The forgotten master of the Republic of China: During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, a large number of ancient books were snatched from the occupied areas, and the National Palace in Taipei was also supported

Ancient Library

When it comes to the scholars and masters of modern China, in addition to the well-known Hu Shi, Fu Sinian, Chen Yinke, etc., there are also many people who have also made pioneering contributions to modern scholarship in the mainland, who have been buried under the dust of history for various reasons, but their contributions are still remarkable today. They should not be forgotten, and Mr. Jiang Fuxuan, the founder of library science in the mainland, is one of the important scholars.

First, get acquainted with the library

Jiang Fuxuan is a typical elite from a famous family. In 1898, he was born in Haining, Zhejiang, where the Jiang family was a well-known family on the rich side, not only in the business world, but also a number of people who had passed the examination and went to the career path. In such a family environment, Jiang Fuxuan read a large number of Confucian classics and was sent to a new-style school to receive a new-style education. In 1919, he was successfully admitted to the Philosophy Department of Peking University and obtained a degree, which began his legendary and great life.

The Jiang family is a large local ethnic group in Zhejiang

In 1920, Jiang Fuxuan entered the Songbai Library as a part-time job under the recommendation of his cousin Jiang Baili, and what Jiang Fuxuan did not expect was that he would dedicate his life to the development of the library. After graduation, Jiang Fuxuan will devote himself to the library business, he first served as the chief editor of the Beiping Library, responsible for the cataloguing of the vast Chinese books in the library, although it is very hard, but Jiang Fuxuan knows that this is a necessary task for the construction of modern libraries, in order to truly realize the transformation of China's library industry from a private or royal "library" to a public modern library, it is necessary to do a lot of work that has never been done before.

Jiang Fuxuan

In 1929, based on his many years of work experience, Jiang Fuxuan wrote an article entitled "Discussion of the Classification of Chinese Books", which was the earliest exploration of the modern library book classification undertaking by mainland scholars. He then went to the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Berlin in Germany to study and took the opportunity to intern at the State Library in Prussia, Germany. Unlike the smaller libraries that have just started in China, the Prussian State Library is equivalent to the German National Library, whether it is the rich collection of books or the advanced management and operation system, it is far from Being comparable to China, and several years of study abroad experience have made Jiang Fuxuan leaps and bounds in terms of ability and insight, and also laid the foundation for him as the first person in mainland library science.

University of Berlin

Second, the first person in Chinese library science

In 1932, when Jiang Fuxuan returned to China, the Nationalist government was planning to rebuild the National Central Library in Nanjing, and Jiang Fuxuan immediately became the director of the Preparatory Office of the National Central Library, overseeing all the construction of the library. At this time, the construction of Chinese libraries can be said to have no foundation and experience, everything must start from scratch, and if you want to build a Western-style modern library, you must go through a very difficult construction period. Based on the knowledge and insights he learned and saw when he studied in Germany, Jiang Fuxuan began a drastic reform.

National Central Library

The biggest difference between a modern library and a traditional library is its "public nature". At the beginning of his term of office, Jiang Fuxuan announced that the Central Library would be opened to the public after its completion, and a corresponding reading room would be built to absorb more readers. But this is only the first step in the construction of a modern library, the real sense of the library is not only to provide a place for readers to read, it should also be the collator of knowledge, but also the producer of knowledge. Jiang Fuxuan first took over the Guoxue Bookstore in Nanjing, and transformed it into a printing house of the Preparatory Office of the Central Library as a publishing and printing institution, and then organized and published the "Four Libraries of the Whole Book" and so on. As far as the "Four Libraries of The Whole Book" is concerned, Jiang Fuxuan decided to cooperate with the Commercial Press to select more than 1,000 high-quality books for printing, and will publish them to the highest standards as a representative and symbol of Chinese culture.

The Complete Book of the Four Libraries

Jiang Fuxuan also used the Central Library as a platform to edit and publish a number of academic journals, such as "Book Monthly", "Xuelin Quarterly", "National Central Library Journal" and so on. After the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1937, Jiang Fuxuan also compiled and distributed a large number of books publicizing the War of Resistance in the name of the Central Library, and created a large number of local libraries in the rear area, hoping to spread culture to every corner of the rear area and use civilization to resist atrocities. In order to save a large number of books left in Shanghai, Nanjing and other places, Jiang Fuxuan traveled back and forth between Chongqing, Nanjing and Shanghai many times after the all-out war, and purchased a large number of precious books scattered among the people. After the end of the war, he went overseas to buy Chinese rare books many times, and made indelible contributions to the protection and publication of rare books in China.

The Suzhou Park Library was destroyed into ruins by the Japanese after 1937

3. The founder of the National Palace in Taipei

In 1949, the Nationalist government was defeated in Taiwan, and Chiang Fuxuan rushed to Taipei. He worked in the Central Library for decades and devoted his life to it, so that while relocating to Taiwan, he also took a large number of precious books with him, and based on this, he rebuilt the "Central Library" in Taipei.

In addition, because a large number of cultural relics from the Forbidden City followed the Nationalist government to Taiwan, how to dispose of this batch of cultural relics also became a key issue in the discussion at that time.

Taiwan Central Library

In 1965, the "Palace Museum" in Taipei, modeled on the Forbidden City in Beijing, was officially inaugurated, and Jiang Fuxuan became the first director of the museum until his retirement in 1982 due to illness. Before becoming president, Jiang Fuxuan had been the director of the "Central Library" for decades in Nanjing, Chongqing and Taipei, and although he had not done such work as a museum, he knew that whether it was a library or a museum, there was one thing that must not be lost, that is, "academic research". To this end, the first thing Jiang Fuxuan did after taking office was to promote the "National Palace" in Taipei to become an academic museum, not only to exhibit cultural relics, but also to study and excavate cultural relics.

National Palace Museum, Taipei

To this end, he first set up a library and documentation office in the "Forbidden City" in Taipei, and vigorously promoted the collation and publication of the books collected in the Forbidden City. Subsequently, he inherited the experience of working in the library and founded the independent academic journal of the "National Palace" in Taipei, focusing on the Forbidden City to carry out research on history, cultural relics and museum construction. Jiang Fuxuan also actively hosted a large number of international academic conferences, attracted foreign scholars to Taipei to discuss academic issues, collided with the spark of ideas in exchanges, and then promoted academic development. During the more than ten years that Jiang Fuxuan presided over the museum, the academic development of the "Forbidden City" in Taipei has made rapid progress, and until his death in 1990, he has been paying attention to the development of the "Forbidden City" in Taipei.

Precious cultural relics in the "National Palace" of Taipei

Wen Shijun said

In the eyes of today's people, among the many masters of the Republic of China, Jiang Fuxuan's sense of existence is almost zero, not because Jiang Fuxuan is not good enough. On the contrary, he made pioneering contributions to the construction of modern libraries and museums in the mainland. History is unfair because it obscures many truths; but it is also fair, because the man who really made a great contribution to the country cannot be forgotten, and his merits are eternal.

bibliography

Li Zaizhong, "Jiang Fuxuan and the Taipei Museum," Forbidden City, No. 3, 2015.

Luo Yun, "Jiang Fuxuan: A Name That Should Not Be Forgotten", Journal of Hubei Normal University, No. 5, 1998.

(Author: Haoran Wenshi Little Sun)

This article is the original work of Wenshi Science Popularization Self-media Haoran Wenshi, and unauthorized reprinting is prohibited!

The pictures used in this article, unless otherwise noted, are from the network search, if there is infringement, please contact the author to delete, thank you!

Haoran Wenshi is a self-media of literature and history science in the whole doctoral team, and a high-quality author of literature and history on the mainstream platform of the whole network. Make professional history more interesting and interesting content more in-depth. Ancient and modern Chinese and foreign, archaeology, more content, please pay attention to our public account of the same name (id: haoranwenshi)