A Guide to Antique Book Collections

Author: Lin Desheng et al
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Chinese scholars have had the habit of collecting books since ancient times. Collecting is a special social phenomenon; it is a unique carrier for recording and preserving history, a vast treasure trove storing the material and spiritual cultural heritage of human society. It can even be said that a collection represents a historical microcosm of a certain period or field. Book collecting, since the invention of writing and the existence of books, has been the greatest joy for book lovers and has evolved into the largest collecting project for humanity. The alternating history of the rise and fall of Chinese book collecting over two thousand years fully demonstrates that China is the country most fond of collecting and reading books. Statistics show that from the Western Han Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty, China published approximately 181,755 types of books, totaling 2,367,146 volumes. However, after the destruction caused by wars and the natural of time, only about seventy to eighty thousand volumes remain today. The preservation of these invaluable treasures is due not only to the collections of emperors, government offices, and temples but mainly to the personal collections of the people. The private book collections of the dynasties are indispensable.