National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

　`Yogaku Shinansho' is a ruisho (a book where writings are organized by category) of Chinese writings compiled in the Heian period and the second oldest of its kind after the national treasure, `Hifuryaku'. The compiler and the background to the creation of this book are unknown. This is a large collection of Chinese writings organized under a semantic classification and based on the representative references of the time, such as the Book of Odes (Moshi), the Book of Rites, the Spring and Autumn Annals, Shuo-wen chieh-tzu, the History of the Han, Shan-hai-ching, and the most frequently used reference of Wen-hsuan. They seem to have been compiled as textbooks for scholars of Chinese classics with reference to Chuxueji (30 volumes). The existing table of contents suggests that it originally comprised a total of 31 books with one list and 30 volumes of text.
　For the transcriptions of `Yogaku Shinansho', this series is the only one that exists now, which includes the following: one book possessed by Tokyo National Museum (an important cultural property formerly possessed by Umezawa Memorial Museum), six books possessed by Daitokyu Kinen Bunko, two books possessed by Yomei Bunko, two books possessed by Ochanomizu Library (an art treasure), and ten books possessed by National Palace Museum in Taiwan (formerly possessed by Yo Shukei). While this one lacks a postscript, the writing style seems to suggest that it was transcribed in the late Heian period. This is valuable in that the time of transcription and the time of compilation are close to each other, it shows the structure of the original, and it is an old transcription of a rare selection of Chinese classics. This was designated an important cultural property on February 2, 1962.