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913 University Ave.
Madison, Wis. 53706
Nov 23, 1964
Prof. and Mrs. Richard B. Mather
Department of Oriental Languages and Literature
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Dear Professor and Mrs. Mather:
I am writing this letter to express my profound and sincere gratitude to you for the hospitality you have so kindly extended to me when I stayed in Minneapolis with Miss Chou. You must know how much I have enjoyed the conversations and home life I shared with you, and how greatly benefited I have been by my visits of the very attractive Chinese classes and the library at Minnesota. My memory of Mrs. Mather's superb cookery makes me hesitate to enter any restaurant here.
I hope Professor Mather's translation of Shih-shuo hsin-yü 《世说新语》will come out very soon. Recently I read a part of Ch'u hsüh chi 《初学记》and found quite a few citations from Shih-shuo . Have you checked through this book？Of course scholars have known that it contains passages from Shih-shuo , such as the episodes about Wang Kuang王广and Wei Ming-ti魏明帝. But it is a question whether it has been checked thoroughly. Although most of the citations are only summaries from the original and have little use for textual studies, such as the story about Wang Tun王敦's golden whip, yet others may provide a little different versions. For example徐坚's book says, “刘聪为玉镜台”, whereas Shih-shuo does not say“为”. I also found Ch'u hsüh chi cited a number of passages from Liu I-ch'ing's another work《幽明录》. Other general encyclopedias like《北堂书钞》also cited a lot from Shih-shuo ; you might have checked them.
（整理者按：原信至此）