The Books Battle To Taiwan

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31053, 7 May 1966, Page 5

The Books Battle To Taiwan

(From a “Sydney Morning Herald Correspondent in hong Kong) A TUG-OF-WAR between two rival Chinese regimes in Peking and Taipeih over 21,000 rare Chinese books dating back to the Han dynasty in 200 8.C., came to an end recently when the United States Government which had been keeping the books sent them to Taiwan. The Communists claimed the books because they came from the National Library of Peking. But the Nationalist authorities in Taiwan claimed that it was their foresight in sending the books to the United States Library of Congress that ensured their safety. The United States which accepted the books from the Nationalists, decided to return the books to the Nationalists, and in any case this is the only Chinese regime they recognise. The collection was originally owned by the Academia Sinica and the books have now been passed over to the Taipei branch. While rare, however, the

collection it not unique. The National Library of Peking at one time possessed a collection of more than one million volumes. Those which were sent to the United States represented a selection of what has since been described as “the most precious items.”

The books were moved out of Peking before that city was occupied by the Japanese in 1937 and after spending three years in Shanghai were crated and sent to Washington. They arrived two weeks after the outbreak of the Second World War. Strong Protest In Washington, the Library of Congress was given permission to microfilm the books and this project lasted for the next five years. In 1947 the Americans presented copies of the film to the National Peking Library and the National Central Library of Peking, but because of the Communist rebellion, the Nationalists decided to leave the books in the United States. When Chiang Kai-shek and his Government fled from China in 1949, they left the microfilms behind and from these the Communists have since printed copies of all the books stored in Washington. Among the books were 150 printed works of the Sung dynasty (960-1270 A.D.), 100 works of the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368 A.D.) and about 2000 works of the Ming period (1368-1644 A.D.) and the Ching period (1644-1911). The books consist of local histories and popular literature, some of them handwritten during the 17th century. One is an account of how the archives of the national census were assembled and preserved in the Ming period. Child’s Primer

Another is China’s oldest known illustrated children’s primer—an early 16th century reprint of a 1436 edition —and China’s oldest map. The volumes from the Sung period are amongst the earliest examples of Chinese printing. Even earlier examples of Chinese books were among the collection. These were bamboo slips on which characters were inscribed. Each

strip is about 18in by 9in by 6in. They have eight to 40 characters and have as many as 17 lines. These slips are fastened together with a leather or silk cord.

According to Professor Lt Chi, director of the Institute of History and Philology of Academia Sinica, these slips which record military events during the Han dynasty—some first-hand accounts of wars—are priceless reference material which would do much to establish Taipeh as a research centre for Sinologists.

The photograph shows a hand-copied meteorological book of the Ming dynasty with illustrations showing celestial phenomena and a globe. The south and north poles are shown.