This scroll was printed in Xinchang in Xhejiong Province (near Shaoxing). It is headed 'A complete illustration/chart of sagely learning' (translation).

The text includes a 'preface' at the top with, below it, various diagrams relating to the work of different Chinese emperors and mystics. Dr Frances Wood has observed that it is ' ... all about divination. .... and very rare indeed as [such items] would not often have been kept in China or accorded space in a respectable Confucian library'.¹

It seems likely that this rare item was acquired by Soane as a curiosity of antiquarian interest. It does appear in the original inventories of Soane's collection, finalised in 1837. It was at that time in the Strong Closet (where Soane kept plate and valuable MSS) and described as 'A tin case containing a Hindoo or Chinese Alphabet' (AB inventory, p.338). On 22 April 1837 it appears in a MS list of the contents of various closets described in the same way as 'tin case with Hindoo or Chinese alphabet'. The tin case or tube in which it is still stored is labelled in George Bailey's handwriting (the first Curator of the Museum, who had worked for Soane since 1807) 'roll of Chinese dynasties'. The outside of the scroll itself has an inscription in brown ink in a 19th century hand (not George Bailey's hand): A CHINESE DOCUMENT / looks like a genealogical roll / of the Imperial Dynasties (GHB [initials enclosed with a curved line before them; is this a record by someone else of something George Bailey said verbally, perhaps, with his initials to indicate that the information came from him?]

¹ Unpublished description in the Museum's research files.

We are grateful to Dr Frances Wood, formerly of the British Library, for her help in identifying and describing this scroll in 1999.