On November 13, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a notice a few days ago to announce the "Sixth Batch of National List of Rare Ancient Books (752)" and "The Sixth Batch of National Key Protected Ancient Books List (23)."
Rao Quan, director of the National Library, pointed out on the 13th that the sixth batch of "National List of Precious Ancient Books" and "National Key Protection Units for Ancient Books" selected 752 national precious ancient books and named 23 national key protection units for ancient books. The Ministry officially announced to the public.
Up to now, a total of six batches of the National Catalogue of Precious Ancient Books have been collected from the first batch in 2008 and a total of 13,026 national precious ancient books have been included, and 203 have been named "National Key Protected Ancient Books".
Rao Quan pointed out that the sixth batch of catalogues of ancient books fully demonstrated a series of new achievements and discoveries in the census and collection of ancient books in recent years, mainly including the following aspects:
The first is that the collection of ancient books in recent years has yielded fruitful results. For example, the National Library purchased three early prints. Among them, the 927 block-printed version of "Buddha Viewpoint Maitreya Bodhisattva Shangsheng Dousita Tianjing" in the second year of Tang Tiancheng after Five Dynasties is the earliest known engraving in China. Printed matter is an important example of early printed matter; Nanjing Library purchased the Northern Song Dynasty version of "Ritual Rhyme", which is the earliest extant engraved edition at home and abroad; Hubei Provincial Library newly purchased the Northern Song Dynasty script "Dafang Guangfo" "Huayan Sutra", excellent paper and ink, rare in the world, precious.
The second is the discovery of a number of precious ancient books through the census of ancient books, such as the "Qianlong Yuding Stone Scripture" collected by the Confucius Museum, which was a new discovery made by the National Ancient Books Conservation Center in 2019 when the National Ancient Books Conservation Center held a census cataloguing training class. After the Confucius Mansion was awarded in the first year of Jiaqing, it has been preserved to this day; the rubbing of the early Ming Dynasty "Ru Tie" collected by the Chongqing Library is also a major discovery in the cataloguing of inscriptions; the fragmented copy of the Song Dynasty "Du Gong Bu" discovered by the Shanghai Library during the census of ancient books Caotang Poems can be combined with the collections of the National Library and the Shanghai Museum.
The third is the continuous emergence of famous manuscripts and school manuscripts, famous manuscripts, manuscripts, and postscripts and postscripts, in an orderly collection, with important document and cultural relic value.
For example, Fan Qin's "Seven Collections of Jian'an" collected by the Shanghai Library, the title of the volume, the biographies, the catalog, and the source of the poems and essays noted on the bookbrow are all handwritten by Fan Qin, the owner of Tianyi Pavilion.
Fourth, a number of beautifully drawn color books in ancient maps were selected. For example, the National Library of China's collection of the Daoguang period in the Qing Dynasty "The Complete Map of the Inner and Outer Cities of Beijing", which imaged the inner city walls, gates, palaces, government offices, royal palaces, The temples, as well as the criss-crossing streets and Hu Ping, are a large, detailed and richly painted map of the capital.
Fifth, precious ancient books in ethnic minority languages are rich and colorful. Tibetan "Prajna Paramita Eight Thousand Songs" is the first selected Qing copper plate print among ancient books in ethnic minority languages. Mongolian "Water Margin", "Journey to the West" and "A Dream of Red Mansions" are inter-ethnic cultures. Examples of exchanges and mutual learning; other precious ancient books include the first prints of classics, such as the 1867 Hamburg edition "Das Kapital" (Volume One) collected by the National Library, which is the first print in German and the old collection of Li Yimeng. The version value.
Rao Quan further introduced that among the 23 newly-evaluated "National Key Protection Units for Ancient Books", the number of recommended candidates has increased compared with the fifth batch, especially in the central and western regions.
On the one hand, the storage conditions of ancient books in Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan and other provinces, especially prefectures and cities, continue to improve. Yunnan Chuxiong Yi Culture Research Institute, Xishuangbanna Library and other important collection and research units of ancient books in ethnic minority languages have been used as current domestic collections. The institutions with the largest number of ancient books in Yi and Dai languages and the best preservation conditions were selected; Ordos City Library, Bayannaoer City Library, Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences Library, etc. were selected for their rich collection of ancient books with Manchu and Mongolian characteristics.
On the other hand, after a census, the number of ancient books in more prefectures and even lower-level libraries has reached the reporting standard. For example, the number of rare books in Ningbo City Library and Pinghu City Library in Zhejiang Province has reached more than 3,000, and they have been declared selected.
At the same time, the enthusiasm of the cultural and cultural system to participate in the selection has been further improved, and the number of recommended units has increased. The National Museum, Tianjin Museum, Xi'an Stele Forest Museum, Yuyao Cultural Insurance Institute, and Ganzhou District Museum are included in the recommended list, showing Chinese ancient books The protection work continues to deepen, and the concept of protecting and making good use of precious ancient books has increasingly become the consensus of all sectors of the country.
According to Rao Quan, in the next step, the National Library (National Ancient Books Protection Center) will work with local libraries (Ancient Books Protection Center) to continue to implement the Chinese Ancient Books Protection Plan, steadily advance the national ancient books protection project, and further promote the establishment of scientific and effective Chinese classics. Long-term protection mechanism.
At the same time, it will increase the research and application of ancient book protection technology, focusing on the rescue of endangered and precious ancient books; promote the inclusion of ancient book classification standards into the cultural relics classification standard system, and promote the integration of ancient book protection and cultural relic protection; in the middle of this process We organically coordinate the generality of ancient books as cultural relics and the particularity of ancient books to promote this work.
Rao Quan stated that it is necessary to cooperate with ancient book protection units at home and abroad to create a comprehensive, well-organized, and fully functional ancient book digital resource service platform, to do a good job in the collation, research, interpretation, development and utilization of ancient books, and to deeply explore the implications of Chinese classics. The value of the times, and give full play to the important role of Chinese ancient books in inheriting and promoting the excellent traditional Chinese culture.