Page 8 - JOURNAL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE IN CHINA 2015 Vol. 41

Yongjin HAN / Thoughts on the study of library history in China 007

attentions on the rapid development after the 1978’s reform and opening-up policy. The current
edition of the History of the Chinese library divides the development of Chinese libraries (from
the pre-Qin period to 2009) into three main periods: the ancient book collection, modern library,
and contemporary library, which aims to compile a complete general history of Chinese library
development, in which not only the library development in different history periods is summarized
and described, but also the characteristics and patterns of the development are explored and
identified. Significantly, this edition can provide valuable implications to the development of
Chinese libraries in the future. Moreover, the modern and contemporary development of the
Chinese library, which has not been sufficiently studied previously, will be discussed in great
details (almost 2/3 of the total amount). In addition, the History of the Chinese library prioritizes
the development courses, especially after the implementation of the economic reform and opening-
up policy in 1978, which fills the blanks of a holistic and systematic research of Chinese library
history in an unprecedented way since 1949.

2 The historic relation between ancient book collection and the Chinese
library

In regard to the historic relationships between ancient book collection and the Chinese library, there
exist two main thoughts for quite some time. Some scholars assert that an intimate connection has
deeply rooted between ancient book collection and modern libraries. As claimed by Y. F. Huang
(2011), the ancient bibliotheca can be considered as the foundation of modern libraries. On the
contrary, other researchers state that ancient bibliotheca is completely unrelated to modern libraries
(T. N. Wu, 1999). According to their understanding, modern libraries have been influenced more
by the research in overseas developed countries. As claimed by X. Wu (1996), the modern library
system in China originally came from the West rather than indigenous development. According
to the first point of view, ancient bibliothecas are supposed to be the source of the Chinese library
and the beginning of the Chinese library, hence, the studies on Chinese library history certainly
should include ancient bibliothecas. Conversely, as to the latter one, there is absolutely no direct
historical connection between ancient bibliothecas and modern libraries, the Chinese library history
commences from modern or contemporary times.
This paper, from the perspective of the institutional building, advocates that the development of
modern libraries was not driven by ancient bibliothecas, and the relationship can not be described
as “origin” or “give birth to”. What’s more, there is no denying that the majority of the newly-
adopted management, technologies, methods and concepts could have been originated from the
West. However, this paper also claims that to part ancient bibliothecas off the Chinese library due
to some westernized features is, to some degree, unwise.
Essentially, both ancient bibliothecas and modern libraries have accepted in the history as
“library”. When it comes to “library”, a wide variety of explanations have been brought forward