There are ten famous buildings in China, namely: Hubei Wuhan Yellow Crane Tower, Hunan Yueyang Yueyang Tower, Jiangxi Nanchang Tengwang Pavilion, Shanxi Yongji Stork Tower, Shandong Yantai Penglai Pavilion, Yunnan Kunming Daguan Tower, Jiangsu Nanjing Yuejiang Tower, Hunan Changsha Tianxin Pavilion, Shaanxi Xi'an Bell and Drum Tower, Zhejiang Ningbo Tianyi Pavilion. Every building has its own story, and the story is particularly moving. Today I had the opportunity to visit Tianyi Pavilion in Ningbo.
"Tianyi Pavilion" is a thematic museum featuring books and exhibitions, supporting gardens and natural scenery. Now it is a national key cultural relics protection unit, a national key protection unit for ancient books, one of China's top ten historical and cultural buildings and a national AAAAA-level humanistic tourism resort. It is the oldest surviving library in China, the oldest surviving library in Asia, and one of the three oldest surviving family libraries in the world. Attractions mainly include: Dongming Caotang, Fan's Former Residence, Zunjing Pavilion, Mingzhou Forest of Steles, Gan Jinzhai and the newly built library.
Introduction: Tianyi Pavilion was originally the private library building of Lang Fanqin, the right hand of the Ming Dynasty Military Department. Fan Qin liked to read in his life, and he loved to collect books even more, and in 1532, he was admitted to the Jinshi Examination and served as the prefect of Suizhou, the wailang of the Ministry of Works, the prefect of Yuanzhou, and the waiter of the bingbu. When he was an official in Hubei, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Henan, Fujian, and other places, he paid attention to the books in that place and carefully collected all kinds of classics, and unlike those bibliophiles who only paid attention to editions, he paid more attention to the works of his contemporaries. In his collection, there are many local chronicles of the times, records of the imperial examination, political books, and poetry collections. After Fan Qin resigned and returned to his hometown, he also received the collection of 10,000 volumes of books in his hometown, such as Jing Si Zhai, and after years of accumulation, Wei became a grand view, and the collection of classics reached more than 70,000 volumes.
The following is based on the scenic tour guide's explanation of the recollection.
Main attractions:
Dongming Caotang: Generally large households have their own study, Dongming Caotang is Fan Qin's early study, Fan Qin's name: Dongming, modest name is called "Caotang" (such as Dupu Caotang). With the increase in the number of books, the Dongming Caotang was not enough, so Fan Qin, who was demobilized and returned to the field, built a building dedicated to the collection of books, "Tianyi Pavilion". After that, Dongming Caotang retired and became a place for receiving guests at home. Therefore, without dongming caotang, there is no "Tianyi Pavilion" that is famous in history and in ancient and modern times. The "Dongming Caotang" we see now was rebuilt in 1980.
Tianyi Pavilion: Tianyi Pavilion, also known as baoshulou, was built in 1561 and took five years to complete, the purpose is to collect books. The name "Tianyi Pavilion" is based on the traditional Chinese culture "I Ching" in the "Heavenly Life Water, Earth 60%", and the Five Elements "Heavenly Life Water, Water makes fire", "Water is black, is the color of the abyss", so the whole building is black. There is one room upstairs, six rooms downstairs, a pond in front of the pavilion to store water for fire prevention, and there are also water ripples carved in the building and water beasts on display. The most special thing is that Fan Qin formulated the management specifications of the library building at the beginning: "Tobacco and alcohol should not go upstairs", "make fire with water, fire does not enter the cabinet, substitute does not divide books, books do not go out of the cabinet", as well as various measures such as moisture-proof, waterproof, fireproof, insect-proof, rat-proof, anti-theft and so on. Under strict management measures and strict compliance by children and grandchildren, the library has never suffered a fire for more than 400 years in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and has been well preserved. Unfortunately, after the end of the Qing Dynasty, after many wars and man-made destruction, most of them were lost, passed down from 13 generations of descendants, and only 17,000 volumes remained. However, although some losses suffered under the man-made destruction in the later period, compared with any family's collection of books, it is the most historical, and the general history of the collection of books can not be passed down for three generations, while the Fan Qin family has been passed down for 13 generations.
Fan's Former Residence: In order to isolate the library area and the residential area and better protect the books, all the living areas of the Fan family are concentrated on the west side of the library building. The Fan family's former residence that we see now is where the Fan family lives. The building was built during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, but was later destroyed. In recent years, it has been rebuilt in the style of the Ming Dynasty. On the west side of the former residence is the study, the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting are complete, and there is a couplet "reading ten thousand volumes of poetry and books, raising ten years of pride", which is a portrayal of Fan Qin's feelings in life. In the east room, there is a stone sculpture of Fan Qin's separation of the family property for his two sons on his deathbed. The family property is divided into 2 parts, one is the library and the library, and the other is ten thousand two silver. The eldest son sympathized with his father's love of books and chose the library and library, becoming the second generation of Tianyi Pavilion. During the management of the library, the eldest son expanded the collection and further improved the management system of the library. The second son chose silver, I don't know if the second son who chose silver has made his father's family property flourish?
Zunjing Pavilion: Originally located in Ningbo Fuxue, that is, the library in the Ningbo government-run school, it is used to store books and Confucian classics given to Ningbo by the imperial court. It was moved from the original Ningbo Province in 1935 and built here. The most special thing about Jingzun is that the roof is a triple cornice. In ancient times, the number of cornices illustrated the hierarchy of the building. The ordinary hall is a single-storey cornice, the Forbidden City Taihe Hall is a double cornice, and the Zunjing Pavilion is a triple cornice, which can be seen that the ancients attached importance to the sage books and the honor of the books.
Celebrity Showroom of Past Dynasties: In order to strictly manage the management of books, Tianyi Pavilion generally does not give people with foreign surnames to climb the stairs, but fan Qin's great-grandson Fan Youzhong's generation is an exception. Fan Youzhong was a scholar and also an official outside, well-informed, and enjoyed high prestige in the family. It was he who broke the rules of his predecessors that no one with foreign surnames was allowed to enter the cabinet, and invited the great classicist, historian, thinker, geographer, astronomer, and educator Huang Zongxi to ascend to the cabinet. Huang Zongxi thus became the first person with a foreign surname to open the door of Tianyi Pavilion, and many celebrities and scholars in the subsequent dynasties also had the honor of climbing the building. They read, copied, hid, built buildings, and so on. The exhibition room displays portraits of famous scholars who have climbed the stairs in history. There are Qian Daxin of the "Generation of Confucians", Yuan Ming of the "Southern Yuan and Northern Chronicles", Guo Moruo, a modern writer, poet, scholar, critic, translator, and exegetician, and so on. Huang Zongxi also sighed for Tianyi Ge's "Secretaries of Tibet": It is difficult to read, it is especially difficult to collect books, and it is especially difficult to hide for a long time." There are so many university scholars who are proud to climb the stairs to read, which is really rare in Chinese history.
Qianjin Zhai: It is the Xiaoxiang Pavilion in tianyi pavilion, with green bamboo Xiaoxiao in front of the zhai and green brick tiles around it, poetic and picturesque. The building houses many of Ningbo's ancient wall tiles. In the renovation of the old city of Ningbo from 1931 to 1933, a large number of Jin Dynasty wall bricks were found when the city wall was demolished. At that time, no one could give an answer to the origin of so many ancient bricks, but they were undoubtedly very precious historical relics. One of the famous "five horses" in Yinxian County, Peking University professor Ma Lian happened to return to Ningbo for a vacation due to illness, he found these ancient bricks one by one to find and carry home, and specially built a house to store these ancient bricks, named "Qianjin Zhai", and later he immersed himself in research and wrote "Yin ancient bricks". From 1933 to 1935, when Tianyi Pavilion was rebuilt, Ma Lian, as one of the initiators, donated all the ancient bricks he had collected to Tianyi Pavilion, for which Tianyi Pavilion set up a special room for display, and still named it "Qianjin Zhai". Now we see 2 large cabinets of ancient bricks, all of which are engraved with the name of the burner and the inscription of the firing era.
Ma Lian also specialized in collecting novels and operas that were despised in tradition, so the library was called "the Hall of Great Elegance", and he accidentally purchased the only copy of "The Legend of the Three Sui Ping Demons" in Hainei, so it was also known as "Ping Youtang". Its collection of about 2,000 books, most of which were sold to the Peking University Library after his death. In 2003, Peking University Library edited and published the "Budeng Daya Library Rare Books and Opera Series" in 24 hardcover volumes, and collected 35 operas and 114 volumes from Ma Lian's collection.
"Hundred Rivers Return to the Sea" is a donation from other bibliophiles.
At present, tianyige ancient books and other collections are very rich, in addition to Fan's original collection, a large part of it comes from the generous donation of Ningbo bibliophiles. After the reform and opening up, the government repeatedly allocated special funds for the maintenance and expansion of Tianyi Pavilion, and at the same time built a relatively modern library building with two floors. The search, purchase and collection of the lost ancient books of Tianyi Pavilion have been in progress. For example, today, the number of books in the First Pavilion has reached more than 300,000 volumes, which is 5 times more than Fan Qin's original collection, of which more than 80,000 volumes of rare editions are rare books. In addition, a series of tourist attractions such as Ming Pond, Rockery, Promenade, Forest of Steles, Hundred Goose Pavilion, and Ninghui Hall were built.
Now the museum is full of blue water and stacked stones, like heavenly formation; repairing bamboo camphor wood, proud of the wind; pavilions, quaint and grand books and gardens, complement each other perfectly. Every year, tourists from all over the world love to come here for sightseeing and leisure, and in addition to the bustling and modern urban life, they will experience the fun of "10,000 poetry books coming and leaving, allowing me to hide in Jiayuan".
