Jan Bos

THE HISTORY OF ANCIENT PAPER MAKING AT WENZHOU AREA, ZHEJIANG, CHINA

The authors of this paper give a brief account of the history of ancient papermaking in the Wenzhou area, China. This paper also concludes that Wenzhou has played an important role in China’s papermaking history through the textual research on the exact original time and techniques of “Wenzhou Juan Paper” in the Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.), “Nanping Paper” in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties (1279–1644 A.D.), and the mode of joint venture of the papermaking industry in the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911 A.D.), and also the “living fossil” of papermaking art and the papermaking workshop groups of Si Lian Dui in Zheya, and Huajian Paper in Taishun Country.

THE “PI & LU” POEM COLLECTION AND BOOK COLLECTION IN SUZHOU IN THE LATE-TANG DYNASTY

The Tang poetry corespondence between Mr. Pi Rixiu and Mr. Lu Guimeng in Suzhou in the Late-Tang dynasty is quite famous in literary history. The “Song Ling Ji (松倪古 Song Ling Poetry Collection)” is this Tang poetry collection, which was a correspondence and has been handed down since the Tang Dynasty. This poetry collection not only has the characteristics of a large quantity of poetry covering a wide range of topics and a completeness of stylistic approach with refreshed styles, but it also has a theoretical summary and the distinguishing features of “Learning from the Poetry”. It also can be considered that this correspondence between the two learned scholars of poetry, Mr. Pi Rixiu and Mr. Lu Guimeng, reveals their close relationship with the rich book collection in the Suzhou area at that time.

WELCOME ON BEHALF OF THE PREPARATORY COMMITTEE OF THE PRE-CONFERENCE

The 2006 IFLA RBMS Pre-Conference, “The History and Cultural Heritage of Chinese Calligraphy, Printing, and Library Work,” hosted by IFLA RBMS and the Cultural Department of Zhejiang Provincial Government, now has its grand opening here on the banks of West Lake in the beautiful city of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Please allow me on behalf of the Conference Preparatory Committee and the Cultural Department of the Zhejiang Provincial Government to extend our warm welcome and sincere thanks to the leaders of the China Society for Library Science, the China National Library, and to the specialists, scholars, and colleagues who traveled thousands of miles from home and abroad to participate in this pre-conference. In December 2004 in order to support the 72 IFLA World Congress to be held in Seoul, Korea in 2006, the Zhejiang Library delivered an application to IFLA RBMS proposing a 2006 IFLA RBMS Pre-Conference in Hangzhou. In order to make this Pre-Conference successful, IFLA RBMS and the Cultural Department of the Zhejiang Provincial Government set up a Preparatory Committee, raised funds in different ways, called for papers from colleagues at home and abroad, carefully planned the Pre-Conference program and local arrangements. Seven Preparatory Committee meetings were held to discuss different subjects for this conference. To provide an enchanting cultural evening, we have arranged for a local Yue Opera production, “The Story of the Fan Family Library,” which shows the history of 440 years of the Tianyi Ge Library as performed by the Zhejiang Xiao Baihua Yue Opera Troupe. The Yue Opera, founded in Zhejiang Province onehundred years ago, is a type of local drama. The Yue Opera performance of “The Story of the Fan Family Library” is totally in keeping with the Pre-Conference theme. I’m sure it will be of interest to all of you. After more than one year of hard work, we finally greet you at the grand opening of this pre-conference. We believe that this Pre-Conference will be of high quality, of far-reaching significance, and

ONE OF THE GREAT WONDERS IN THE LIBRARY’S COLLECTION – A CASE STUDY ON WOOD BLOCKS FOR PRINTING IN THE ZHEJIANG LIBRARY

Since the Zhejiang Official Publishing House (1867–) was merged with the Zhejiang Library in 1909, the Zhejiang Library started to collect wood blocks for printing. Although it had experienced a nearly 100 year vicissitude, it still preserves 150,000 pieces of wood blocks for printing in this library. The author of this paper exposes the history of these wood blocks for printing. It includes their characteristics, the present situation, the usage as well as their preservation, which is rarely known by common readers. The author hopes that it would be of interest and get a response from our colleagues.

WELCOME ON BEHALF OF THE IFLA RARE BOOKS AND MANUSCRIPTS SECTION

Good morning! It is a tremendous pleasure to be here in Hangzhou with all of you today for this conference: “The History and Cultural Heritage of Chinese Calligraphy, Printing and Library Work.” I want to welcome you all here this morning, and I want to say, “Thank you,” from the bottom of my heart to all of our friends here in Hangzhou who have made us so welcome and have done all the planning of this conference. I want to thank the Hangzhou Preconference Organizing Committee, especially its chairman, Yan Jianxin, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture here in China, and also the vice-chairman, my colleague Jan Bos, the Secretary of the IFLA RBMS Standing Committee. I would also like to thank Qi Youwei and Jin Gengchu, both of the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture. We could not have had this preconference without all the hard work of our Chinese colleagues here in this beautiful city of Hangzhou. I know we have been told repeatedly about the sweltering heat, but we have also heard a delightful expression a few times and that is: “The heat is just a symbol of the warm heartedness of the people here who are welcoming us.” And this is certainly the case. We have been welcomed in a very wonderful way. Now I want to tell you all a bit about IFLA and the RBMS Standing Committee (the Rare Books & Manuscripts Standing Committee). The mission of the Rare Books & Manuscripts Section (RBMS) is to provide a forum for discussion and exchange of information on matters of particular concern to rare books and manuscript librarians, including the subjects of collection development, preservation, bibliographic control, and the role of special collections materials in all types of libraries. Recently we have had two goals to support the mission of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section. The first goal has been to promote the understanding of the significance of rare books and manuscripts for scholarly research as a part of the heritage of civilization in an international context. So it is very proper for us to be here in your city in China to look at rare books and manuscripts in the context of Chinese culture. A second goal of RBMS has been developing international standards in the field of rare book and manuscript librarianship, publishing directories and bibliographies, and building up sources of information that will assist rare book and manuscript librarians in their work. We have taken a number of actions in recent years, and we hope to do more in the future. Some of our continuing projects include the discussion of the security of rare materials, the collection of samples of policies and standards for the digitization of special collections material,