China, the inscrutable phoenix: libraries from pre‐Ming to post‐Mao

Abstract

It is said that one of the first recorded libraries of any magnitude was that of the Imperial Chou dynasty at Luoyang in the modern province of Henan in the 7th century BC, although the existence of libraries in China can be traced back to the Shang Dynasty about 500 years earlier. There is indeed said to be some positive evidence of documentation activities also going on in the 12th Century BC, since there are records of seismic activity dating from that time. Some three hundred years after this ‘first’ library, however, the infamous act of ‘Burning the Books’ took place. This was carried out on the orders of Shih Huang Ti — the self‐styled ‘First Emperor’ of the Ch'in Dynasty as a result of a petition from his First Minister to eradicate all earlier teachings. Not only did they condemn those who did not hand over their books, to forced labour on the Great Wall for four years, but also buried alive several hundred scholars who were suspected of knowing the books so thoroughly that they could reiterate their contents from memory. This act of ‘Burning the Books’ repeated itself of course during the Cultural Revolution as to a certain extent did a 20th century, although not necessarily much more humane, process of burying alive take place. The emperor was said, however, to have preserved copies in the Imperial Library, and especially those dealing with divination, pharmacy, medicine, agriculture and arboriculture. He also might, to perhaps stretch a point a little, have been said to have been involved in the documentation world, since he was apparently responsible for a wide range of standardisation including the track gauge of chariots — possibly to help him get the dimensions of the Great Wall right (from some parts of the Great Wall I saw however, a mountain goat would have problems let alone a horse and chariot).

Citation

Evans, T. (1985), "China, the inscrutable phoenix: libraries from pre‐Ming to post‐Mao", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 37 No. 10, pp. 381-394. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb050987