Chapter 25 3. Collections and Catalogs of the Ming and Early Qing Dynasties

The work of collecting books in the Ming Dynasty was relatively inferior to that of the past. The government only paid attention to the collection of books, but did not pay much attention to their preservation, and there were even fewer book schooling activities.Especially in the late Ming Dynasty. As early as the beginning of the extermination of the Yuan Dynasty, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the troops to pay attention to collecting books scattered in various places.After the Yuan Dynasty was destroyed, the old collections of the Song, Jin, and Yuan dynasties will be collected in Dadu, and will be included in Nanjing, where Wenyuan Pavilion and Dabentang collections will be established.In March of the third year of Hongwu (1370), the Ming Dynasty inherited the secretarial supervision system of the Yuan Dynasty, and made it in charge of the books of the inner government, which initially established the collection system of the Ming government.After Ming Chengzu ascended the throne, he often went to the Biandian to read books. When he found that the ancient books in the national library were not complete, he ordered officials who were familiar with the classics to be sent to various places to buy classics, and instructed them to buy good books at a high price.Therefore, many books have been collected from the people.Chengzu Yongle six years (1408) "Yongle Dadian" was compiled and stored in Wenyuan Pavilion.In the nineteenth year of Yongle (1421), the capital moved to Beijing.After Emperor Renzong of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor's collection continued to expand, and there were Guanghan Hall, Qingshu Hall, Qionghua Island, Tongji Library, Huangshicheng, etc. for the collection of books.By the time of Emperor Xuanzong, there were more than 20,000 books in the Secret Pavilion, nearly one million volumes.During the Zhengtong period, Yang Shiqi sorted out and compiled the "Wenyuan Pavilion Bibliography", and the Wenyuan Pavilion collection at that time reached 43,200 volumes.

But in the future, because they didn't pay attention to storage and didn't sort it out, some books were often borrowed by the officials of the library; no one cared about the loss, moth, and mildew of the collection, so that the collection was seriously lost.Therefore, in the Wanli period, Zhang Xuan and others compiled the "Catalogue of the Cabinet Collection", compared with the "Wenyuan Pavilion Bibliography" "Ten Wu Er San", what was added was only the anthology and topography at that time, while other Tang and Song Dynasties, basically already No, the loss was heavy.

Private book collections flourished in the Ming Dynasty.According to the statistics of Ye Changchi's "Book Collecting Chronicle Poems" and Wu Han's "A Study of Jiangsu and Zhejiang Bibliophiles", there were 427 well-known bibliophiles in the Ming Dynasty.The private book collections of the Ming Dynasty are the most popular among the feudal clans of the Ming Dynasty. For example, King Jinzhuang and King Ningxian all accumulated books in the feudal mansions, with more than 10,000 volumes.In addition to the vassal kings, a large number of bureaucrats, important ministers, and even the scholar-official class and rural landlords and gentry had private collections of books.For example, Song Lian (1310-1381) in the early Ming Dynasty collected tens of thousands of volumes of books.After Jiajing, due to the further prosperity of the social economy, private libraries appeared.

The "Tianyi Pavilion" built in Ningbo during the Jiajing period was the library of Fan Qin, the right servant of the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty.He purchased the collection of books in the "Wan Juan Building" of Feng's in Zhejiang, bought and copied them extensively, collected rare books from all over the world, paid attention to local chronicles and Ming Dynasty documents published in various places at that time, and had a collection of more than 70,000 volumes, becoming the number one bibliophile in eastern Zhejiang. After Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, private collections of books became more common in various places.The most famous ones are Mao Jin's Jigu Pavilion and Qi Cheng's Dansheng Hall.

Jigu Pavilion is the library of Mao Jin (1599-1659) in the late Ming Dynasty, located in Changshu, Jiangsu.Mao Jin is a rural landlord, fond of books, and would spare a lot of money to buy good books when he finds them.He collected more than 84,000 volumes of books and built the collections of Jigu Pavilion and Mugenglou.Mao Jin returned the Song version of the book, which is known as the "Mao Chaoben" in the world. He also engraved "Thirteen Classics", "Seventeen Histories" and compiled them into "Jinchui Secretary".Mao Jin's book collection was still open to the outside world, and others were allowed to borrow it. There were a lot of readers at that time.

Danshengtang is the library of Qi Chenghe in Shanyin (Shaoxing, Zhejiang).Qi Cheng was a Jinshi in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty. He had successively served as a high-ranking official. He liked to collect books and copied thousands of volumes of ancient and modern books with his own hands.Tan Shengtang finally accumulated 80,000 volumes. In order to prevent the books from being lost, Qi Cheng and his children and grandchildren cataloged and put them on shelves.He believes that gathering books is for reading, and he said: "There are people in the world who are diligent in gathering and frugal with readers, that is, all the books in the world are gathered, especially the gathering." His point of view is very insightful.

In addition, there are some famous library buildings, such as Zhao Qimei's "Maikong Library", Hu Yinglin's "Eryoushanfang", He Liangjun's "Xiaosen Pavilion", etc. The development of private libraries in the Ming Dynasty promoted the progress of bibliography in our country, and a number of high-quality bibliographies appeared.For example, Huang Yuji's "Qianqingtang Bibliography" describes thousands of volumes of books and arranges them according to classics, histories, sons, and collections. The books collected are mainly Ming Dynasty works that he has seen and collected.After each category of works of the Ming Dynasty, there are appendices the books of the Liao, Jin, and Yuan dynasties that are not included in "Song History·Yiwenzhi".In addition to the number of volumes of each book, there is also an introduction to the author's resume. It is a reference book for researching works of the Ming Dynasty.Another example is Chao Yu’s Bibliographies of Chao’s Baowentang, which collected Yuan and Ming scripts, novels, dramas, legends, etc. in the two gates of Ziza and Yuefu, which are only seen in the bibliography of the Ming Dynasty. The engraving is often marked under the title of the book, from which we can also test the origin of the Ming edition.

After the founding of the Qing Dynasty, in order to maintain its ruling order, in addition to brutally suppressing the resistance of the Han people politically and militarily, it also adopted stricter control on ideology and culture. rule.At the same time, he advocated feudal Confucianism, promoted erudite Confucianism, recruited Ming Dynasty survivors, and compiled various books to strengthen ideological control.In addition to accepting the national collections of the original Ming Dynasty, the Qing government also continuously ordered the collection of books.At that time, government documents were collected in the "Cabinet", "Hanlin Academy", "Guozijian", "Huangshicheng" and other places.Kangxi twenty-five years (1686) ordered the provinces to collect books.In the thirty-seventh year of Qianlong (1772), when he decided to compile the "Siku Quanshu", he further issued an edict to search extensively. "Siku Quanshu" was compiled in the fifty-second year of Qianlong (1787), copied into duplicates, and divided into seven places, the so-called "Siku Qige".

In the early Qing Dynasty, there were more private bibliophiles than in previous dynasties. Inheriting the legacy of the Ming Dynasty, there were many bibliophiles in various places, especially in Jiangnan in the late Ming Dynasty.According to incomplete statistics in Ye Changchi's "Book Collection Chronicle Poems", there were 497 people in the Qing Dynasty.Famous rich people include Qian Qianyi, Qian Zeng, Zhu Yizun, Cao Rong, Ruan Yuan, Sun Xingyan, Huang Pilie, Sun Qingzeng, Lu Wenchu, Bao Tingbo, etc.Through their collection of books, they objectively played the role of preserving documents.

At the same time, private bibliophiles in the Qing Dynasty generally paid attention to the use of books for academic research, especially made great contributions in the fields of book collation, catalogue, edition, and book collection management.Qian Zeng (1629-1701), a native of Changshu in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, built the "Shu Gu Tang" and "Ye Ye Yuan" collection of books. He was fond of the Song Dynasty editions. He concluded that the printed editions can be identified by the editions, knife techniques, and the color of paper and ink. According to the law, the value of the version is determined from the original version, reprint or original version, and revised version.The summary of his "Shu Min Qiu Ji" is the first edition catalog in our country.Lu Wenchu ​​of Lu Wen during the Qianlong period was the most famous collationist in the Qing Dynasty.He collected books at home, collated them by himself, and carefully reviewed them without errors.The results of his collation were later engraved into the book "Qun Shu Su Bu".The "Xunzi" and "Yi Zhoushu" he corrected became the model for future generations to collate.The "Hundred Songs and One Shop" of Huang Pilie, a Suzhou native, is the most famous Song edition library.As an edition scientist, he compiled his edition identification records into "Shiliju Collection of Inscriptions and Postscripts" and several sequels, and published "Shiliju Series", so he was valued by the cultural and academic circles.

Another important figure in the history of bibliography in my country is Zhang Xuecheng (1738～1801) in Qing Dynasty.Zhang Xuecheng was a famous historian during the Jiaqing period, and he had written many books.The "Historical Records Test" and "Xiaoyu Tongyi" reflect his bibliographical views. "Historical Records" has been lost.In "Xiaoyu Tongyi", he proposed the task of bibliography "distinguishing academics and examining the origin and development of mirrors".He summed up the experience of catalog description content and methods in the past dynasties in our country, especially developed catalog description methods in the aspects of "mutual reference", "different style" and "index".His contribution to bibliography was enormous.