Tang Tao's Collection

Author: Yu Runqi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Books and classics are important symbols of human civilization. China is an ancient civilization country with a long history of book collection. During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, private book collectors had already emerged; throughout the Han, Wei, Six Dynasties, and Five Dynasties periods, it grew increasingly prosperous; during the entire Song Dynasty, private book collections had established a triangular balance with government offices, academies, and temples. For Tang Tao's book collection, Mr. Ba Jin once said, "With Tang Tao's collection, the Literature Museum has half of its treasures." As a literary master of his generation, Ba Jin deeply understood the quality of Tang Tao's book collection. Although Tang Tao's collection accounts for only one-fourth of the total holdings of the "Library" in the China Modern Literature Museum and less than one-eighth of the museum's entire collection, its quality far surpasses that of other libraries. We conducted a year-long cataloging and organization of the Tang Tao Library, and the results confirmed Mr. Ba Jin's words to be absolutely true.