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In his famous essay "Qu'est-ce qu'un Auteur?" ["What is an Author"], Michel Foucault asked the question: "Quand on entreprend de publier, par exemple, les oeuvres de Nietzsche, où faut-il s'arrêter?" (Foucault 1969, 79) ["When undertaking the publication of Nietzsche's works, for example, where should one stop?" (Foucault 1979, 143)]. Ostensibly a question about the limits of a "work", it is also a question about the value: what parts of an author's work are worth editing? His response, unequivocal at first, was: "Il faut tout publier, bien sûr" ["Surely everything must be published"]. But thereupon, he asks, "mais que veut dire ce 'tout'?" ["but what is 'everything'?"]. After accepting such items as "les brouillons de ses oeuvres" ["the rough drafts od his works"] and "les projets d'aphorismes" ["the plans for his aphorisms"], Foucault suggests that unliterary notations be collected as well - "l'indication d'un rendez-vous ou d'une adresse" ["the notation of a meeting or of an address"] and "une note de blanchisserie" ["a laundry list"] - and, thereby, radicalizes the question. Foucault then holds his ground and, instead of proposing a practical solution, points out: "La théorie de l'oeuvre n'existe pas, et ceux qui ingénument entreprennent d'éditer des oeuvres manquent d'une telle théorie et leur travail empirique s'en trouve bien vite paralysé" (1969, 79) ["A theory of the work does not exist, and the empirical task of those who naively undertake the editing of works often suffer in the absence of such a theory" (1979, 143-44)].
In the forty years since Foucault's pronouncement, such issues have been repeatedly discussed in the West, but not so in Japan, where the common, tacit assumption about the limits of a work is that there should be no limit. The Japanese concept of limitlessness, embodied in zenshü, may offer some valuable sidelights on Foucault's dilemma, for according to the common assumption zenshü should be as inclusive as possible. So for editors the question as to where to stop is answered quite simply: there is no need to stop.
Zenshü and Japanese modernization
The term zenshü ... consists of two Chinese characters: zen ... which means "everything", and shü ..., which means "collection". The word can be translated as "complete works", although with some caveats....