Jonathan: Yeah, I remember getting into it a little in high school, but college was something else. I read the Lao Tzu countless times and really felt I was a Taoist for a time. “Monastic bibliophilia” is a term I’ve never heard before but you’ve really gotten me intrigued. I liked the quotation quite a bit, too, thank you!

A-Joe: Thank you, good sir. You are a gentleman. I will update the blog post without haste.

Wenxuan is written 文選, pronounced in Japanese Monzen.

http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Poetry/wenxuan.html

By the way, there’s a similar tradition of monastic bibliophilia in the West as well, e.g. Philobiblon” by Richard de Bury (chapter 1): “In books I find the dead as if they were alive; in books I foresee things to come; in books warlike affairs are set forth; from books come forth the laws of peace.” Books are even better teachers than real teachers! “[Books] are masters who instruct us without rod or ferule, without angry words, without clothes or money. If you come to them they are not asleep; if you ask and inquire of them they do not withdraw themselves; they do not chide if you make mistakes; they do not laugh at you if you are ignorant. O books, who alone are liberal and free, who give to all who ask of you and enfranchise all who serve you faithfully!”