Taiwan Today

The first volumes were on slips of bamboo. Then came silk scrolls, paper and movable type long before Gutenberg

When Confucius taught his disciples the rules of conduct and government, he was exemplifying and expounding on the teachings and wisdom of such ancient volumes as the Book of Changes, Canons of Yao and Shun and the Book of Poetry. These earliest books of first were written on bamboo slips and later on silk.

Bamboo was cut into cylinders at each joint and then split into narrow lengths. These were the "bamboo slips" of antiquity. The slips were so small that only a few characters could be written on each. To make "books," the slips were bound together with silk thread or leather thongs.

Silk was easier to handle. A roller was attached to one end and the scroll of writing could be easily rolled up. Written scrolls of the Six Dynasties (265-581) and later take this form. The invention of paper nearly 2,000 years ago provided a less expensive and more adaptable writing material.

The first scrolls and books were handwritten. At least as early as 140 B.C., the imperial court had an office in charge of copying the Classics. During the Han dynasty (206 B.C..D.), many legends, stories and ancient texts were copied to make up for the volumes which Shih Huang of the Chin dynasty (221-206 B.C.) had ordered burned.

Printing of books from carved wooden blocks probably began early in the T'ang dynasty (618-907). Rubbings from stone inscriptions and carved seals were known in Chin and Han. The Chinese Classics and the Buddhist sutras were carved in stone during these early times. Wood finally came to replace the heavier and harder-to-work stone. But the characters were difficult to read in wood and the blocks soon were used to reproduce their relief image. The Diamond Sutra, printed by Wang Chieh on April 15, 868, and the calendar carved by the Mou Shang family in 882 are preserved in the . Both came from the Tun-huang caves.

Books revived by Han scholars included tales and old men's recollections of ancient books. Some manuscripts were preserved in the walls of houses built dur­ing the Chin dynasty. Restored books and imperial documents of the Han dynasty did not always escape the torch or rebels. In one uprising the books in official libraries were burned. In .D., the court of the Hans was moved to . The old capital of was occupied by illiterate rebels, who used writing silk for curtains. Many books were lost during the Tsin dynasty (265-420). In 554, two years before col­lapse of the Liang dynasty, the emperor ordered 140,­000 volumes burned. In 622, a T'ang dynasty boat landed with 317,000 volumes capsized on the . An Lu Shan rebels of the T'ang destroyed many books stored in the imperial palace.

In 971, the Imperial Academy of Learning began to carve blocks for the complete Buddhist Tripitaka. When the Sung court fled south in 1127, carved wooden blocks belong to the Imperial Academy of Learning were seized by the Khitan invaders. Plans were made to recut the blocks but economic problems prevented. Many local government offices had started to publish books. Those of Chekiang, Szechwan and were outstanding.

The use of movable type began during the Ch'ing-li period (1041-1048) of Sung. The inventor was Pi Sheng, who made type from clay and glue. Movable type was made of tin in Sung and Yuan times and of wood in the Yuan dynasty. No Sung or Yuan books printed from movable type have survived. Copper movable type first was used to print calendars and books on divination.

The Han built 's first libraries. Expansion of facilities and enlargement of collections were under­taken in 581 during the Sui dynasty. Authors were given bolts of silk. Premier Yuan Tsai of the T'ang requested imperial sanction to buy books with copper or silver cash. Those giving 300 or more volumes to the imperial library were honored with official titles. This practice was continued during the Sung dynasty. One volume was worth a measure of silk. Five hundred volumes earned a title. Officials were sent into the countryside to copy the books of those who did not wish to contribute. The search for books was continued by the Khitan Tartars of the Liao dynasty (907-1168) and the Nuchen Tartars of the Kin dynasty (1115-1234). Generous' payments were offered to book donors and half the amount to those who loaned their books for reproduction.

When Liu Pang, founder of the Han dynasty, entered the Chin capital of Hsienyang, Hsiao Ho, later to become the premier, had rushed to the palace and searched for books while the soldiers searched for gold and other treasure. Hsiao Ho later built a pavilion to store the salvaged books of Chin.

The books of emperors and kings were kept in the imperial archives but classification did not start until the Wei dynasty (220-264). Hsun Mien categorized the 29,900 volumes as classics, history, philosophy and belles-lettres. This system still survives. By 420, the Sung imperial library had 64,500 volumes. Feudal clashes of 479 destroyed most of the collection, leaving only 18,010 volumes untouched. The collection had gradually increased to 23,100 volumes by 512 and 53,­900 by 741. Duplicate copies were distinguished by use of different colors.

The first emperor of Ming, who reigned from 1368 to 1398, was fond of reading and books. He started the Ming library and encouraged government officials to compile and collect books.

Private libraries were established by rulers, of­ficials and scholars. The second emperor of Sung had an outstanding private library. In 998, this collec­tion was housed in four buildings, each with more than 10,000 volumes. In 1023, the Sung court had Chang Kuang compile an index for these books.

Private collections go back at least to the Period of Spring and Autumn (722-481 B.C.). Scholars col­lected books rather than jewelry. They said books enriched the mind and soul while jewelry spoke only of man's material desires. Sze-ma Kuang, an historian of Sung, and Ouyang Hsiu, a contemporary scholar­ poet, had private libraries.

Chinese library science goes back to the Period of Spring and Autumn, when Li Tan was named the first librarian of record. Confucius, who edited the Classics, is said to have been his pupil.

Editing and proofreading were carried out by scholars and teachers. In 32 B.C., the Han court as­sembled senior officials to proofread the Classics. Eastern Han (25-221) had an office in charge of proofreading. In the Wei dynasty (221-265), a proofreader had the official rank of secretary.

In proofreading the Classics, scholars compared two or more editions to detect differences and correct errors. Divergent opinions among editors and proofreaders were reconciled by higher authority.

Compilation, editing and publication of monumental sets of Chinese writings were carried out under direction of the imperial court and sometimes directed by the emperor himself. Emperor T'ai Chung (reigned 976-998) of Sung ordered Lee Fang and others to compile and write the Tai P'ing Yu Lan of 1,000 volumes. After completion, the emperor read three volumes daily and finished the set within a year. The title is taken from the fact of compilation in the years T'ai P'ing.

In 1403, Emperor Yung Lo of Ming set Chieh Ching, Kuang-hsiao and others to compiling the Yung Lo Ta Tien. The 11,095 volumes and 22 chapters covered the Classics and other important writings from throughout the period of written Chinese history. More than 2,000 scholars were recruited to inscribe the work by hand over a period of five years. Two manuscript copies were made subsequently but fewer than 400 volumes have survived.

During the reign of Emperor Chia Ching (1522­-1567), the imperial court caught fire. The encyclopedia was saved from destruction 'and the emperor ordered a copy made. Another fire at destroyed the original. The duplicate at was incomplete by 2,422 volumes. Both surviving sets were subjected to unending attrition by fire and vandalism over the centuries.

The volumes are 18 inches, high, 9.55 inches wide and bound in yellow silk. There are eight lines of 15 to 30 characters to a page. Ming scholars regarded the work as a book of reference.

Emperor K'ang-hsi was on the throne for 61 years - from 1661 to 1722. Versed in the classics, he was able to persuade some scholars loyal to Ming to enter the service of Ch'ing. Many important literary works were produced under his patronage, including the K'ang-hsi Dictionary of 24 volumes. Each character was painstakingly defined and various pronunciations given. Other works of K'ang-hsi's reign included a phrase-dictionary, administrative geography of the empire in 500 chapters and a compendium on painting and calligraphy. The massive encyclopedia Ku-chin T'u-shu Chi-ch'eng was printed in 5,000 volumes of 10,000 chapters and about 100 million characters. The 1728 printing required a quarter of a million pieces of copper type, each of which had to be separately cut by hand.

The Ssu K'u Chuan Shu, or "Complete Library of the Four Treasures (classics, history, philosophy and belles-letters), is the greatest encyclopedia of . There were 36,000 volumes and about 3,450 complete works. The project was initiated by Emperor Ch'ien Lung (1736-1795) of Ch'ing. Compilation started February 21, 1772, and was completed in July, 1782, by 4,300 scholars, 16 chief editors, 14 assistant editors and more than 1,000 copiers. Seven sets were hand copied. A catalog was prepared with comments on 10,230 titles, including those copied. This is one of the most extensive bibliographies of Chinese literature ever made. The encyclopedia itself contains many complete works instead of the selected passages to be found in earlier collections.

The seven manuscripts shared the usual fate of books in those uncertain and often violent times. Two copies deposited at Yangchow and Chinkiang in the region were destroyed during the Tai­ping troubles of the mid-19th, century. A third at was partially destroyed. The Anglo-French expedition burned the outside in 1860 and the set there went up in smoke.

Two sets were preserved at Peking and another at . The best edited and most complete set, which Emperor Ch'ien Lung himself had used, was moved to Nanking and then to . It is now in the at .

A dictionary maker named Wang Hsi-hou got into trouble by criticizing the K'ang-hsi Dictionary during Ch'ien Lung's reign. He also printed in full the forbidden characters for the personal names of Confucius and the Ch'ing emperors. When printed, such characters were supposed to be incomplete or altered in some other way. Wang's works were de­stroyed and he was finally executed.

Compilation of the "Four Treasures" gave Ch'ieng-lung opportunity to seek out and destroy objectionable works attacking the Ch'ing or insulting previous "barbarian" dynasties. Writings on frontier and defense matters were proscribed. Sometimes the censors waxed overenthusiastic. On one occasion they remarked that while no evidence of treason had been found, some of the words were "lying nonsense and fishing for praise," so the work should be banned. The governor of objected to a book because it "belongs in the class of fiction. Its words are very confused. "

Also put together under Ch'ien-lung was a series of books on government to supplement earlier materials from the T'ang, Sung, Yuan and Ming.

's earliest dictionary, the Ehr Ya, goes back to the third century B.C. About .D. there emerged the much more complete and modern Shuo Wen or "Explanation of Writing," which listed more than 9,000 characters under 540 radicals. Some 1,­163 ancient characters were included. The system of classification by radicals is still in use, although the number has been reduced to 214. Lin Yutang's new dictionary, to be published next year, will make the first important departure from identification of char­acters by radicals in more than 2,000 years.

The Han dictionary was revised by Hsu Hsuan in 986. Later characters were added in this and a subsequent edition. In Ch'ing times, Wang Ch'ang brought out a dictionary of 1,500 characters in chrono­logical order.

Printing, books and literature are a vital part of Chinese life and have been so for nearly 3,000 years. This is still the case in the Republic of China's , which has become one of the book publication centers of the world. Unhappily, book burning has been resumed on the Communist-controll­ed mainland.

Those who have studied Chinese history are confident the balance will be righted. Censorship has been invoked many times since the time of Shang and has always failed. There is every reason to believe that Chinese books written without thought control will flourish once again.

Editor's note: The authors acknowledge their indebted­ness to an article of the same title in the Chinese-language Scooper Monthly.