The Chinese civilization has a long history and is extensive and profound. It is the unique spiritual identity of the Chinese nation, the foundation of contemporary Chinese culture, the spiritual bond that maintains the Chinese around the world, and the treasure of Chinese cultural innovation.

In the long historical process, the Chinese nation has left behind a vast sea of ​​ancient books.

This is the carrier of the historical memory, ideological wisdom and knowledge system of the Chinese nation, and the cultural gene flowing in our blood.

The protection, restoration and utilization of precious ancient books are related to the continuation and inheritance of Chinese culture.

  From "strengthening the protection and utilization of cultural relics and ancient books" into the "Government Work Report" in 2022, to the "Opinions on Promoting the Work of Ancient Books in the New Era" issued by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council, the party and the state attach great importance to the protection of ancient books; The series of exhibitions "A Thousand Flowers of the Book House", which has sparked a boom in exhibitions all over the country, to the popular cultural program "China in Classics", the words written in ancient books are coming out of the yellowed pages and living stand up……

Have an "identity card"

  Open the "National Ancient Books Census and Registration Catalogue" on the China Ancient Books Protection Network, and the ancient book census and registration catalogues compiled by the Confucius Museum, Beijing Normal University Library, Chongqing Library and other collection units are presented in front of you.

  This is one of the important achievements of the national census of ancient books.

  The voluminous ancient books have gone through the vicissitudes of life and recorded the stories of Chinese civilization for thousands of years.

Under the influence of dynasties, wars, natural disasters and other factors, a large number of ancient books have been scattered or damaged to varying degrees.

So, how many ancient books have survived to this day?

  In order to find out the family background and inherit the cultural context, in 2007, the "Chinese Ancient Books Protection Plan" was officially implemented.

As a basic work, the census of ancient book resources has been carried out in an all-round way across the country.

  According to Su Pinhong, director of the Office of the National Ancient Books Protection Center, at present, the distribution and preservation of ancient book resources across the country are basically clear.

The national census of ancient books has completed more than 2.7 million and another 18,000 letters, and 30 provinces have basically completed the census in Chinese, accounting for more than 90% of the expected total. %above.

  Through the directory review and census, a number of precious documents were newly discovered, such as the "Lake" character booklet of "Yongle Dadian", 3 heavyweight early Tang Dynasty prints, and the first rubbing of "Qianlong Royal Ding Shijing".

  Census, so that every ancient book has an "identity card".

According to statistics, by the end of 2021, the "Basic Database of National Ancient Book Census Registration" has released a total of 7.973 million volumes/pieces of ancient book census data from 264 units.

The "National Ancient Books Census and Registration Catalog" has published a total of 189 volumes of 123 kinds of census catalogs from 509 collection units, including 1.27 million items. Tianjin, Chongqing, Zhejiang, Ningxia, Hunan and other provinces have completed the publication of census registration catalogs.

The first draft of the Tianjin Volume of "General Catalogue of Chinese Ancient Books" has been compiled, and the compilation of the National Map Volume, Hunan Volume, and Zhejiang Volume is in progress.

  On the basis of the census and registration, important achievements have also been made in the review and naming of the "National Precious Ancient Books List" and "National Key Protection Units for Ancient Books".

Since the implementation of the "Chinese Ancient Books Protection Plan", six batches of "National Precious Ancient Books List" have been selected and announced, and a total of 13,026 ancient books have been included; a total of 203 "National Ancient Books Key Protection Units" have been named in six batches.

Rejuvenate your hands

  At the beginning of the year, the National Library of China announced that the restoration project of the Qing Palace "Tianlu Linlang", which lasted for 8 years, had been a complete success and was officially concluded.

With the assistance of scientific and technological means, more than 300 first-class damaged ancient books have been properly restored, and the style has been reproduced.

  Although paper has a thousand years of life, in the passage of time, a large number of ancient books have faded from the luster of the past, flocculated, acidified, moth-eaten, mold... Some ancient books have even become "book bricks" that cannot be read, or shattered when touched. , like cookie crumbs.

  In the face of ancient books "getting old" and "sick", the ancient book restorers, based on the principle of "repairing the old as the old", worked hard to race against time, buried their heads in the pile of old papers, and turned the rotten into a magical hand, leaving a leaf full of devastated precious treasures. Ancient books are revived and rejuvenated.

  For more than 10 years, relying on 12 "National Ancient Book Restoration Centers", the restoration of ancient books has been promoted from point to point, and the total number of ancient books restored nationwide has exceeded 3.85 million leaves.

These include a number of key restoration projects of national precious ancient books, including the Qing Palace "Tianlu Linlang" in the National Library, the "Nagra Cave Collection" in the Library of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province, and the precious ancient books of the Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties in Shanxi.

  The process of restoration is also a process of skill inheritance and talent cultivation.

Take the "Tianlu Linlang" restoration project as an example.

In 2013, the "Tianlu Linlang" restoration project was launched, and the project team was also formed.

The "post-60s" senior restorers took the "post-80s" young people while repairing, while researching and teaching. During the restoration process, they also carried out training for young restorers and targeted material testing and research and development.

As a result, a group of young ancient book restoration talents have gradually grown up.

  In the restoration of ancient books, people are the key.

Su Pinhong said that through on-the-job training, mentoring inheritance, and teaching in colleges and universities, the number of restorers nationwide has grown from less than 100 15 years ago to about 1,000 now.

Scientific and normative restoration has been greatly developed.

speed up digitization

  For a long time, ancient books have been faced with the dilemma of hiding and using them: every time they are opened, the ancient books may be damaged; if they are put on the shelf, they cannot realize the value of inheritance and utilization.

  The digital open sharing of ancient books effectively alleviates this contradiction.

As a kind of regenerative protection of ancient books, digitization allows many precious ancient books to show their "true colors" to more people. Readers from all over the world can visit the library at their fingertips anytime, anywhere, and read the excellent traditional Chinese classics, which has effectively promoted academic research and development. Promotion of knowledge of ancient books.

  On the "Chinese Ancient Books Resource Library" page of the China Ancient Books Protection Network, click on the "Yongle Encyclopedia" option, you can read it online without logging in, the text in front of the screen is clear, and you can zoom in to view it. It seems that you can feel the texture of the years on the paper. .

  "Chinese Ancient Books Resource Library" is a comprehensive platform for publishing and sharing digital resources for ancient books and special collections built by the National Library of China (National Center for Ancient Books Protection). There are several sub-databases such as Digital Local Chronicles, Zhaocheng Gold Collection, Oracle World, Song Dynasty Collections, Essence of Inscriptions, New Year Pictures, etc. Readers can view the full text images without registering and logging in.

  In these sub-repositories, the reporter found that there are also digital resources of overseas ancient Chinese books such as "Special Collection of Rare Books of Harvard University" and "Far-collected Dunhuang Posthumous Notes".

It is reported that while the domestic ancient book resources are being digitized, the overseas Chinese ancient book investigation and digitization cooperation project is also continuing to advance.

A number of precious ancient books scattered overseas, such as the "Yongle Encyclopedia" collected overseas, the rare ancient books collected by the Harvard-Yenching Library of Harvard University, the Chinese books collected by the Institute of Oriental Culture of the University of Tokyo in Japan, and the Dunhuang manuscripts collected by the National Library of France, have been returned through digitization. More than 4,000 volumes of 36 kinds of Chinese books in Qingwen Library have achieved physical return.

The "Overseas Chinese Ancient Books Bibliography Database" has accumulated more than 800,000 bibliographic data from more than 10 countries and regions including the United States.

  In addition, the National Ancient Books Protection Center also held 5 ancient book digital resource release activities, and successively released more than 22,000 ancient book digital resources online with 39 ancient book collection units, including Shanghai Library's family tree and characteristic ancient book resources, Shandong Provincial Library's "Yongle South" Collection" and "Northern Collection of Yongle", the Ming and Qing printed editions collected by Tianjin Library, the rare ancient books, genealogy and some bibliographic resources collected by Ningbo Tianyige Museum, etc., realizing the extensive sharing of digital resources of ancient books across the country.

  text come alive

  Chen Shiyu, a researcher in the history of clothing, has devoted himself to the textual research and restoration of ancient clothing for many years.

By consulting and comparing a large number of ancient books, he makes the silent words and images in the books shine again.

Many of the clothes that appeared in the cultural and blog program "National Treasure" and the costume drama "Qing Ping Le" were created by him.

  This is an excerpt from the recently launched documentary "Ancient Books Through Time and Space".

In the documentary, the audience follows the camera and witnesses scholars restoring ancient books and artists interpreting ancient books.

  Ancient books, in fact, are not far away from us.

In recent years, the activation of ancient books has opened a new chapter, and various parties have worked together to continuously excavate the value of the era of ancient books, activating the vitality of ancient characters.

  A series of exhibitions were launched to evoke cultural memories.

A series of special document exhibitions and historical and cultural special exhibitions, such as the "Exhibition of the Protection and Inheritance of Chinese Traditional Cultural Books", "The Book House Thousand Flowers: Special Exhibition of National Precious Ancient Books", "The Document Exhibition of the "Yongle Classic" in the National Library of China, etc., have promoted the knowledge of ancient book protection. and dissemination of ideas.

  Carry out a series of activities to spread knowledge of ancient books.

Online and offline real-world puzzle games developed with the protection of precious ancient books as the main line, allowing the public to understand the cultural knowledge of precious books in fun games; ancient book storage units all over the country jointly held the "Chinese Traditional Book Exhibition", through on-site experience Popularize the knowledge of traditional books and tell the stories in ancient books; the "I and Chinese Ancient Books" Maker Competition, the National Ancient Book Restoration Skills Competition, and the holding of a series of lectures related to ancient books have also shortened the distance between ancient books and the public.

  Develop a series of cultural creations to show the beauty of ancient books.

Oracle bone inscriptions on the zodiac creative keychain, Xunzi's Advice for Learning refrigerator magnets, Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare T-shirts... Many libraries across the country have launched various cultural and creative products relying on ancient book resources, using creativity to activate the words in ancient books, so that traditional classics "fly" Entering the homes of ordinary people.

  In addition, various cultural programs, documentaries, and short videos interpret the words in ancient books in the form of film and television, music, comics, etc. that are popular with the public. With the help of current communication methods, the story of Chinese civilization can be widely told.

  The ancient classics are bursting with the vitality of the times, bringing the wisdom of Chinese history and culture to the public, warming the soul, and benefiting the contemporary.

  Our reporter Lai Rui