The first building is called "Song Building". The word "Song Lou" is very strange. Pronunciation is (bi). What does this mean? It is very similar to the word "Xi", which means "Let a hundred flowers blossom". This library has more than 200 books printed in the Song Dynasty, which is very impressive. After all, it is difficult for ordinary people to see a book of the Song Dynasty all their lives. At the same time, there is also a set of books printed in the Yuan Dynasty, which is extremely rare.
The second building is called 100,000-volume building, which specializes in collecting rare books and manuscripts after the Ming Dynasty.
The third building is called Shouxian Pavilion, which specializes in collecting ordinary books.
These three libraries have a total of150,000 books, which are usually called Song Li Library. At that time, Song Li Building, Haiyuan Pavilion, Eight Thousand Volumes Building and Qintie Copper Sword Building were called the four major libraries in the late Qing Dynasty.
Lu Xinyuan died in the 20th year of Guangxu (1894). His eldest son is in charge of housework, mainly engaged in the business of lake silk. A few years later, due to the poor management of the Lujia family, it was difficult to continue to support the Song Li Building. In the 25th year of Guangxu (1899), Lu took the initiative to seek the protection of the government, wrote to the Shanghai Ministry of Industry, and was willing to donate books, but the government asked Gai Lou to store them. As Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion was imminent, the matter fell through. In the 28th year of Guangxu (1902), Lu once made a request to Duan Fang, the governor of Liangjiang, but Duan Fang was transferred soon, so the matter fell through again.
By this time, the Lujia family really couldn't hold on. The silk reeling factory and the bank went bankrupt and owed a lot of money. Even if Lu wants to donate books, the situation does not allow him, and there is still a large family waiting for him to feed.
In desperation, I plan to sell the library and bid100000 yuan. Zhang Yuanji, the founder of the Commercial Press, especially wanted to buy it, but he could only afford 80,000 yuan. Zhang Yuanji suggested that the Qing court invest in it, but nobody paid attention to it.
A big financier, Japan's Mitsubishi Consortium, bought it for108,000. This is a lot of money, but compared with the value of these books, it is simply fishing in troubled waters. At first, Lu's asking price was 500 thousand yuan!
Mitsubishi consortium invested in the construction of Jingjiatang Library in the 25th year of Meiji (1892), and these books bought from Song Lilou were collected in this library.
In fact, Lu didn't sell all the copies of150,000 to the Japanese, but shipped about 40,000 of them to Japan, but this is the most essential part, and other books were donated by Lu to the libraries in imperial academy and Japan.
After this incident, the Chinese people were still greatly shocked and many people were saddened by it. It was after this that Zhang Yuanji decided to build a library, and later the Oriental Library came into being, but 1932 was burned by the Japanese (see 1932, the Japanese bombed the most beautiful library in Shanghai-).
At present, the Japanese Jingjiatang stack works well, and the books are well preserved, and China scholars often go to read and inquire.
China, on the other hand, has experienced various disasters for decades, and none of the books in a library are completely preserved.
I really don't know whether it is right or wrong for Lu to sell these books to the Japanese.