Page 254 - Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.47, 2021

253
Extended English abstracts of articles published in the Chinese edition of Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.47, 2021 253

The social circle of bibliophile XU Xingke in the period of Republic of China

LI Mingjie , LI Ruilong & ZHENG Xiang
〇a *
The private libraries in Hubei Province were prosperous from the late Qing Dynasty to the period
of the Republic of China and a large number of famous bibliophiles emerged in this period, such
as YANG Shoujing in Yidu, KE Fengshi in Daye, XU Xingke in Wuchang, ZHOU Zhenliang in
Hanyang and so on. But in terms of the integrity of the collection of books, the openness of its
use, and the far-reaching influence, XU Xingke was the most outstanding one among them. The
formation of XU’s ideas of library, such as “books are for the use of scholars”, “books are not
property, so they should be public instead of private”, and “books were stored for true talents, not
one family” was closely related to his own education and social experience. This paper made a
comprehensive and systematic investigation of XU Xingke’s social interaction through his diaries,
letters, literatures, and memoirs and interviews of his descendants.
XU’s friends could be roughly divided into the following three circles according to their
professions. The first one was the circle of bibliophile friends, most of whom became friends
with XU on his way to visit books in Wuhan and other regions in Hubei, Hunan, Anhui,
Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai and other places. YANG Shoujing, LIU Chenggan,
LU Bi, XU Naichang, LUN Ming, YE Jingkui were the famous ones. The second one was the
circle of friends in academia. As a scholar XU Xingke’s most contacts were scholars from Hubei
and Hunan provinces, such as HUANG Kan, XIONG Huizhen, WANG Baoxin, XIONG Shili,
HUANG Zhuo, YI Junshi, FENG Yongxuan, YU Jiaxi, YANG Shuda, etc. The second most
contacts were scholars from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, such as ZHANG Taiyan, CHEN Hanzhang,
WANG Dalong, MA Yifu, CHEN Naiqian, ZHANG Yuanji, etc. Then came the scholars from
Anhui, such as HU Puan, HU Shi, SU Xichang, WU Jianzhai, etc. The third circle involved
friends of librarianship. Because of his collection of books, XU Xingke kept a close relationship
with library scholars, such as SHEN Zurong, MAO Kun, PAN Chengbi, ZHANG Zongxiang, XU
Senyu and HE Changqun. Through contacts with all kinds of friends, XU Xingke had not only
broadened his vision and mind, but also nourished the cultural spirit of loving and protecting
ancient books, and deeply understood the importance of mutual reciprocity and mutual benefit.
In brief, XU Xingke was a representative figure of bibliophiles in the Period of the Republic
of China. He learned from different teachers, gathered ancient books to study by himself, and
eventually succeeded. He found a way to become a talent through self-study outside the traditional
education system. He was a traditional book collector, but he did not isolate his collections. On the
contrary, he shared his collections with like-minded scholars. He was a scholar of the old style, but
he had an opened mind. He consciously accepted the ideas of the new style library, circulated his
books with an open attitude, and finally turned his private books into public ones. All around him,

* Correspondence should be addressed to LI Mingjie, Email: limingjie@whu.edu.cn, ORCID: 0000-0002-1876-9040.