Zhao Heng, the True Emperor of Song, once said: "There is a golden house in the book, and there is a Yan Ruyu in the book." This sentence is not only regarded as a classic by the ancient literati, but also encourages many modern students to strive to be strong. Whether it is in the ancient feudal society, which rarely has a humanistic atmosphere, or in this modern era that advocates the rejuvenation of science and education culture, reading and persuading learning will always be a theme that will not become obsolete.
I have lived in the university's self-study library, soaked in many cities' public libraries, and even visited Jiayetang, located in Nanxun Ancient Town, with a large scale and volume of books, which was one of the three largest private libraries in China at that time, but it was not as shocking as when I stepped into Ningbo Tianyi Pavilion. We know that the ancient Ningbo, which has a history of 7,000 years of "building a port", has always had the saying that "the collection of ancient and modern books, the port connects the world". The "book" here actually refers to tianyi pavilion. It is the earliest existing private library in China, the oldest existing library in Asia, and one of the three largest family libraries in the world.
Tianyi Pavilion is located in No. 10 Tianyi Street, Haishu District, Ningbo, Zhejiang, located in the beautiful Scenery of Yuehu Historical and Cultural Scenic Spot, it was built in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, covering a total area of about 26,000 square meters, was built by Fan Qin, the retired right attendant of the military department at that time, for the collection of books, which has a history of more than 450 years.
A cultural essay by the famous writer Mr. Yu Qiuyu, "A Pavilion on a Stormy Day", once made this famous library famous. It is not only a symbol of Ningbo's book collection culture, but also a microcosm of the State of Siming Literature, but also a national key cultural relics protection unit and a national 5A-level tourist attraction. Therefore, many tourists come to Ningbo, they regard going to Tianyi Pavilion as their first "priority", and even circulate that "if you don't come to Ningbo, you don't come to Ningbo".
With a height of 8.5 meters, Tianyi Pavilion is a two-storey brick and wood structure with a hard hilltop heavy building. The reason why it is called "Tianyi Pavilion" is that the builders took the meaning of "Tianyi Shengshui" in the "I Ching" in order to save themselves from the fire, and even the pool in front of the pavilion was named "Tianyi Pool". The loft, together with the surrounding gardens, presents the characteristics of Jiangnan courtyard-style gardens, with small bridges flowing water and flying cornices, and a quiet and elegant atmosphere.
It is said that At that time, Fan Qin served as an official in many parts of the country, and later became the right attendant of the military department, which also provided a very rich financial foundation and search space for his collection of books. He hid nearly 70,000 volumes of books and classics collected in his lifetime in tianyi pavilions, and the court collection at that time was only more than 100,000 volumes. Later, when the Qianlong Emperor revised the Siku Quanshu, he contributed more than 600 books, and Qianlong also praised it, saying, "The Fan Maozhu family in Ningbo Province, Zhejiang Province, has the most books." ”
Today's Tianyi Pavilion Library has formed a Tianyi Pavilion Museum with the Treasure Library as the core, integrating a collection culture area, a garden leisure area, and an exhibition area. Covering an area of about 26,000 square meters, the museum is a thematic museum with the collection culture as the core and the research, protection, education and sightseeing of the collection. The museum now contains nearly 300,000 volumes of various ancient books, including 80,000 rare books, including extremely precious Ming Dynasty local chronicles and Ming Dynasty records.
In addition, the architecture of Tianyi Pavilion is also quite interesting, not only has the characteristics of many excellent buildings in Ningbo Urban Area, but also has the characteristics of Jiangnan Gardens, the decoration of the building, but also a synthesis of the characteristics and styles of the local traditional crafts of Ningbo in the past, which is of great value for the study of Ningbo history and culture, which is also the main reason why other library buildings have followed suit later.