Lu Xun and Liu Chenggan did not know each other, let alone have no contact, but they jokingly called Liu Chenggan a "stupid prince", and this story should start from the "collection of books".
Valuing culture begins with ancestors
begins with grandparents
As we all know, Liu Chenggan is the third generation of the Liu family, the stepson of Liu Anlan, the son of Liu's eldest son, and the grandson of Liu Yong. Who is Liu Yong? This Liu Yong was not Liu Yong, the chancellor of the Qianlong dynasty, but Liu Yong, a giant of nanxun during the light years of the late Qing Dynasty. When Liu Yong was a teenager, his family was surrounded by disciples, and he made a lot of livelihoods, and then entered the silk industry as an apprentice to study business, which made him a fortune. Zhang Xiao said in the "Nanxun Liu Cemetery Epitaph": "Since Xianfeng and Tongzhi, the rich merchants in the southeast are the most famous, and those who can cultivate themselves at that time with wind and righteousness, there are three people in Zhejiang: if the Hu of Hangzhou, the leaf of Ningbo, and one of them is the Liu clan of Nanxun in Huzhou... The former Nanxun Tianxiaxiong Town has no one to hear of the Liu clan. ”
▲ Portrait of Liu Yong
When Liu Yong made his debut, he deeply felt that since the ancestors, they all lacked culture, although they had wealth, but they had no lu, and they did not go to the door, so they tried their best to teach their sons to study and take the exam, so that his four sons could enter the career path, and Liu Yong was also enthroned as a Tongfeng Doctor because of his son's and the first.
Liu Yong had three wives and bore him four sons and three daughters. His eldest son, Liu Anlan, studied particularly hard, but unfortunately died of illness while taking the Hangzhou township examination, at the age of 29.
At that time, Liu Anlan was already married, and his wife was the daughter of the senior doctor Qiu Xiancha, and Liu Anlan did not have a son when he died, so Anlan's younger brother Liu Anjiang passed his eldest son Liu Chenggan to Liu Anlan's family to take care of Lady Qiu, and this Liu Anjiang was Liu Jinzao.
▲Liu Jinzao statue
After Liu Anlan's death, Liu Jinzao became the head of the Liu family. Although his family was extremely wealthy, he still studied hard, and finally passed the examination for the Jinshi, Cao Jinfa said in the article "The History of the Catalogue of The Catalogue of The Catalogue": "In 1894, at the age of 40, he and Nantong Zhang Jian were on the same list of Dengjia Wuke Jinshi, becoming the first person of the Nanxun Liu clan to succeed in the imperial examination, and successively served as the head of the household department of the Qing Dynasty, the water master of the Ministry of Works, and the cabinet attendant. When his father died in 1899, Liu Jinzao returned to Nanxun to mourn and began to hold businesses from then on. ”
▲Liu Jinzao Jinshi inscription list
Being able to manage such a huge business empire shows that this Liu Jinzao really has superiority. Nevertheless, he has not forgotten the true colors of books. He single-handedly compiled the "General Examination of the Literature of the Continuation of the Imperial Dynasty", a total of three hundred and twenty volumes. However, compiling history books requires a lot of historical materials, and because of this, Liu Jinzao began to buy a large number of books.
▲Liu Jinzao's "Collection of Firm Daggers"
Liu Jinzao was very interested in the collection of books for a long time, and Li Yu'an and Huang Zhengyu wrote in the "General Dictionary of Chinese Bibliophiles": "(Liu Jinzao) likes to collect books, he once served in the cabinet, which was quite convenient for the cabinet library to collect books, and after the general books, he began to collect classics, and his collection was called 'Jianzai'an', and there was no shortage of rare books. Traveling with books, in his later years in Qingdao there was a 'Jing Ji Lu', and the collection of ancient books has become large-scale. At present, Yangzhou Municipal Library still holds part of Liu Jinzao's collection of books. But obviously, the compilation of the "Examination of the Literature of the Continuation of the Imperial Dynasty" was the most direct reason for his large number of books.
Built the "Liuyu Caotang" for the father's collection
for the father's books
There was once a library building in Hangzhou that left Yu Caotang, and Liu Chenggan left Yu, and he also took this name for the Hangzhou Library. Liuyu Caotang is the earliest library built by Liu Chenggan, and there are historical records that predate Jiayetang ten years ago, and the main reason for the construction of Liuyu Caotang is his biological father Liu Jinzao.
▲Portrait of Liu Chenggan
In 1910, Liu Jinzao submitted the completed 320-volume Imperial Continuation Literature Examination to the imperial court, and the imperial court rewarded him with the title of cabinet attendant. In the Republic of China period, he successively added 400 volumes, continuing the "Qing Literature General Examination" down to the Qing Dynasty, recording the evolution of the canon system in the late Qing Dynasty for more than 100 years, becoming one of the "Ten Links" handed down. Compiling such a vast collection of ancient books, most of the desk work is done in the Jianzai Villa, and the required information is like a sea of mountains. In order to help his father achieve his grand plan, Liu Chenggan bought a ready-made building in the eastern foothills of Gem Mountain and between No. 13 and No. 14 of present-day Beishan Road at the same time as his father built a jianzai villa, and transformed it into a library building in Liuyu Caotang. The building is a two-story Chinese and Western style three-bay room, and the second floor platform is wide, which can overlook the West Lake in the distance and the Great Buddha Temple.
▲Jianzai Villa
There are many speculations about the reasons why Liu Chenggan germinated the intention of collecting books, one said that he began the collection business because he could not bear the loss of ancient books abroad, and the other said that he wrote the "Examination of Imperial Continued Literature" for his assistant father Liu Jinzao. The Si people have passed away, and the original intention is no longer possible, but as far as the existence of the Remaining Caotang is concerned, the reasons for this are somewhat based.
The beginning of Liu Chenggan's collection
began to collect books
When Liu Chenggan's book collection business began in 1910 when he visited the Nanyang Persuasion Association, according to Mr. Liu Chenggan's later recollection: "Xuantong Gengjie, Nanyang Kai Persuasion Association in Jinling, goods gathered, people rushed to it. Yu Du walked to various bookstores in the Yuanjing Realm, read through the books, and returned for two years. Yue Ri Shu Jia brought books to sell, and he had the ambition to collect books. ”
▲Nanyang Persuasion Association
Because Liu Chenggan was generous in purchasing books, its collection of books was mostly sent to the door by booksellers on their own initiative, and there were also acquaintances who were introduced and resold by bibliophiles. Among the booksellers who often visited the door were Liu Rongchun, the owner of Boguzhai and a Suzhou native nicknamed "Willow Tree Essence", "Han yi night show continued to pass on the lantern record in two volumes, and Boguzhai sent it to read". There are Qian Changmei, a "strange master of the forest", Chen Liyan and Li Zidong from Hangzhou, and other booksellers from Shanghai and Hangzhou, who have sent liu chenggan dozens of books scattered by bibliophiles, and the sources of the books are: Siming Lu's Baojing Lou, Dushan Mo's Shadow Mountain Caotang, Renhe Zhu's Jieyilu, Jiangyin Miao's YifengTang, Fengshun Ding's Holding Jingzhai, Wuxian Gu's Yihai Building, Taicang Miao's Dongcang Library, etc., in addition to many small collectors' books, all of which were introduced by various old bookstores.
The collection of 10,000 volumes of books is built jiayetang
library volumes
Because Liu Chenggan, who "stole Sven well", knew very well that it was not easy to collect books, in view of the fact that his predecessors "gathered and scattered", he remembered that Su Dongpo once said: "Li Gongxuan's books are not hidden in his home, but hidden in the monastery and monk's house where he originally lived", which is very insightful. So he decided to build a library building next to the Liu Family Temple in Xiaolianzhuang, breaking ground in the early winter of 1920 and completing it at the end of 1924, "120,000 Kangjin, 20 acres of land".
The library consists of two parts: a garden and a library. The lotus ponds, rockeries, pavilions, and strange stones in the garden are staggered and resemble gods, which is a typical representative of Jiangnan gardens.
The library building is a brick structure of Chinese and Western two-story buildings, 10 feet wide from east to west, 15 feet and 9 feet deep from north to south, divided into two front and back, each with seven wide rooms, and six left and right compartments, a total of fifty-two rooms. There are "Song Shi Si Zhai", "Jiaye Hall", "Poetry Room", "Xigu Lou", "Ask for Forgiveness", "Li Guang Pavilion" and other halls. The foundations around the building are about five or six feet high, and they are all made of granite stone. The plane is in the shape of a "mouth", and the square patio in the middle covers an area of about two merchants, with tiled square bricks and no weeds, which is used for drying books in summer.
Its grand scale and rich collection of books are one of the famous private library buildings in modern China. At the peak of the collection, there were 160,000 volumes and 600,000 volumes of various ancient books of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, of which 62 kinds of rare books can be called "secret books in the sea". When Jiangnan was liberated in 1949, Premier Zhou instructed Chen Yi to send troops to protect the library so that it could be preserved. After liberation, Liu Chenggan donated to the Zhejiang Library, and in July 2001, Jiaye Library was included in the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units in China.
The five characters of "Jiaye Library" on the lintel of the gate are from Liu Tingchen's pen. Liu Chenggan built the library and named it "Jiaye" because at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Liu Chenggan donated a huge amount of money to repair the Guangxu Mausoleum, and Xuantong once gave him a plaque of "Qinruo Jiaye", and he was proud of it, so he named it "Jiaye".
▲ Xuantong gave the "Chin Ruo Jia Ye" Kowloon gold plaque
Because there were still many rich people in Huzhou in that era, it was also earlier to be electrified (1919) and electric lights were used. It is said that the two lotus-shaped chandeliers on the top were imported from France, which was naturally a luxury at that time. The Qing-style furniture is all made of precious rosewood, which is the best-preserved group in Nanxun Scenic Area.
The "Song Si Shi Zhai" mainly treasures the engravings of the four historical books of "Former Han, Later Han, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and History". These engravings are carved from rosewood, so they have been preserved for a long time, and the "Four Histories of the Song Dynasty" engraved here is large in large characters, which is rare in China.
The "Poetry Room" contains a copy of "Poetry of the National Dynasty" co-written by Liu Chenggan and his father Liu Anlan. The main hall upstairs is called "Xigu Lou", and the plaque is inscribed by Zheng Xiaoxu.
The library building has strict requirements for fire prevention, moisture prevention and ventilation, and is carefully designed and carefully constructed. Surrounded by river water, it is conducive to fire prevention and fire extinguishing; the first floor rooms are paved with green bricks fired in a special kiln, and the green bricks are laid under the specially burned anti-bowl, and the sand is laid under the bowl, and the green bricks are more than a foot high from the ground, plus the layers of barriers, the underground moisture is difficult to rise; the ground floor on the first floor is 4-5 meters high, which is both ventilated and heat insulated. The treasured books are stored in the wood, and the lining board inside the box is also a powerful measure to prevent moisture.
According to relevant records, during the heyday of the library, that is, between 1925 and 1932, there were 200 kinds of rare books and rare books of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, 5,000 kinds of Qing carved books, more than 1,200 kinds of local chronicles, more than 220 kinds of series of books, 2,000 kinds of manuscripts, and more than 1,200 other kinds, and a large number of Qing anthologies and various historical books. There are also thousands of inscriptions. Jiayetang's collection of books is the most precious of the Song periodicals "History", "Book of Han", "Book of Later Han", and "Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms", which is known as the treasure of the town treasury. There are also remnants of the Meishan publication of the Book of Song, the close friend Mr. Zhang Yuanji printed the "Twenty-Four Histories of the Hundred Books", and as for Song Kaiqing's (1295) "The Complete Works of Mr. Heshan" and Mi Chunxi Peng shu (1178), "Dou Min Lian Zhu Collection" are also the only books and rare books in The Sea that Shi Duyan called. The two major characteristics of Jiayetang's collection: one is not to focus on the Song and Yuan periodicals, but to focus on the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the other is to collect local chronicles at great expense, of which there are 62 kinds of rare books that can be called "the secret collection of the sea".
In terms of nature, the Jiayetang Library belongs to the old-style private library building, and has not established strict rules and regulations like a public library, but the library building has actually formed some systems in its daily management. Taking the cataloging department as an example, there are four staff members and four co-workers to manage. The library building also has a reader's reading room open to the public, if there are acquaintances or celebrities introduced, scholars at home and abroad can read books and copy books. In this regard, Liu Chenggan is more enlightened, as long as someone introduces, even the Song edition of the book he is willing to borrow, not only allowed to borrow copy, but also promised to borrow for free to reprint. On the bottom page of the 4th volume 3 of the Zhejiang Library Journal, there is an advertisement for the sale of Wanli's Xianju County Chronicle, "Originally it was held by the Liu clan of Jiayetang, and the only thing that survives in the past is allowed to be a treasure of the world, and recently Li Jingqu, a Yiren, tried to borrow it from The Liu clan." Reading in the library building is "specially picked up by special people, and ordinary guests can only borrow books in bungalows."
After the establishment of the library, there were four staff members to manage: Zhou Zimei, director of cataloguing, with a monthly salary of 30 yuan, served for 8 years, and after teaching at St. John's University in Shanghai from 1932, he was replaced by his assistant Shi Weifan (Yun Qiu). In addition, Wang Shanji, a Jiaxing native, was responsible for carving large and small book boxes and bookcases and concurrently managing the affairs of the house, and both of them had a monthly salary of 20 yuan. There is also Liu Chenggan's cousin Liu Junshi, who counts the number of volumes and stamps, and earns a monthly salary of 16 yuan. Four co-workers, in charge of the concierge, kitchen, garden and miscellaneous, with a monthly salary of 10 yuan. In addition to other expenses, the daily expenses of the library are about 3,000 yuan a year, mainly maintained by "buying a few acres of land and taking interest as a regular fee".
▲ Zhou Zimei, a famous bibliographer in China
During this period, the mission of the library was not only to receive guests and print books, but also to compile bibliographies and exchange with foreign countries. Long before the establishment of the library, Liu Chenggan had asked someone to compile the "Jiayetang Collection of Books", which was originally compiled by Miao Quansun and succeeded by Dong Kang after Miao's death, and Dong made a large number of deletions on the basis of Miao's draft, and the second focused on supplementing Liu Chenggan's newly purchased book after 1919, but for various reasons, the book was not completed in the end.
After the establishment of the library building, Zhou Zimei and Shi Yunqiu presided over the collation of all the books in Jiayetang and compiled the bibliography of the library. The bibliography is modeled after the "General Catalogue of the Four Libraries", but it has been adapted, and is divided into six categories: classics, histories, sub-collections, books, and zhi. The Jingbu is subdivided into the categories of canon, book, ritual, Spring and Autumn, the General Meaning of the Five Classics, the Four Books, and the Primary School; the History Department is subdivided into the categories of Canon, Chronicle, Bishi, Miscellaneous History, Edicts, Biographies, Historical Notes, Records, Geography, Officials, Political Books, Catalogs, and Historical Commentaries; sub-departments are subdivided into Confucianism, Law, Agriculture, Medicine, Astronomy, Arithmetic, Mathematics, Art, Genealogy, Miscellaneous, Books, Novelists, Interpretations, and Taoists; the Collection Department is subdivided into Other Collections, Collections, and Songs; The Book Series Is Subdivided into Previous Dynasties, Modern Times, Modern Times, Junyi, and Huijia; and the Zhibu is not divided into detailed categories. After five years of efforts, it was compiled into twelve volumes: one volume each of the Classics, History, Zi, Fang Zhi, and Supplements, one volume before the Ming Dynasty, two volumes in the Qing Dynasty, one volume in the general collection and the series of books, two volumes in the Codex, and one volume in the Bibliography of Good Books. In addition, he also compiled one volume each of the Bibliography of "Asking for Forgiveness", "Bibliography of Liuyu Caotang", five volumes of "Jiayetang Shanshu Shadow", and one volume of "Jiayetang Mingjian Bibliography".
During this period, although the engraved books of Jiayetang were not as loud as in the previous stage, the scale was still not small, mainly to compile the previous series of books into sets, "Fuming "Jiayetang Series" was mostly printed with the publication and successively sold, so the winners often failed to complete the plan, and even printed all the original books. At the same time, he also continued to publish new books and supplement several series of books, including the 1926 "Wang Zhangshi Cunhe", the "Mantang Anthology" in 36 volumes, the 1927 "Wang Jinggong Poetry Collection", the 1928 "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (The Film Magazine Song Ben), the "Spring and Autumn Ram Neglect" seven volumes, the 1930 "Yanzhou JinshiLu" three volumes, the "Yunxi Friendship Discussion" three volumes were added to the "Jiayetang Series"; the 1928 "Dong Libu Collection", the 1929 "Yuehe Anecdotes" and so on were supplemented into the "Wuxing Series"; the 1926 "", "Yunxi Friendship Discussion" and so on were added to the "Jiayetang Series"; the 1926 "Dong Libu Collection", the 1929 "Yuehe Anwen Collection" and so on were added to the "Wuxing Series"; the 1926 "". The Annals of the Han Guan Virgins and the 1928 Records of the Banana Corridor were added to the "Book of Asking for Forgiveness"; the rest, such as the "Records of the Zhongyong Cuts Themselves", were added to the "Liuyu Caotang Series". In addition, Liu Chenggan also used the old book edition of the reclaimed library to print some books, "published the sale price, slightly charged some cost of work, but those who have a friendship can still give away." ”
Engraved printed books are well known in the sea
famous of collecting
Liu Chenggan is not only famous for his collection of ancient books, but also famous in the sea for engraving and printing books. The Jiayetang inscription began in 1913 and lasted for 24 years from the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, during which 184 kinds of books were engraved. According to his own introduction, the location of Liu's publication is: "Shanghai and Beijing, if Nanjing, Yangzhou, Wuchang, all set up factories. It can be seen that the scale of Liu's engraving is relatively large.
From 1913 onwards, Liu Chenggan invested a total of nearly 200,000 yuan to engrave 220 volumes of 56 kinds of Jiayetang Series, 850 volumes of 64 kinds of Wuxing Series, 241 volumes of 30 kinds of "Qiuzhai Series", 10 kinds of 60 volumes of "Liuyu Caotang Series", 450 volumes of 144 volumes of the Four Histories of the Song Dynasty, more than 50 volumes of Jiayetang Jinshi Series of 5 kinds, 9 volumes of 3 kinds of Liaodong Sanjia Poetry Transcription, 2 kinds of 17 volumes of Wang Zhangshi Cun and Engraving, plus "Zhang's Testament", "Notes on the History of the Old Five Dynasties", "Notes on the History of the Old Five Dynasties", "Notes on the History of the Old Five Dynasties". Jin Shu Xu Notes" and so on, a total of 177 kinds of 3015 volumes, "the engraved single book of the scriptures is not seen by Ruan School, the ZiShi Hundred Families are also many contemporary rare books, and yu Yuanming's widows and their genealogies, search for you gang", which can also be said to be the characteristics of Jiayetang's engraved books.
The layout of the Jiayetang engraving can be roughly divided into two types. One is modeled after the edition of Ren and Zhu's Jieyilu book. The style of the Jieyilu book version is all black mouth, single fish tail, left and right double columns, 11 lines per page, 21 lines, the font is imitation Song style, and the publication is exquisite. The layout of Jie Yilu has always been used by Liu Chenggan. The specifications of the various editions of the existing Jiayetang Series are similar to those of the Jieyilu engraving. Liu's engravings of the "Series of Books on Asking for Forgiveness" and "Liuyu Caotang Series" have 10 or 11 lines, each line is 20 or 21 words, which is still similar to the layout of Jie Yilu.
The second type of Jiayetang engraving is the shadow engraving Song Ben. Its characteristics are mainly reflected in the four kinds of historical books inscribed "History", "Book of Han", "Book of Later Han", and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". Taking the "Shi Ji" as an example, the "Shi Ji" collected by Liu Shi was identified by Miao Quansun and Ye Changchi as a large character engraved by Song Shu. The Shu engravings in the Song dynasty are also famous for their excellent ink and paper, square and elegant writing, and loose and elegant layout, so they have been regarded as wonderful artistic treasures and rare cultural relics in the past, which are of great value. In order to maintain the original appearance of the Song Shu engraving, the layout and font of the Ying Song engraving are strictly in accordance with the original. The existing Edition of the "History of History" in the Jiaye Library Building has a size of 37.5cm×22.5cm, and the layout is black mouth, double fish tail, left and right double columns, 9 lines per page, 16 lines, and each word size is about 1.5cm×1.5cm. The original Song Dynasty avoidance characters in the book are also engraved. The "Four Histories of the Shadow Song Dynasty" published by Jiayetang was very popular in the society at that time, and all major libraries across the country wrote letters or came to ask for books.
The main achievements of the publication and utilization are: In June 1964, the Zhejiang Library cooperated with the Hangzhou Ancient Bookstore and the Jiangsu Guangling Ancient Books Engraving and Printing Society to print and print the engraving plates of the Zhejiang Library, and printed and published a total of 11 kinds of books such as "Continuing Zizhi Tongjian Long Compilation and Collection", "Suitable Garden Series", "Siming Series" and so on. In August 1980, Zhejiang Library cooperated with Beijing Cultural Relics Publishing House to print and publish a total of 207 kinds of books such as "Jiayetang Series" and "Wuxing Series", using more than 56,000 plates in the collection. In October 1980, Zhejiang Library cooperated with Jiangsu Guangling Ancient Books Engraving and Printing Society and Hangzhou Antique Bookstore to print and publish a total of 20 kinds of books such as "Wulin Palm Ancient Series" and "Jinhua Series", using more than 37,000 editions in the collection. In October 2000, Zhejiang Library cooperated with Zhejiang Huabao ZhaiFuhan Culture Co., Ltd. to print and publish two of the famous "Four Histories of the Song Dynasty" in Jiaye Library, "History of History" and "Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms", using more than 2,000 plates.
The library building is scattered
the library is scattered
By 1934 and 1935, Liu Chenggan had begun to sell books sporadically, selling books such as the Song Periodicals Shu Dazi Shiji, the Song Bailuzhou Academy's HanShu Shushu Book, the Yijingtang Book of Later Han, the Song Periodicals' Supplementary Three Kingdoms Chronicle, and the Chunyou Magazine's Dou Lianzhu Collection to Pan Mingxun, a treasure hall that "exclusively purchased Song and Yuan engravings." Others, such as the imperfect internal system of the library building and the transfer of Liu Chenggan's interest to commercial activities, were the main factors causing the decline of the library, especially the Japanese invasion of China, which accelerated the decline of Jiayetang.
After the fall of the Hangjiahu area in 1937, the work of the library was completely stopped, leaving only one or two people to stay. After rejecting the Japanese's so-called "garrison protection" request, Liu Chenggan secretly transported more than 30,000 rare books by ship to his Shanghai apartment one night, most of which were Ming Periodicals, and the rest also had versions of the Qianlong Dynasty. The first books that could not be transported were taken away and hidden above the ceiling of Liu's house.