On the Shin Ei sen ki, the Japanese Edition of the Shengwu ji, and Nagai Kafū’s Shitaya sōwa

Abstract

Though not a fictionalized account, one chronicle written in a combination of Japanese syllabaries and Chinese characters that traces the Opium War from its start through the concluding negotiations is Nagayama Nuki’s Shin Ei sen ki (Account of the War between China and Britain) (manuscript edition in four stringbound volumes). The work was apparently not published but circulated in manuscript form, and manuscript editions are now quite rare. The copy in my possession bears a stamp reading ‘seal of Imazeki Tenpō.’