Page 22 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.47, 2021

021
KE Ping / Ideological system of library science in China: abstraction, core and value 021

through the thinking method of “abstraction-core-value”.

1 Abstraction

In 1923, the first book entitled “Library Science”—Library Science by YANG Zhaozhe—was
published. In its preface, CAI Yuanpei said: “An undertaking will produce a systematic theory
when it develops to a certain extent. With systematic theory, rapid progress can be made in the
development of the undertaking. This is a general rule in all undertakings, and libraries are no
[2]
exception.” As the calls for the construction of library science in China developed and put into
practice, YANG Zhaozhe learned from the achievements of library science in other countries, and
proposed to include induction, deduction and verification as research methods of library science.
It was a solid step for the development of library science to be a modern science, and also laid a
foundation for multi-dimensional scientific abstraction of library science.

1.1 Abstraction of practice: thoughts of library science come from library practice

[3]
SHEN Zurong proposed quite early that “library science is an applied science” . Because it
was always associated with objective existence and phenomena such as libraries, library work,
librarianship and relevant activities, the library science had been full of perceptual knowledge
and experience for quite a long time. Therefore, it was often questioned as a discipline of science.
The increasing enrichment of experience and the extensive description of the more and more
formalized library phenomena could not develop into theories by themselves. Instead, the calls for
theoretical guidance in practice and the scientific appeal of library science was intensified. Library
science without scientific and abstract nature could only accumulate knowledge of experience,
which made it stagnate in an era of experience. As Mendeleyev put it: “Permanent, universal,
and unified things are in any case logically superior to those that exist only in the temporary,
[4]
individual, and diverse things and can only be known by reason and abstraction.” In this case,
only by scientifically abstracting experience and perceptual knowledge can scientific thoughts and
theories be developed.
The “theory of essential elements” in Chinese library science is the logical starting point of
the basic theory of library science, especially that of the library science objects. Its value is no
less than theories by Ranganathan and librarians in the West. The three elements of the new
[5]
library (books, librarians and readers) put forward by TAO Shuxian in 1929 were considered
by advocates of theory of essential elements as the root, ignoring the two elements (readers and
[6]
reading materials) proposed by LIANG Qichao in 1925 . In 1932, DU Dingyou put in the three
essential elements (books, people and methods). In 1934, LIU Guojun introduced the four essential
elements (books, personnel, equipment and methods) [7]6 , and refined them to five elements—
“readers, books, leaders, methods, buildings and equipment” . However, little attention had been
[8]