15 Years of Implementation of the Chinese Ancient Books Preservation Plan (2007-2022)

Abstract

The article discusses the main directions, results and problems of preserving Chinese ancient books over the past 15 years, starting from 2007, when the first nationwide comprehensive Chinese Ancient Books Preservation Plan came into force. This plan has been implemented over three Five-Year Plan periods — the 11th (2006-2010), the 12th (2011-2015) and the 13th (2016-2020) — in the following areas: search and registration, restoration and storage, digitalization, editing, personnel education, promotion, and Guidelines on Promoting Ancient Books in a New Era were released in 2022. At present, search and registration of ancient books in Chinese has been basically completed: the whole volume of extant Chinese textual culture is about 500 thousand books, with the total number of individual books approaching 3 million in 30 million volumes. Along with the general results in the main areas, the article highlights the activity of individual large institutions (National Library of China, Zhonghua Book Company, Fudan University Library, etc.), expert assessments (Zhang Zhiqing, Deputy Director of the National Library of China, Gu Qing, editor-in-chief of Zhonghua Book Company and others), as well as the personal experience of modern users and participants of textual culture. Particular attention is paid to the current state of digitalization, and to the largest and most representative databases of ancient books (Database of Chinese Classic Ancient Books of NLC, Chinese Classic Ancient Books Database published by Zhonghua Book Company, Airusheng platform, Diaolong database, etc.).