Thousands of volumes of precious ancient books and rare editions of
Chinese writings, once stored deep in large libraries, are expected
to be repaired, photocopied and put on the market.
According to a national project jointly launched by the ministries
of Culture and Finance, the Chinese government will allocate 80
million yuan (9.6 million US dollars) in four years starting from
this year to the ancient book renaissance.
Du
Weisheng, of the National Library of China, said currently China
has over 45,000 titles of ancient books that have only one copy and
4,100 with only two copies.
Most of these rare books, including the Yongle Encyclopedia book
series dating back 600 years and the nearly 2,000-year-old sutra
from the Dunhuang cave "are suffering from worm-eating, mold and
paper deterioration and sorely need preservation," said Du.
Chinese Vice-Premier Li Lanqing recently told a conference to
launch the project to protect the invaluable heritage from Chinese
ancestors.
Du, who has been engaged in book preservation work for nearly two
decades, said the library has so far repaired nearly 60,000 titles
of such books over the past five decades, which had to be kept
carefully in the depository and only a restricted group of people
were allowed access.
He
said the project would greatly benefit researchers and
scholars.
Du's library was designated as the sponsor of the project and has
selected 32 titles of books from the Tang (618-907) to the Song
dynasty (1127-1279) to be photocopied for libraries that do not
have these collections.
These photocopied books bear their original look and are bound by
thread. Each title has 500 copies and more are expected to be
published in the coming years.
(Xinhua News Agency December 28, 2002)