Essentials of the Siku Quanshu (Eighteen Volumes)

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Features: "At the summit of the world, overlook all the mountains." An anthology of the essence, selecting the finest. Visiting famous libraries, exploring famous pavilions, searching through a thousand mountains; appreciating books, discussing their value, praised by the. Under the watchful eyes of all, forever etched in history. Containing the essence of ancient and modern books, embracing the supreme classics of the world. Tianyi Pavilion, the tower of private book collections.
"Tianyi Pavilion" (Records of Tianyi Pavilion): "At the beginning of building the pavilion, a pool was dug beneath it, obtaining the stone carvings of the 'Tianyi Pool' from the Taoist priest Wu of Longhu Mountain. It coincided with the intention of digging the pool for the pavilion, so it was moved here to name the pavilion."
Zaozong Study (Early Qing Dynasty): The "Four Treasuries" had a copy of the "Sizhu" placed in Jinshan Temple in Zhenjiang. It was destroyed during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom era, but the scholars of Zhenjiang never forgot this event. By the time of the Republic of China, Wu Jisheng funded the construction of the "Zaozong Study" to continue the work of the Wenzong Pavilion.
Baisong Yichen (Suzhou Gazetteer): Huang Lipie collected over a hundred Song dynasty books and titled his study "Baisong Yichen."
Chibei Study (Records of Chibei Study): There was a garden to the west of the residence with a pond in it. A study was built to the north of the pond, named after Bai Juyi's "Chibei Shuku."
YuanDu (Zhuangzi): "To do good, do not seek fame; to do evil, do not seek punishment. Follow the Dao as the guiding principle," meaning to forget good and evil, nature, and use it as a constant in life.
Eashu Studio (Book of Rites): "Eashu practices the Dao of insects. Zheng Xuan notes that 'eashu' refers to the ant, a tiny insect. The practice of ants is to form large mounds, and 'shu' means study. Thus, 'eashu' metaphorically represents diligent study."
Danqian Jing She (Miscellaneous Records of Bookstores): During his studies, Laozi kept empty notebooks on his desk, noting doubts with a pen and later correcting them with various texts before writing the final version. Thus, he named his bookstore "Danqian Jing She." "Danqian" refers to cinnabar and lead powder used by ancient scholars for annotation.
Wenyuan Pavilion: Wenyuan Pavilion was an important part of the imperial collection of books. Based on its collection purpose and utilization, it was one of the national book repositories at the time. Built in the 41st year of the Qianlong era, it received the first edition of the "Four Treasuries" in the 47th year.
Zhangzhang Room (Tiezhang Tongping): In ancient poems about plum blossoms, "tóngping" (bronze vase) and "zhipang" (paper curtain) are frequently mentioned. Zhang Shanshan had a poem titled "Tiezhang Zhipang Lao Yin Yuan," which he used as the name of his study, hidden within it was the character for plum.
Seal of Private Book Collections: Sealing book collections with stamps is a unique tradition in Chinese book culture. For the owner, it is a mark of ownership and a way to leave a lasting legacy. For later generations, it is a valuable historical record. Book seals vary in style based on their shapes and materials:
- Name seals, such as "Qian Qianyi Seal,"
- Study name seals, such as "Tianyi Pavilion" for Fan Qin and "Chuan Shi Pavilion Seal" for Xu Qianxue,
- Copying and annotation seals, such as Lu Wenshao's "Gongfu Hand-Correction" and "Baojing Tang Annotation" seals, and Miao Qiansun's "Qiansun Read" seal,
- Rare book seals, such as Mao Jin's "Song Edition" and "Yuan Edition" round seals, with the character "Jia" stamped at the beginning of each volume,
- Personal achievement seals, such as Ye Sheng's "Governor of Yan Prefecture" and "Governor of Xuan Prefecture" seals, Fan Daqi's "Ministry of Ceremonies Seal," and Yang Shuo's "Daoguang Scholar, Xianfeng Juren, Tongzhi Jinshi" seal,
- Geographic seals, such as Song Lian's "Jinhua Song Family Jinglian" seal and Mao Jin's "Yushan Mao Jin" seal,
- Zodiac seals, such as Wang Xianchen's "Jichou Father Seal" and Wen Zhengming's "Only in Gengyin Was I Born" seal,
- Moralistic seals, such as Wan Yan's seal stating, "If I am alive, I will not eat your flesh; if I am dead, I will not have my coffin buried. May my descendants never sell these books. May this truly serve as Jie's porridge,"
- Poetic and proverbial seals, such as Xu Zichang's "There is a beautiful person in the far west" and "A single night of poetry brightens the world" seals,
- Special text seals, such as Sun Wenchuan's 170-character long poetic seal and Wang Xiang's "Nine Regrets" seal: "Regret for the world, regret for the court, regret for family fame, regret for personal fortune, regret for, regret for household expenses, regret for studies, regret for age, regret for lifelong integrity,"
- Portrait seals, such as Lu Xinran's "Cunzhai at 45" seal and Yuan Kewen's "Portrait at 28" seal.
Qianlong's Annotation: "The 'Four Treasuries' were bound in blue silk for the Classics, red silk for History, white silk for Philosophy, and gray-black silk for Poetry. Green represents spring; red, summer; white, autumn; and gray-black, winter. The 'General Catalog' uses fragrant silk, symbolizing the central meaning."
Huang Lipie (1763–1825): Without any other interests, Huang Lipie was fond of collecting, annotating, and publishing books. He dedicated himself to books until the end of his life. He had the studies "Shiliwu" and "Baisong Yichen." In the 60th year of the Qianlong era, his family was busy arranging his father's funeral and accidentally caused a fire, destroying most of the buildings, but the books were saved due to frantic efforts. Legend has it that Huang Lipie lay on his father's coffin, vowing to die for him, and after the fire, the books were intact, believed to be a result of his filial piety.
Huang Lipie loved books deeply, often calling himself "a book demon," "extremely mad," and "not afraid to spend money on books."
Quanzuwang (1705–1755): A in the first year of the Qianlong era, he resigned after being excluded by powerful officials. He achieved outstanding accomplishments in classics, history, and literature. A famous scholar and book collector, he copied books with his father and at the age of 19, visited Tianyi Pavilion, copying books from Xie's Tianci Garden and Chen's Yunzai Tower. He dedicated his life to searching for and copying books, working tirelessly.
Zhang Zhidong (1837–1909): Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, "The Four Discussions of Zhang Zhidong" states, "Zhang Zhidong loved collecting books, with tens of thousands of volumes." He compiled the "Catalog of Book Answers" in four volumes.
Wang Guowei (1877–1927): A famous scholar, "The Three Bians of Biography" records, "Luo Zhenyu donated one-tenth of his collection to him." He compiled "The Catalog of Shang and Yuan Old Printed Rare Books" in two volumes and "The Six Volumes of Qu Records."
Sima Guang (1019–1086): A renowned historian of the Northern Song Dynasty. In the early years of the Xining era, he retired to Luoyang, bought 20 acres of land, and built Dule Garden, which included a reading hall with 5,000 books (or 5,000 fine ones, totaling over 10,000 volumes). He read books morning and evening. He cherished his books deeply, exposing them to the sun twice a year, and always sat neatly to read, never touching the books casually. As a result, even after years, his books remained as fresh as new.
Lu You (1125–1201): Following his father's wishes, he loved collecting books. After returning from his official duties in Sichuan, he brought back nothing but Sichuan books. In addition to inheriting and buying books, he copied them himself. His study was successively named "Gaozhai," "Shuzao," and "Laoxue An." Later, he planned to build a book pavilion but never succeeded. He wrote poems expressing his love for books: "Lizhe old man recovered from illness, joyfully organized books in Xizhai. For ten years, by the light of the lamp, he personally corrected them, with red and yellow scattered in the margins. In his old age, he deeply believed in simple learning and wanted to return the ten thousand volumes to Linli."
"Collect all books in the world, be a person of the world." This book comes with a set of CDs of "Tiezhi Tongya Ji Xiaolan." The combination of classic works and TV dramas is truly a rare treasure of the world, the supreme gift.
In the Qianlong era, the Qing court organized the compilation of the "Four Treasuries," and Ji Yun was appointed as the chief compiler. He worked tirelessly, reviewing, discriminating, and synthesizing a hundred schools, uncovering hidden treasures, and completing the "General Catalog of the Four Treasuries," which became a masterpiece of academic research, classical commentary, version evaluation, and literature research in China. Ji Yun was also a famous book collector, with his collection known as Yuwei Caotang.
After presenting his collection to the Four Treasuries, 105 books and 1,868 volumes were included, with 41 additional books listed. The books he collected each had unique features:
- The Book of Changes: "The Book of Changes" survived Qin Shi Huang's book burning, making it a rare philosophical work of China. It pioneered the study of divination, exploring the mysteries of society, human affairs, and nature. Modern scholars use physics, chemistry, and astronomy to study the "Book of Changes," and calling it a "rare philosophical work of China" is well-deserved.
- The Book of Documents: The earliest historical documents of the Confucian school, ranked as the first of the Five Classics, a legendary history of China. It spans over 1,400 years of history and contains rich political thought of ancient China. The ideas of "Heaven's Mandate," "revere virtue," "protect the people," and the "Five Elements" deeply influenced the development of later philosophy.
- The Analects: A book that profoundly influenced Chinese and world cultural trends. Its core idea is "ren" (love), advocating "Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself" and "If you want to stand, help others stand; if you want to succeed, help others succeed." It sets "moderation" as the highest standard for behavior, still impacting the cultural psychology of the Chinese nation today.
- Records of the Grand Historian: A masterpiece of historians, an unrhymed "Lisao," a rare book of historical records. Also known as "Records of the Grand Historian," it comprehensively records history from the mythical Yellow Emperor to Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, covering nearly 3,000 years, a magnificent and powerful work.
- Book of Han: The first imperial chronicles in China, written by Ban Gu of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It took 35 years to complete, a difficult but legendary history. Extraordinary people create extraordinary works, and extraordinary works become extraordinary books.
- A Record for Governing: Named after the phrase "Learn from the past to benefit the present." It was a book that Mao Zedong repeatedly studied and benefited greatly from. Written by Sima Guang of the Northern Song Dynasty, its initial draft filled two rooms, showing its immense effort.
- The Art of War: Praised by Sun Yat-sen as "Chinese military philosophy," a famous book of military strategy.
- The Six Arts: Known as the second "classic book of Chinese military strategy," with significant military research value in Chinese and world military history.
- The Heart of the Literary Mind: The earliest and most systematic work in China to comprehensively expound literary theory. It holds an extremely important position in the history of literary theory and criticism in China and the world, truly an academic masterpiece.
- Dream Pool Essays: A milestone in the history of Chinese science. It was the earliest record of the compass and first proposed the term "petroleum," still in use today. Shen Kuo is considered one of the "greatest figures in the entire history of Chinese science" and one of the "most versatile figures in Chinese science and engineering."
- The Art of War: A "wonderful and extraordinary" work of the school. It has been passed down since the Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Tang, and Song dynasties, with mixed reviews. The various techniques described in it add a mystical flavor.
- Tang Poetry: The highest mark of Tang literature, marking a new era in the history of Chinese poetry. The Tang poetry in the "Four Treasuries" is a condensed version of this brilliant sea of poetry. Its content is vast, diverse, vivid, and full of immortal works.
- Song Ci: Representative of Song literature, comparable to Tang poetry, a rare book of art. The Song Ci in the "Four Treasuries" includes some of its most dazzling masterpieces, holding a very important position in the history of Chinese literature.
- Yuan Qu: Yuan Qu, often called "Northern Qu," flourished in northern regions and was known as "qingqu." Compared to traditional poetry and prose, it has more flexible forms and better expression. Many excellent works of Yuan Qu are included in the "Four Treasuries."