 1897

"Republic-era Commercial Press Original Editions" refers to original books printed by The Commercial Press during the Republican period, not a separate publishing house. Judging from the 300 titles held in the collection, its publishing focus centers on classical poetry and lyrics, literary appreciation, classic works, military texts, prose and miscellaneous writings, and Eastern philosophy. Representative titles include Wang Guowei's Renjian Cihua, Zhong Rong's Shipin, the lyric collections of Xin Qiji and Liu Yong, Sun Wu's The Art of War, and Lü Buwei's Xianshi Lan. Its author resources are mainly classical writers, together with modern scholars such as Li Jingbang and Guo Huaruo, whose collations and annotations are also represented, giving the list a character centered on original texts while attending to annotation and appreciation. Public information on the precise Republican-era catalog and printings is limited; this overview is based only on the titles held in the collection.

版权信息
救命书序
救命书题辞
救命书
救命书跋
救命书点校凡例
附录

FAQ

Is The Book of Deliverance mainly about city defense or famine relief?

Judging from the surviving text, its core concerns are the repair and defense of walls and dikes and the organization and drilling of civilian levies; it belongs to local defense and emergency preparation and carries the anxious awareness of “first making oneself invincible.” It is neither a pure famine-relief book nor a systematic military treatise, but a local practical text that translates defense preparation into concrete items. Readers should understand it within the context of late Ming local governance and crisis response.

How should the item “do not plant trees inside the city” be understood?

The original means that planting trees inside the city would block the view from the wall and might also conceal bandits outside, hindering observation and guard duty. The recommendation reflects a practical logic that prioritizes sight lines and security for city defense, not a general idea of greening. Read it together with the entries on walls, dikes, and civilian levies to understand how the ancients incorporated the everyday environment into defensive calculations.

Do the collation symbols in the photo-offset edition affect reading?

They do to some extent, but they can also serve as reading clues. Marks such as “effaced” and “restored accordingly” indicate that the original text is damaged or has variant readings, and that the editor supplied characters from other editions. On a first reading, skip the symbols to grasp the sense, then return to these places and consider how different editions’ wording affects the understanding of the defense proposals. For scholarly citation, note that the source is the photo-offset original and the collation supplements.

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About the author

Lü Kun Author · Chinese · 1536–1618

Lü Kun (1536–1618), courtesy name Shujian and style name Xinwu, was a native of Ningling, Henan, and a Ming dynasty thinker and man of letters. A jinshi of 1574, he served as Grand Coordinator of Shanxi and Vice Minister of Justice; upright and incorruptible in office, he was known with Shen Li and Guo Zhengyu as the "three worthies" of the Wanli reign. He championed practical learning and helped open the way for the late Ming and early Qing currents of reformist and enlightenment thought. His works include Shenyin Yu, Quwei Zhai Ji and Shizheng Lu. His writing spans Eastern philosophy, prose miscellany and folk literature; twelve titles are held here, including several editions of Shenyin Yu, Xinwu Lü Xiansheng Shizheng Lu, Jiuming Shu, Xu Xiao'er Yu, and the annotated Chinese family-instruction series. Whether discussing self-cultivation and governance, recording administrative and everyday life, or collecting maxims and household precepts, his plain, practical style emphasizes daily conduct and has influenced later writing on self-improvement and literary appreciation.