? Foreigners who build libraries in Wangfujing
George Ernest Morrison 1862 was born in Victoria, Australia. He came to Beijing in 1897 as a correspondent of The Times of London in China, worked in China for more than 20 years, visited China 10 provinces, and became an out-and-out "China hand". 19 12 in March, after Yuan Shikai became the president of the Republic of China, he hired Mo as the political adviser of the government of the Republic of China.
From the beginning of working as a reporter for The Times in China, Mo was keenly aware that there was no decent library in Beijing except for a few private book collectors, especially the lack of natural science books, which was not commensurate with the capital of an ancient civilization. So he used various channels and began to collect books in a planned and systematic way. In just a few years, I built my own library in the mansion of my royal family Pulun in Wangfujing. When this library was completed, it was called "Mo Library".
Mo Li Xun's original intention in running the library is good. At that time, there were many expensive books, so Mo sometimes owed money to buy them. Through his unremitting efforts, the scale of the library is getting bigger and bigger and the reputation is getting higher and higher. Among them, there are more than 24,000 kinds of books, documents and historical materials, more than 24,000 kinds of newspapers and periodicals 1 10, and more than 24,000 kinds of picture books and pictures 1000. These books come from more than ten countries, including China, Britain, French, German, Russian, Dutch and Italian. They cover not only China, but also Central Asian countries, Japan, India, Myanmar, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Siam (now Thailand), Annan (now Vietnam) and other countries. Their categories include politics, economy, military affairs, diplomacy, religion, history and so on.
Morrison did not monopolize these spiritual wealth. He welcomed China intellectuals to study in the "Asian stacks" and accepted European and American scholars to engage in Oriental studies. Some foreign tourists have benefited a lot, and after returning to China, they vigorously promoted the library in the media, making Mo and his "Asian Library" famous overseas.
Survived the suffering to this day.
19 16 In June, Yuan Shikai died tragically, and Mo worked for President Li, Feng and Prime Minister Duan successively. However, as he grew older and his health went from bad to worse, he wanted to go back to England for medical treatment, but the "Asian stack" made him unable to give up. After some consideration, Mo Lixun decided to sell the "Asian stacks" and expressed his willingness to sell them to the China government, academic groups or individuals. But at that time, China was in turmoil, and the Beiyang government, which was busy fighting for power and profit, had no one to care about and attach importance to cultural undertakings, while people of insight were cash-strapped and could not afford it. The news spread to the United States, and famous universities knew the value of "Asian stacks" and contacted for acquisitions. Harvard University, Yale University and the University of California were the most active bidders. The offer of the University of California was as high as 35,000 pounds, which was not a small sum at that time. However, Mo Li Xun's greatest wish is to leave the stacks in China, or at least in Asia, so he put forward three conditions when transferring the "China stacks": the collections must be permanently preserved; Libraries should use the name "Mo Library"; Provide convenience for scholars to read. In the end, "Asia Bookstore" was acquired by Koyata Iwasaki, the Japanese chaebol at that time, at a high price of 35,000 pounds. Iwasaki's father has always cherished oriental culture, especially China's historical records. He once bought old treasures from China at a high price. He established the "Jingjiatang Library" with China Song and Yuan books as the main source, with a collection of 250,000 books.
The collection of "China Library" was transported from Beijing to Dagu Lake in Tianjin by railway, and was loaded on board the ship "Gaosha Maru" from Dagu Lake and arrived in Yokohama, Japan in September. 19 18. However, no sooner had the library moved to Japan than it suffered a disaster. 19 18 In September, a storm hit Kamikawa, Japan. The Iwasaki Villa in Kamikawa, where books were temporarily stored, was flooded, and most of the books were soaked in seawater. Iwasaki called experts from all walks of life for emergency rescue. After washing, drying and modification, most books were repaired, but some books could not be repaired and had to be discarded.
Iwasaki was deeply saddened by the huge loss. In the following years, he replenished the stacks, purchased nearly 50,000 books covering China, Japan, Central Asia, Persia, India and Southeast Asia, and collected a complete set of historical materials such as Shuntian Times published in Beijing in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China from Japanese journalist Tetsu Watanabe. In this way, "Asian stacks" not only made up for the lost number of books, but also added more than 3 1000 books and materials on the original basis. In view of the rapid expansion of the stacks, which exceeded the original content of "Asian stacks", Iwasaki decided to rename the stacks as "Oriental Library".
1922, Iwasaki built the "Oriental Library" in Tokyo, and organized experts to organize the library systematically. When a large-scale reinforcement project was under way, an earthquake of magnitude 8.2 occurred in kanto region in 1923, and the downtown area of Tokyo was almost razed to the ground. Surprisingly, the Oriental Library was not seriously damaged, and the books were kept intact. Today, these books are still preserved and become important materials for scholars to study the history of China and Asia.