Classic case of good fortune
By Liu Jun | China Daily | Updated: 2008-09-02 07:57
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A technician shows how to reprint an ancient publication at an exhibition running at the National Library. Wu Changqing |
For classics expert Li Zhizhong, it was a once-in-a-lifetime discovery. While traveling around the country in search of texts for China's first National Classics Treasures List last year, Li found 97 books printed in the Liao Dynasty (916-1125).
Such books are very rare because the Khitan rulers of Liao strictly prohibited books from leaving its border and very few books printed in the Khitan language survived the wars against the Northern Song (960-1127), the Jin (1115-1234) and the Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties.
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