A treasure trove of knowledge

Opened in November to the public, it has a large collection of books and periodicals published before 1949 and after, comparable in number with or even larger than leading domestic public libraries

People interested in Chinese books and periodicals published in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and the Republic of China before 1949 can visit Zashuguan library in northeastern Beijing.

The library consists of two sections. One is a two-story "new library", which contains books published after 1949. Here, locals and visitors can take books from the open shelves and sit on the couches and chairs to browse through them.

The other section is the "older" one, where more precious books, periodicals and materials published before 1949 are kept.

Readers are therefore not allowed to stroll through the three-story building searching for books on their own.

A private library that opened in late November to the public, Zashuguan is characterized by za (diversity).

It has a large collection of books and periodicals published before 1949, comparable in number with or even larger than leading domestic public libraries, such as the National Library of China, in categories like periodicals from the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, folklore, librettos for local Chinese operas, and ancient encyclopedias that cover matters relating to ordinary people's daily lives - from growing vegetables to managing family finance.

"We have more than 14,000 titles of periodicals that were published from the late Qing Dynasty to the founding of the People's Republic of China, in comparison with a total of 15,000 titles in the National Library of China and Shanghai Library," says Zhao Xiao, deputy curator of Zashuguan.

On the ground floor are more than 50,000 titles in English and other languages published since the 17th century, including more than 10,000 titles about China that were published overseas before 1949. The foreign publications are about adventures in China, records of historical events from personal experience and China's folk culture studies.

On the second floor are the most valuable books and materials.

China's system of higher education started in the late Qing Dynasty. Offering evidence of this is Zhao, who walks to the shelves, and takes a yellow-leaved book with dog ears from a stack.

It is a textbook of the Imperial Tientsin University (former Tianjin University) founded in 1895, the first modern university in China.

On the lower part of the torn cover are printed characters which say: "Save our nation with science and education. Reconstruct our nation using entrepreneurship."

"We might have the largest and best collection of early teaching materials in China," says Zhao.

From another shelf, he pulls out Public International Law, of which he says there are five versions. Another book is compiled by Liang Qichao, one of the major advocates of Western learning in the late Qing Dynasty. He used the book to introduce Western experience for China's social development.

"We have more than 5,000 titles of such books, and this is one of our specialties. It's not the focus of many public libraries but we want them," he says.

Another important collection, says Zhao, is the librettos of local operas in China. It is the biggest of its kind in the world.

"It's what common people read in old days," he says.

Many are about historical events and figures, such as the revolution of 1911, and the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-45). They provide a perspective of common people in many regions of China, and therefore provide important material for research of folk culture in different places.

Zashuguan also leads in the collection of folklore that came from sermons in temples in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907), telling ordinary people religious stories. The folklore, in literary form, reflects the religious and cultural life of ordinary people. Official statistics show that while there are more than 5,000 such Chinese titles around the world, Zashuguan has more than 4,000 of them.

The other collections include manuscripts, letters and personal materials of famous scholars, great writers, historians, philosophers and economists, such as Jin Yuelin, professor of philosophy at Peking University, Liang Qichao, Kang Youwei, Hu Shi and Cai Yuanpei.

On the second story, these precious manuscripts and letters, put in paper boxes, are everywhere on the floor, waiting to be sorted and arranged on the shelves.

"We have bought these manuscripts, letters and personal materials from waste dealers. They collect waste in famous universities at low prices and sort the waste out to find valuable pieces and sell to us," Zhao says.

Zhao and the founders of the library have been collecting precious historical materials for more than 20 years. When the library was built, more than 100 trucks of books, periodicals and materials were transported to the place, and 15 employees spent more than one year putting the collection on the shelves. It will take another two years to put the information about the collection online.

"Thanks to a market economy and the Internet, we can now buy and sell our collections very easily on online platforms," says Zhao.

Gao Xiaosong, a famous songwriter-singer-talkshow host, who is also one of the founders of the library, is the curator.

The library is busy on weekends. Zhao says: "Too many visitors put pressure on our operation because it is a nonprofit library. As the cost of running the library is high, we hire part-time staff on weekends and limit reader numbers.

"But we are happy to see so many readers at our library. We welcome people from all over the world to read and do research using our resources," he says.

yangyang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 01/01/2016 page26)