Shengwuji
The Shèngwǔjì was a book on Qing Dynasty rebellions and border conflicts, written by Wei Yuan in 1842. Despite its potentially "dangerous" content (discussion of military strategy was not considered appropriate for public knowledge), which should have caused it to be censored by the Nagasaki authorities and blocked from entering the country, copies of the book were quickly obtained by prominent shogunate officials.
The first copy known to have entered Japan came aboard a Chinese ship at Nagasaki in 1844 and was quickly acquired by rôjû Abe Masahiro. The three other rôjû soon obtained copies as well. By 1848, imported copies were finding their way onto the public (popular) market, and by 1850, Japanese translations had been published and were being read by many shogunate officials and prominent intellectuals.
References
- Marius Jansen, China in the Tokugawa World, Harvard University Press (1992), 75.
