Scholars from China and Japan have jointly donated two ancient
books to National Library of China (NLC).
Two texts of The History of the Three Kingdoms,
block-printed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) were donated
by one Chinese and six Japanese scholars to NCL at a seminar on
digitalization of ancient books held in Beijing.
The books were first seen by the Chinese donator Zhou Wenye at
an auction in 2005. But the auctioneer failed to get the suitable
buyers for the books and postponed their sale.
Zhou told his friend, a Japanese scholar Moon Kyong Kim about
the books after the auction and both think the books should be
preserved properly.
Zhou Wenye, Professor of Capital Normal University, said, "The
books are precious cultural heritage and we persuaded the
auctioneer to sell the books to us for 50,000 yuan (US$6,578)
instead of auctioning them again."
Moon Kyong Kim, one of the Japanese donators said, "We hope the
books can be preserved properly and we decide to donate."
"It's also easier for scholars from various countries to carry
out comparative studies with other collections after they were kept
in the library," Kim added.
According to Zhou, the six Japanese scholars had sent the money
around 48,000 yuan to his account and Zhou, himself contributed
2,000 yuan. On behalf of the other six Japanese scholars, Zhou
bought the books in 2005 and kept them in his place.
"We decided to donate the books when all of the Japanese
scholars have the opportunity to come to China," Zhou said.
The seminar on Aug. 13 gave them the opportunity. All the
Japanese scholars attended the seminar in Beijing on Aug. 13,
including Moon Kyong Kim, professor of Kyoto University; Yoshihiro
Nikaibou, professor of Kansai University; Taizan Inoue, professor
of Kansai University; Nozomu Ueda, associate professor of Kanazawa
University; Masahiko Takeuchi, associate professor of Ryukoku
University; Satoshi Nakagawa, associate professor of Daito Bunka
University.
With a total of 65 volumes, The History of the Three
Kingdoms written by Chen Shou focuses on the history of the
Wei, Shu and Wu kingdoms (184 to 280 AD).
NLC President Zhan Furui said "it's the first time that someone
bought ancient books for donation since I came here in 1993."
Zhan said, "The NLC has 30 volumes of the books stored in
library, but parts of the first volume were torn and the donated
books complete the collection as they include the complete first
and second volumes.
"The library will scan the books and enable more readers have
access to the books through internet," Zhan said.
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2007)
