天一阁

The Tianyige Library: a symbol of the continuity of Chinese culture. ABSTRACT The Tianyige (TYGTYG Temple Youth Group TYG There You Go TYG Tong Yang Group (Asia) TYG Thank You Girl (song) TYG the younger generation ..... Click the link for more information.) Library is the most ancient private library still in existence in China. It is also the oldest private library in Asia and one of the three earliest private libraries in the world. It was built between 1561 and 1566 by the Defense Minister Fan Qin during the Ming Dynasty Ming dynasty (1368–1644) Chinese dynasty that provided an interval of native rule between eras of Mongol and Manchu dominance. The Ming, one of the most stable but autocratic of dynasties, extended Chinese influence farther than did any other native rulers of China. . TYG witnessed the glories and the turmoil of the Ming and Qing dynasties, war, revolution, and numerous social changes and its own triumphs and downfalls. After 400 years of preservation and management by thirteen generations of the Fan family, in 1949 it was donated to the government at the time of the establishment of the People's RepublicPeople's Republic n. A political organization founded and controlled by a national Communist party. ..... Click the link for more information. of China. The collection is strongest in local histories and imperial examination records during the Ming period. It is a remarkable representation of the Chinese private book-collecting tradition as well as a symbol of the continuity of Chinese culture and civilization. THE TIANYIGE LIBRARY AND CHINESE BOOK-COLLECTING TRADITION The book-collecting tradition of China can be dated back to the Zhou Dynasty Zhou dynasty  or Chou dynasty (1046–256 BC) Ancient Chinese dynasty that gave China its historically identifying political and cultural characteristics.  (1100 BC-770 BC), more than 3,000 years ago, but substantial private libraries only began to develop later during what was called the "Spring and Autumn" and the "Warring States" periods (770 BC-221 BC). Confucius, Laozi, and many other distinguished intellectuals were among the earliest private book collectors (Ren, 2001, pp. 12-13). Private book collecting book collecting, or bibliophily, the acquiring of books that are, or are expected to become, rare and that possess permanent interest in addition to their texts. Collecting has traditionally concentrated on first editions in the field of pure literature.  grew rapidly during the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties (618-1368). In the Ming period (1368-1644), it reached its greatest prosperity in the south of China because this was the richest region of the country. The tradition of private book collecting had always had the aim of creating a cultural legacy for families as well as for society. Most book collectors were great scholars, researchers, and edition appraisers. Sixteenth-century political stability, economic prosperity, and cultural dynamism resulted in the birth of the Tianyige (TYG) Library and many other private libraries around Ningbo, a tranquil coastal city near the Yangtze riverYangtze River  Chinese Chang Jiang or Ch'ang Chiang River, China. Rising in the Tanggula Mountains in west-central China, it flows southeast before turning northeast and then generally east across south-central and east-central China to the East China ..... Click the link for more information., in the northeastern part of Zhejiang Province. Ningbo is one of the country's oldest cities with a history dating back to 4800 BC. It was already a booming business and trade center during the Tang Dynasty Tang dynasty  or T'ang dynasty (618–907) Chinese dynasty that succeeded the short-lived Sui and became a golden age for poetry, sculpture, and Buddhism.  (618-907). While thousands of private libraries/book depositories were created during Chinese history, TYG is the only one that still remains today as an independent entity with its original architectural structure An architectural structure is a free-standing, immobile outdoor construction. The structure may be permanent. Typical examples include buildings and nonbuilding structures such as bridges, dams, electricity pylons, and radio masts.  and collections. The others have been destroyed by warfare, fire, or poor management. While some continue to have a form of existence as a collection of books, no others remain as a self-governing unit (Huang, Li, & Xu, 2002). FAN QIN: A VISIONARY BOOK COLLECTOR Fan Qin was the founder of the TYG Library. He was a successful and visionary book-collector who lived in the reign of the Ming Emperor Jiajing (1522-1566). Fan became an official at the age of twenty-six when he passed the highest imperial civil service examination (Yu, 2003b, p. 138). As a high-ranking administrator, he was assigned to official positions in many different regions. Unlike other book-collectors, who all favored collecting books on ancient classic studies, Fan had a keen interest in contemporary local histories and regional historic documents related to political affairs Political Affairs has several meanings: Political Affairs Magazine, the national magazine published by the Communist Party of the United States · In the US government, the Senior Advisor to the President on Political Affairs  and examination records. (1) He was able to acquire many valuable and sometimes unique copies of local records from places that were often remote and isolated. These regions had their own distinctive histories, records of which often could not be found elsewhere. Thus TYG's collection is particularly valuable since Fan was one of the few people who collected these kinds of contemporary works of the Ming Dynasty. The TYG Library holds 370 Ming imperial examination record titles. This is 80 percent of all the Ming imperial examination publications in the country. Many of them are the only copies in existence (Xu, 2003, pp. 302-3). They constitute a vital resource for research on the Ming Dynasty (Ren, 2001, pp. 12-13). TYG held over 70,000volumes by the end of the first generation of the Fan family; most of them were block-printed or hand-copied editions from the Ming period. STRICT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM That the TYG Library is still standing after more than 400 years is the result of rigorous rules that were laid down by its founder, Fan Qin, and the strict observation of these rules by his descendants. Before Fan Qin died, he divided his property into two shares for his two sons, one share consisting of money, the other the library. His eldest son, Fan Dachong, chose the library as his share of the inheritance and promised his father that he would use part of his family income to take care of it. Dachong established additional rules for his children to follow in order to preserve and keep the collection together. He decreed that the library would not be divided like other family property after his death and that it was the responsibility of the entire Fan family to protect, preserve, and maintain the collection (Luo, 1993, p. 51). One rule stated that the library's door could only be unlocked when all branches of the family members were present. Another rule prohibited smoking and drinking alcohol inside the library. Family members would not be allowed to attend the ancestor worshipancestor worship, ritualized propitiation and invocation of dead kin. Ancestor worship is based on the belief that the spirits of the dead continue to dwell in the natural world and have the power to influence the fortune and fate of the living. ..... Click the link for more information. ceremonies for a year if they brought an outsider to the library. A punishment of no worship for three years would be invoked if books were taken out of the library for a loan. Anyone who dared to sell a single book would be disowned dis·own   tr.v. dis·owned, dis·own·ing, dis·owns To refuse to acknowledge or accept as one's own; repudiate.  by the family. None of the Fan descendants violated those rules since exclusion from worshipping their ancestors was considered the most severe punishment possible (Yu, 2004b, p. 9). This approach of mutual supervision and restraint prevented possession of the library becoming personal, prevented unrestricted visits to the library, and minimized the possibility of loss and dispersal of the collection. Most of the Fan male offspring were serious scholars. They were proud of having the TYG collection as their family heritage and respected the family regulations for the library. It is obvious that these rules made it difficult to use the collection even for members of the family, and they suggest that their main focus was preservation rather than usage. Over four centuries, generation after generation, the family repaired the building and managed and preserved the collection, until the library was handed over to the government in 1949 (Yu, 2003a, p. 271). WATER MOTIF AND THOUGHTFUL PRESERVATION STRATEGIES In designing the library, Fan Qin gave considerable thought to strategies that would ensure its physical safety and the preservation of its collections. Besides warfare, fire was one of the biggest dangers for book collectors, and most of the other private libraries or collections were destroyed by fire. Fan Qin devised numerous ways, both symbolic and practical, to minimize this hazard. There were many water components in the library. A pond was built in front of the building to provide water to fight fires. The pond was also connected to a large lake in the city. The library was built of brick to prevent fire. There was a five-foot wide lane with a tall brick wall to separate the library from other residential dwellings in case of fire. All the ceilings in the building were painted with different water related designs--water plants, waves, water animals, and water gods. The library's name was even derived from an allusion al·lu·sion   n. 1. The act of alluding; indirect reference: Without naming names, the candidate criticized the national leaders by allusion. 2.  to water. Tianyi means "sky one," which was taken from a phrase of Yi Jing The Chinese term Yi Jing may refer to: · I Ching (monk), a Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk (Book of Changes)--"one room in the sky produces water and six rooms on the ground bring peace," meaning a spring that produced water could prevent fires. The two-story library building was constructed with one big room upstairs representing the sky and six rooms downstairs representing the earth (Yu, 2001, p. 37). Ningbo is a port city and the humidity is very high in certain months of the year. Fan Qin had the library built with windows on the north and south sides. He also had the book cases built with two openings, one in the front and another in the back with plenty of free space among books in the cases to allow air to circulate to avoid mold growth. The windows and the bookcases were opened frequently to decrease the humidity and bring fresh air into the facility. The books were taken out of the bookcases and completely aired twice a year. A special type of herb called Yun Xiang Cao was used to drive away moths This is an incomplete list of species of Lepidoptera that are commonly known as moths. Large and dramatic moth species · Death's-head Hawkmoth Acherontia atropos · Luna Moth Actias luna · Atlas moth Attacus atlas . A particular kind of rock was put under the bookcases as a dehydrator de·hy·dra·tor   n. 1. A substance, such as sulfuric acid, that removes water. 2. An appliance or an engineered system designed to remove water from substances such as absorbents or food.  to minimize the humidity problem (Xu, 2003, p. 87). PROSPERITY, SETBACKS, AND REVITALIZATION Between Ming Emperor Jiajing (1521-1567) and the early years of Qing Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795), Tianyige enjoyed its most prosperous period. Before Fan Qin died, the collection had reached 5,000 titles and 70,000 volumes (Yuan, 2002b). During the stewardship of his son Fan Dachong, his grandson Fan Runan, and his great-grandson Fan Guangwen, TYG's collections continued to grow, though slowly given the family's decreased income and their financial commitment to maintaining and preserving the collection. Over 400 titles had been added to the collection between 1644 and 1773. In 1665 Fan Guangwen, Fan Qin's great-grandson, hired architects and skilled workers to build rockeries and expand the pond outside the library building, turning the facility into a graceful garden, which was designed to promote happiness, richness, and longevity (Yu, 2001, p. 83). In 1673 Huang Zongxi This is a Chinese name; the family name is Huang. Huang Zongxi (Traditional Chinese: 黃宗羲; Simplified Chinese:  (1610-1695) was the first outsider scholar allowed in the library. This was the first opening of the library to the outside academic world and suggests changing attitudes in the family to the use of the library. Huang was a nationally known political theorist, philosopher, and scholar of the Ming-Qing dynasties. He was also an important book-collector. His collection exceeded 10,000 volumes, but flood and fire destroyed four-fifths of his books (Yan, 1990, p. 1216-21). His visit to the library was approved by all branches of the Fan family, and it became quite a news story for the literary society of the time. He is said to have read every title in the library, and he compiled a bibliography of the rare materials, which made the collections more widely known. Huang also wrote an article, "Tianyige Cang Shu Ji" (an essay about TYG's book-collecting), which is well-known among Chinese scholars and book collectors: "Finding books to read is difficult; collecting books is more difficult. However collecting books and keeping them together generation after generation is the most difficult" (Yu, 2001, pp. 9-10). From 1673 to the end of the nineteenth century, TYG was opened to perhaps only a dozen nationally renowned scholars (Yu, 2003b, pp. 71-72). In the mid-eighteenth century the TYG library began to experience hardships and setbacks. The first major setback was related to the compilation of Si Ku Quan Shu (SKQS), known in English as The Great Encyclopedia of the Four Treasures The mythological Tuatha Dé Danann came to Ireland from four cities on four islands; Murias, Falias, Gorias and Findias, bringing with them The Four Treasures, also known as The Hallows of Ireland. , which was compiled from 1772 to 1782 for Emperor Qianling (reigned 1736-1795). It was an attempt to gather all known classical works before the Qianlong era into one colossal work, including philosophy, history, literature, art, political systems, social studies, economics, astronomy, geography, mathematics, medical studies, etc. (Langer & Stearns, 2001). The first set of the encyclopedia was completed in ten years, and another eight years were spent making six copies in the original style. The copying, editing, and correcting by hand required over 4,000 scholars, officials, copyists, and clerks. SKQS is the largest systematically compiled encyclopedic en·cy·clo·pe·dic   adj. 1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of an encyclopedia. 2. Embracing many subjects; comprehensive: "an ignorance almost as encyclopedic as his erudition"  collection of Chinese classical works and is an invaluable scholarly tool (Qi, 1994, pp. 127-37). In 1773 Fan Maozhu, the eighth generation descendant of Fan Qin, had to lend 638 titles (one title could contain multiple volumes) to the imperial court for this compilation, of which the text of 96 titles was included in the SKQS. Over 350 rare titles (some the only copies in existence) were also included in The General Catalog of SKQS (Yu, 2004b, p. 78). Although the emperor promised to return all the books after their use, very few of the volumes actually made their way back to the library. This was the first major loss for TYG since its foundation. However, Emperor Qianlong was amazed a·maze   v. a·mazed, a·maz·ing, a·maz·es v.tr. 1. To affect with great wonder; astonish. See Synonyms at surprise. 2. Obsolete To bewilder; perplex. v.intr.  by the age and quality of the TYG collection, the library's unique architectural design This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details. This article has been tagged since September 2007. , and its imaginative and effective management and preservation strategies. He described TYG as the number one private library of the country (Yuan, 2003, p. 220-21). In 1774, as a reward for sharing so many valuable titles for the compilation of SKQS, the Emperor gave TYG a set of Gu Jin Tu Shu Ji Cheng Ji Cheng (计成) (1582 - c. 1642) was a Ming dynasty garden designer. Ji Cheng was born in the Ming Wanli Reign 10th year (1582) in Tongli township, Wujiang county, Suzhou.  (Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China), consisting of 10,000 volumes printed with bronze moveable blocks, and two sets of imperial paintings by the Jesuit missionary and artist Castiglione (1688-1766), Ping Ding Jin Chuan Tu and Ping Ding Hui Bu De Sheng sheng (Chinese; “sage” or “saint”) In Chinese belief, a mortal who attains extraordinary or supernatural powers by self-cultivation and serves as a model for others. Confucius used the term to refer to exemplary rulers of the past.  Tu. The latter contained the poems of the emperor himself and his imperial seals. TYG also became the model for the seven imperial libraries that were to house the seven copies of the SKQS that the emperor had ordered to be constructed in different parts of the country. The seven libraries imitate the architectural design and the organizational structure To comply with Wikipedia's lead section guidelines, one should be written.  of the bookcases of TYG, and all seven of them have water references in their names to lessen the likelihood of fire (Yu, 2004b, p. 88). The preservation and protection strategies of the TYG Library were also adopted in many other private libraries across the nation. The library faced other problems in the course of its history. During the Opium War (1840-42), British invaders broke into the library and took away dozens of titles. In 1861, when Taiping rebels were marching into Ningbo, a burglar took advantage of the havoc, broke through the back brick wall, and stole many books. Some were sold by the pound to a paper recycling Paper recycling is the process of recovering waste paper and remaking it into new paper products. There are three categories of paper that can be used as feedstocks for making recycled paper: mill broke, pre-consumer waste, and post-consumer waste.  factory, with many invaluable works became the raw material for making paper. Another highly organized robbery, however, created the most disastrous misadventuremisadventure n. a death due to unintentional accident without any violation of law or criminal negligence. Thus, there is no crime. (See: homicide) MISADVENTURE, crim. law, torts. An accident by which an injury occurs to another. ..... Click the link for more information. for the library. In 1914 a notorious robber named Xue Jiwei was sent by an unscrupulous Shanghai book vendor to sneak into the library (Huang & Hu, 2003, p. 285). He had a list of rare titles in hand and stole them title by title. He slept by day and worked by night for over ten days without detection (an unforeseen consequence of the family rules restricting entrance to the library). A boat was waiting for him in the lake outside the library. Another bigger boat was standing by a little closer to the seacoast to transport the stolen books to Shanghai. The library lost almost half of its most valuable titles as a result of this incident. The thief was eventually caught and put in prison (Yu, 2001, p. 133). Many of the books were purchased by Zhang Yuanji, who was in charge of Shang Wu Yin Shu Guan guan: see curassow.  (the C