[Endeavour, New Journey, New Era, Great Change]
The grass grows and the warblers fly, and the spring breeze blows the willows. This spring, Li Ying and Bian Sha, ancient book restorers, did not go to enjoy the flowers and go for an outing like other retirees, but sat quietly in the big office of the Literature Restoration Group of the Ancient Books Museum of the National Library. Under their hands, thousands of Dunhuang suicide notes were slowly repaired and restored.
At the two national conferences held last month, “strengthening the protection and utilization of cultural relics and ancient books” was written into the government work report for the first time. In recent two years, the popular large-scale cultural program “China in Classics” has brought ancient classics into the TV audience’s field of vision, and the ancient China story has come out of the yellowed old pages and been widely told on the screen.
Inheriting culture, telling the story of China, the protection of ancient books has been in action.
one.Understand the family background: carry forward the past and carry forward the future.
Five thousand years of Chinese civilization has a long history. It is a great contribution to record and carry this Millennium civilization, and the pieces of Oracle bones unearthed in Yinxu, Henan Province in 1920. In the first year of Yuan Xing in the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Lun made Cai Hou paper from bark, hemp head, cloth and fishing net, which played a leading role in the inheritance of this thousand-year civilization.
As the saying goes, paper lives for a thousand years. We can explore the prosperity of the past by following the pages of a thousand years ago. Today, after thousands of years, the pieces of paper and scrolls have been smashed into pieces of paper and bricks, and some of them are scattered in the boudoir of the western regions, Jiangnan or Yunnan and Guizhou, and are unknown. In order to find out the family background of ancient books, in the three years from 2015 to 2017 alone, hundreds of college students from nearly 70 universities across the country, as volunteers for the cultural volunteer service of the Chinese ancient books survey, used the summer vacation to overcome difficulties such as inconvenient transportation, long distances and scattered collection units, and helped more than 100 aided units to sort out and catalogue nearly one million ancient books.
It is understood that since the “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan”, with the efforts of many parties, the distribution and preservation of ancient books resources in China have been basically clarified. The national census of ancient books has completed more than 2.7 million copies, and another 1.80,000 letters, 30 provinces have basically completed the general survey of Chinese, accounting for more than 90% of the estimated total Chinese; A total of 2,861 units have completed the census and registration of ancient books, accounting for more than 96% of the total number of expected depository institutions, of which 1,160 are Tibetan ancient books collection units.
Through the general survey, a number of precious documents were newly discovered. The “Qianlong Yuding Stone Classic” collected by Confucius Museum was discovered by the National Ancient Books Protection Center in 2019 when it held a training course on the general survey and cataloging of inscriptions. It was determined to be the first rubbings of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, and it has been preserved since it was awarded to Confucius in the first year of Jiaqing. The rubbings of Ru Tie in Chongqing Library in the early Ming Dynasty are also important discoveries in the general survey and cataloging of steles. Du Gongbu Caotang Poem Notes, which was found by Shanghai Library during the general survey of ancient books, has been combined with the collections of the National Library and Shanghai Museum. According to statistics, the “National Basic Database for the Census and Registration of Ancient Books” has released 744 census data of ancient books from 217 units..70,000 copies (pieces). The National Catalogue of Ancient Books Census Registration has published a total of 123 kinds and 189 volumes of 509 collection units, including 1.27 million items, and Tianjin, Chongqing, Zhejiang, Ningxia, Hunan and other provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have completed the publication of the census catalogue; The first draft of Chinese Ancient Books Catalogue Tianjin Volume has been compiled, and the compilation of national map volume, Hunan volume and Zhejiang volume is in progress.
It has a long history and splendid civilization. Facing pages of ancient books, a solid family background is the reason for our confidence.
2.Salvage repair: the withering style of paper remains forever.
After years, the prosperity of that paper has faded with the passage of time. The handwriting is blurred, the edge of the page is damaged, and even it becomes a connected “square brick” after many years. In the eyes of the ancient book doctor, every piece of paper is a treasure. Since it is a treasure and a treasure with “injury”, we must go all out to cure it.
There is a rule in the field of ancient book restoration that the old is as old as the old. “As advocated by the Athens Declaration, the overall harmony should be maintained after the restoration.” Du Weisheng, a research librarian of the National Library and a representative inheritor of national intangible cultural heritage projects, said that in order to restore special ancient books, it is necessary to find papers with extremely similar colors, thicknesses, handfeel, etc., so as to restore them as much as possible. Therefore, the document restoration group of the Ancient Books Museum of the National Library now has its own small paper-making workshop, and the young people in the studio make their own paper to “supplement the family”.
As a young ancient book restorer, Cui Zhibin is lucky. In 2013, she went out of school to work in the literature restoration group of the National Library of Ancient Books, just in time to start the special restoration project of “Tianlu Linlang” in the Qing Dynasty. After two years of hard training in basic skills, Cui Zhibin took Zhu Zhenbin, an expert in ancient book restoration, as a teacher and began to practice in actual combat, joining the “Tianlu Linlang” restoration project. In 2021, after eight years, the restoration project of “Tianlu Linlang” was finally completed, and the old books of Song, Jin, Yuan and Ming dynasties placed in Zhaoren Hall of the Forbidden City were repaired as old as before. Since the implementation of the “Chinese Ancient Books Protection Plan” in 2007, this is the biggest special restoration action for precious ancient books collected by the National Library.
It is understood that great progress has been made in the restoration of ancient books during the 13 th Five-Year Plan period. Relying on 12 “National Ancient Books Restoration Centers”, we have promoted the restoration of ancient books from point to area, and set up a number of national key restoration projects of precious ancient books, such as “Tianlu Linlang” in the Qing Palace, “nagra Cave Collection” in the library of Diqing Prefecture, Yunnan Province, precious ancient books of Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasties in Shanxi Province, and “Selected Works” in Shandong Province, with a total amount of more than 3.7 million leaves. National Library, Tianjin Library, Ningbo Tianyi Pavilion and other ancient books restoration techniques were selected into the national intangible representative project list. We will carry out activities such as “Ancient Books Restoration Skills Entering the Campus”, “Ancient Books Restoration Skills Competition and Exhibition of Ancient Books Restoration Achievements” and set off a wave of inheritance of ancient books restoration skills throughout the country. We will build a key laboratory of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Culture and Tourism for the protection of ancient books, make major breakthroughs in a number of technical breakthroughs in the fields of high-definition photography of ancient books, papermaking of ancient books for restoration, impregnation of ancient books for restoration, and deacidification protection of paper, and realize the transformation and utilization of a number of patented technologies independently developed. In addition, the coordinated development and distribution of equipment, tools and materials for the restoration of ancient books throughout the country has fundamentally changed the basic environment for the restoration of ancient books and created conditions for the restoration of ancient books.
three.Regenerative protection: Jiahui contemporary Zebei Qianqiu
Although paper has a life of thousands of years, it can’t realize the value of inheritance and utilization if it is shelved for a long time. Let the ancient books “live”, but also make them “pass on”.
For a long time, scholars have been looking forward to putting rare books of ancient books online as soon as possible to realize digital resource sharing. Looking forward to, looking forward to, in recent years, many rare periodicals, banknotes and orphan books handed down from generation to generation have been exposed in the form of photocopying, proofreading and digitization, which has enabled the Chinese context to be passed down and realized the benefits of the present and the future.
In 2016, the National Library of China’s “Chinese Ancient Books Resource Database” platform has published 100,000 pieces of ancient books and special digital resources, realizing online reading without login, greatly meeting the public’s demand for the utilization of ancient books resources, and changing the ecology of ancient books collation and research, which is of milestone significance. The “Chinese Ancient Books Resource Library” is an important achievement of the “Chinese Ancient Books Protection Plan”. At present, the online publishing of ancient books image resources includes rare ancient books collected by the National Library, “Zhao Cheng Jin Cang” and Dunhuang suicide notes collected by the French National Library, with a total amount of more than 2..50,000 pieces with more than 10 million leaves. On September 28, 2016, the “Chinese Ancient Books Resource Library” was officially opened for operation, and 10,975 images of rare ancient books collected by the National Library were published online; On February 28, 2017, 6284 images of rare ancient books collected by the National Library were published online; On December 28th, 2017, 1,281 copies of “Zhao Cheng Jin Cang” and 1,928 rare images of ancient books collected by the National Library were published online. On March 5, 2018, more than 5,300 Dunhuang suicide notes collected by the French National Library were published online.
In addition, Zhonghua Book Company’s “Chinese Classic Ancient Books Database” publishes school-based ancient books. Shanghai Library, Yunnan Library and Zhenjiang Library are all actively digitizing their ancient books. The characteristic ancient books and documents, such as the copy of protecting the country in Dali, Yunnan, and the tripitaka sutra engraved by Yuan officials, have also been digitized. More than 20,000 digital resources of ancient books are shared online by 39 ancient book collection units nationwide, which has been widely concerned and praised by the industry.
In 1982, Mr. Ren Jiyu wrote a letter to the central leadership, proposing the use of miniature technology to rescue precious historical documents. “Today, miniaturization technology is safe and stable, and it is still an important means to preserve documents.” Du Weisheng introduced that the rare books collected by the National Library have basically realized the regenerative protection of miniaturization technology.
From 2016 to 2020, a number of photocopying and publishing achievements of ancient books also had a great impact. Complete the publication of “China’s Remanufactured Rare Books” (the sequel), including 583 kinds of precious books compiled in Ming Dynasty, Qing Dynasty and ancient books compiled by ethnic minorities. The Series of Basic Classics of Chinese Studies has published 91 kinds of 619 volumes. The National Traditional Books and Records Collation Project has promoted the collation and research of ancient books and documents such as the Yangtze River, the Yellow River, the Great Wall, the Grand Canal, the “the belt and road initiative”, marine documents of past dynasties, stone carvings and Huizhou documents, and has published nearly 200 volumes. China Rare Books Series, China Bibliography Series of Ancient Books and Records, Bibliography and Postscript Series, Chinese Medical Collection, Chinese Continuing Collection of Taoist Scripts and Postscript Arrangement of National Precious Ancient Books were carried out in an orderly manner, and The Collection of Confucius Museum Archives in Ming Dynasty Volume and Guangzhou Grand Ceremony were officially published.
In the long river of time, Chinese civilization has spread endlessly. The protection of ancient books has a long way to go.