Now many cities and even many schools have their own libraries, can be for citizens or students to read, self-study, these libraries not only have a large number of collections, and many also have a well-designed appearance, or majestic, or trendy, many libraries have become city landmarks, not only that, most of the libraries are still public welfare facilities, basically will not charge, will not set too high thresholds of access, and in ancient times can not be so lucky, most of the libraries are private collections, outsiders generally can not enter, So what was an ancient library like? In Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, there is a private library with a history of more than 400 years, which is the Tianyi Pavilion of the Southern Book City located on the shore of Yue Lake.
Tianyi Pavilion is located in Ningbo Haishu District Tianyi Street No. 10, was in the forty years of Ming Jiajing (that is, 1561) by the then retired Ming Dynasty soldiers right attendant Fan Qin presided over the construction, lasted five years, until The Jiajing forty-five years (that is, 1566) was built, just entered the gate of Tianyi Pavilion, you can see the statue of Fan Qin, Fan Qin loved to collect books all his life, as early as the Ming Dynasty period has had the reputation of "the first book collection in eastern Zhejiang", the construction of Tianyi Pavilion this time can also be said to have fulfilled his wish for many years.
The most famous building in Tianyi Pavilion is naturally the Tianyi Pavilion Library Building, which sits north and faces south, and is a hard-core building with a height of 8.5 meters of brick and wood. Ancient buildings between several pillars is called "one", the general building is four, and the first floor of Tianyi Pavilion is very wide, wide, deep six rooms, the second floor is in addition to the stairwell for a large room, are spaced by bookcases, but now in order to protect the monument has not been allowed to enter. In front of the pavilion, the "Tianyi Pond" Tongyue Lake was also chiseled out, which was built by the great-grandson Fan Guangwen, and the garden not only took "Fu, Lu and Shou" as the overall shape, but also piled up into a rockery "Nine Lions and One Elephant", making it more stylish and literary.
In addition to the library building, there are many other buildings in the whole Tianyi Pavilion, and various pavilions are full of pavilions, which have the style of Jiangnan Garden. Many people are thinking that Fan Qin likes books so much, it is impossible to build the Tianyi Pavilion first and then collect books, right? So where were his books placed before the Tianyi Pavilion Library was built? In fact, it is in the Dongming Caotang of Tianyi Pavilion. The reason why this place is called Dongming Caotang Caotang is precisely because Fan Qin is called "Dongming", and there is a relief of a badger in front of the main entrance, which is a legendary sacred beast in charge of law and justice, and now many law universities have it, such as my alma mater, Southwest University of Political Science and Law, but this building is not an ancient building, but was rebuilt in 1980.
So how many books are in the Tianyi Pavilion? It is said that in the Fan Qin period has collected more than 70,000 volumes of various types of books, these are not casually collected, basically are fine works, in the Qianlong Thirty-eighth year of the Qing Dynasty to edit the "Four Libraries of the Whole Book", Tianyi Pavilion dedicated a total of 638 rare books, of which as many as 473 books were recorded by the "Outline of the General Catalogue of the Four Libraries", ranking first in the contribution of bibliophiles in the country, although it caused the loss of a large number of fine books in tianyi pavilion, but also made Tianyi Pavilion famous, and even the royal library, That is, the four libraries and seven pavilions are all built in imitation of the heavens and one pavilion, which shows its status.
In addition to collecting books, there are many other collections in Tianyi Pavilion, such as a place called "Qianjin Zhai", which contains more than a thousand Jin bricks. However, these Jin bricks were originally not owned by Tianyi Pavilion, but by Ma Lian, a Yongxue scholar during the Republic of China, whose name was "Qianjin Zhai", and after the rebuilding of Tianyi Pavilion in the twenty-fourth year of the Republic of China (1935), all the Jin bricks collected by him were donated to Tianyi Pavilion, and Tianyi Pavilion also used this name.
In addition to the above buildings, there are many other buildings in Tianyi Pavilion, such as the Zunjing Pavilion, which contains imperial gifts and Confucian classics, the Fan Family Ancestral Residence, the Fan Qin Residence Sima Di, the Chen Zheng key family ancestral hall, the mahjong history, the history of relations with Ningbo, and the mahjong origin exhibition hall showing the types of mahjong cards around the world, the Qin clan ancestral hall built by the Qin clan to worship their ancestors, and the Donglin South Building with Jiangnan garden style, which can be said to be a feast for the eyes.
The most interesting is the tianyi pavilion in the evil stone carving, most of the people's stone carvings are placed at the door, basically a male and a female two lions, which is not only a symbol of the high authority of the official residence, but also a prayer for a good language to ward off evil, so most of them are very majestic and exquisite, and the stone carvings in the Tianyi Pavilion are two small cute, do not know what animals, people are confused, listen to the tour guide said that such a cute stone carving is actually the king of the hundred beasts tiger! Why is that? It is said that there are no tigers in Jiangnan, and the stonemasons can only imagine according to the records in the book, so with these cute things, it is also quite distinctive.
After more than 400 years of ups and downs, although after many restorations, Tianyi Pavilion is still the oldest private library in China, and one of the oldest private library buildings in the world, as early as 1982, it was listed as the second batch of national cultural relics protection units in China, and it is also a 5a scenic spot in Ningbo City, where the collection of cultural relics related to the imperial examination accounts for more than 80% of the existing volume of such documents. In particular, the complete Jinshi Dengke Record of the first section from the first section of the fourth year of Ming Hongwu (1371) to the eleventh year of the Wanli Calendar (1583) is called the treasure of the town tower, so it is also a must-punch attraction in Ningbo, do you also have an ancient library there? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
Travel tip:
Opening Hours:
Summer opening hours: May 1 - October 31 8:30-17:30 (ticket sales close at 17:00, no admission to the park).
Winter opening hours: November 1 - April 30 8:30-17:00 (ticket sales close at 16:30, no admission to the park).
The museum closes every Monday morning (except statutory holidays, and does not postpone the supplement), and opens at 13:30 in the afternoon.
Ancient Books Reading Room Opening Hours: 8:30 - 11:00 14:00 - 16:30 (closed on weekends)
Transportation Information:
Ningbo Bus No. 512, No. 371, No. 9 and No. 26 can all reach the vicinity of the scenic spot
Ningbo Metro Line 1 Ximen Station walks south along Changchun Road for about 10 minutes to the scenic spot
Photo/Text Original by tourism maniac Xia XiaXia, unauthorized reproduction is prohibited
About the author: I have traveled to 500+ cities around the world, and have studied at Oxford University in the UK and Waseda University in Japan, as well as international volunteers in Sri Lanka, welcome to continue to pay attention, share with you the world's eating and drinking, like to remember to like comments or share Oh!