Jiayetang Library Building Photo by Lu Zhipeng
Huzhou, China, March 1 (Shi Zinan, Lu Zhipeng) On the 1st, zheng Zongnan, deputy director of the local literature department of the Zhejiang Library, was inspecting all corners of the library building in the Jiayetang Library building in Nanxun Ancient Town, Nanxun District, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province.
It is reported that the Jiayetang Library is the largest and richest private library building in modern China, built by bibliophile Liu Chenggan over a period of four years (1920-1924), named after the "Qinruo Jiaye" Kowloon Golden Plaque given by the Xuantong Emperor, and is now part of the Zhejiang Library, which undertakes the function of serving readers.
Inside the Jiayetang Library Building, Lu Zhipeng photographed
On November 23, 2019, the main building of the Jiayetang Library Building began to be fully closed for renovation, and was originally scheduled to be completed and opened in December 2020, but due to the prolongation of the epidemic, it was completed and reopened a few days ago.
"This overhaul involved 19 projects, including the overall renovation of the roof of the library building, the repair and reinforcement of the large wooden frame, the repair of the exterior wall, the reinforcement of the shelving fence, the reinforcement of the floor tiles, and the repair of the Minse Pavilion." Zheng Zongnan introduced that the last time such a large-scale overall renovation was in 1984, when the library building was completed on the 60th anniversary.
Entering the main hall of the library building, the hall hangs the "Chin Ruo Jia Ye" Kowloon gold plaque, which is very quaint.
"This is made up according to the original 'sand piling' process, the word is made of emery glutinous sand glutinous rice and alum as a binder." Zheng Zongnan said that the overhaul follows the principle of "repairing the old as the old". Even the tiles of the roof renovation were found to be close to the raw materials, and the most authentic appearance of the library building was retained as much as possible.
The 150,000 rare engravings in the Jiayetang Library are very precious, not only beautiful in appearance, but also made of the best pear wood, exquisitely carved. Among them, many engravings have become orphans, which have extremely high value in bibliography, edition science, and collation.
As the guardian of these rare engravings, Zheng Zongnan began to follow his father Zheng Xingbao in the library building to study and organize documents after graduating from university. For him, the library was his home.
Zheng Zongnan inspects the library building lu Zhipeng photographed
Zheng Xingbao, who has been retired for many years, was the director of the management office of the Jiayetang Library in Nanxun Ancient Town, Zhejiang Provincial Library.
In 1984, Zheng Xingbao entered the library building after transferring from the army and fell in love with this boring but very meaningful job. As the decades passed, he also became the fourth generation guardian of Jiayetang.
To Zheng Xingbao's relief, after reaching retirement age, his son chose to take over his work and relay this protracted major project. In his eyes, no young man was more familiar with everything in the library than his own son.
Rare engraving in the Jiayetang Library Building photographed by Lu Zhipeng
From 1920, when Liu Chenggan poured his family wealth into building a library building, to the older generation of administrator Tang Fuzhang's life-sacrificing defense; from the lifelong protection of the bookkeeper Zheng Xingbao, to the careful care of Zheng Zongnan, who inherited his father's business... The "context relay baton" in the Jiaye Library has been passed down.
Today, after the "transformation", Jiaye Hall has a new look and reappears in the past. The moving story in the century-old library continues. (End)