Fan Qin

Fan Qin

Fan Qin (1506-1585), named Yaoqing, was born in Yinxian County, Zhejiang Province (now Yinzhou District, Ningbo City). A famous book collector in Ming Dynasty, the owner of Tianyi Pavilion, the oldest existing library in China.

Jiajing eleven years (1532) Jinshi. He has successively held the posts of governor of Suizhou, member of the Ministry of labor, governor of Yuanzhou, governor of Guangxi, Fujian provincial governor, Yunnan provincial governor, Shaanxi provincial governor and vice governor. The right servant of the Ministry of war in the later Jin Dynasty left his post and returned home.

I love collecting books all my life. After returning to Li, in 1561-1566, a library was built on the east side of the residence on the West Bank of Yuehu Lake in Ningbo. It was named "Tianyi Pavilion" in the sense of "60% of the water and land in the heaven". His collection of books is highly valued by the world for its Ming edition of local chronicles and Dengke records. In the Ming Dynasty, he was known as "the first book collector in eastern Zhejiang". After more than 400 years, it has become the oldest library in China. His works include fan's bibliography in the Ming Dynasty, Yanxia novels, Fu Zhang Lu, memorials, Cao Chao Yi Zhong Lu, Ming Wen Chen Jueshi and ancient and modern proverbs.

Life of the characters

Fan Qin (1506-1585), named Yaoqing, was born in Yinxian County, Zhejiang Province (now Ningbo). Jiajing eleven years (1532) Jinshi, as Huguang Suizhou Zhizhou, moved to the Ministry of labor member wailang. Because of the discord with Guo Xun, the Marquis of Wuding, he was transferred to the zhiyuanzhou Prefecture of Jiangxi Province, promoted to Guangxi to participate in politics, and was assigned to Guiping. He transferred to Fujian Province as an envoy, moved to Shaanxi Province as an envoy, and then to nangan as a vice governor. When he was an official, he went to the right servant of the Ministry of war, but did not leave. In 1560, Jiajing returned to his hometown. He has been an official for many years and has been searching books everywhere. He copied Fengfang's collection of books, and the remaining books of Fengfang's "wanjuan Lou" were attributed to him. In the 40th to 45th year of Jiajing period, a library named "Tianyi Pavilion" was built, which took the meaning of "water in heaven, 60% in earth" in the book of changes, aiming at fire prevention. The pavilion is surrounded by water, with six rooms on the top and bookcases on the middle. It is a model of ancient library building. During the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty, seven pavilions were built according to their specifications.

Main achievements

Jiantianyige

Fan Qin's most famous story is that he presided over the construction of Tianyi Pavilion. In the west of Yuehu Lake in Ningbo City, there is a famous ancient building at home and abroad. That is the Tianyi Pavilion built by Fan Qin, the right servant of the Ministry of war in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. Tianyi Pavilion, with a history of more than 400 years, is the oldest existing library in China.

Collection of books

Fan Qin was fond of collecting books. During his official career, he paid special attention to the local literature. Different from other book collectors, Fan Qin attached great importance to the works of contemporary people, so his collection of books was mainly Ming Dynasty edition, especially Ming Dynasty local chronicles, Ming Dynasty political books, Ming Dynasty actual records, and Ming Dynasty poetry collection. Such official books as military order, camp rules, Da Kan, Guo Zi Jian rules, Wu Ding Hou Guo Xun's confession were "internal materials" at that time. Even if the general collectors wanted to collect them, they were not easy to find. Fan Qin also liked to collect ancient books in his life. Later, he got the remnant collection of Li's wanjuan Lou in Yin County, which has more than 70000 volumes. Among them, local chronicles and Dengke records are the most rare. In 1772, Emperor Qianlong issued an edict to compile Sikuquanshu. Fan Maozhu, the eighth grandson of Fan Qin, offered 638 kinds of books. Seeing that the fan family's books had not been destroyed for hundreds of years, Emperor Qianlong ordered the surveying and mapping of the houses and bookcases of Tianyi Pavilion to build the famous "Nanbei Qige" to collect the seven sets of Sikuquanshu, and Tianyi Pavilion became famous all over the country .

Book collection lost and protection

In the same city of Fan Qin, there was another book collector, Fengfang, with whom Fan Qin had a good relationship, and often went to the wanjuan Lou of Fengfang to borrow and copy books. Unfortunately, after the wanjuan building suffered a fire, the Feng family had no intention to renew it. Most of the remaining books were handed over to Fan Qin.

In order to protect the collection of books, Fan Qin made strict clan rules. His descendants strictly followed the "generation does not divide books, books do not go out of the cabinet" legacy, but because of the age is too long, there are still a lot of lost books. In the 13th year of Jiaqing (1808), there were 4094 books in the pavilion, totaling more than 53000 volumes. During the Opium War, the British invaders plundered dozens of ancient books, such as yitongzhi. During the reign of Xianfeng (1851-1861), another thief sneaked into the pavilion, stole many books and sold them to French missionaries and paper mills. In 1940, there were only 1301 books in the collection. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, the government set up a special management organization to protect Tianyige. More than 3000 volumes of original books were lost, and more than 80000 volumes of ancient books were donated by local collectors.

Related events

Fan Qin's library was originally named Dongming thatched cottage. With the increase of the collection, the original library was too large to accommodate. Therefore, Fan Qin decided to rebuild a library in the east of the house, which was later known as Tianyi Pavilion. The exact year of Tianyige's establishment can't be tested. According to the relevant literature, it should be between the 40th and 45th year of Jiajing. The building is a row of six Bay, two-story wooden structure, facing south, with windows in front and back, and a pond in front of the pavilion. In addition to embellishing the scenery, it is also one of the important fire prevention measures. Later, Fan Qin collected the inscriptions and got a stone inscription on the dragon and tiger mountain, a Taoist of Wu Dynasty. It was a book written by Jiesi of Yuan Dynasty, and had three characters of "tianyichi". Fan Qin was very happy that it was suitable for building a pavilion and digging a pond, so he named it "Tianyige".

As a library, the architecture of Tianyi Pavilion is quite scientific, so the seven pavilions of Wenyuan, Wenyuan, Wensu, Wenjin, Wenhui, Wenzong and Wenlan in the later collection of Sikuquanshu were all built in the style of Tianyi Pavilion. The Baojing Pavilion at the site of Lu, a bibliophile in the Qing Dynasty, completely imitated Tianyi Pavilion from the internal structure to the appearance, so Tianyi Pavilion is more famous. Tianyige library has a strict management system. On his deathbed, Fan Qin divided his family property into two parts. One is ten thousand taels of silver, the other is Tianyige and tens of thousands of volumes of books. Later, fan Dachong, the eldest son, inherited the Tianyi Pavilion and abided by the ancestral precept of "generation does not divide books, books do not go out of the pavilion", so as to effectively prevent the loss of the collection.

Personal Poems

Fan Qin was very proud of building Tianyi Pavilion. At that time, there were more than 70000 volumes of books stored in the pavilion, most of which were woodcut and handwritten copies of song and Ming Dynasties, some of which were rare and rare, which had a great influence among scholars at that time. Fan Qin also often invited local celebrities to Tianyige to drink and talk about poetry. In his poem "Shangyuan Zhuyan Jitian Yige Jishi", he wrote:

The flowers and the moon in the city of Khotan are embracing the song of Sheng, so how can the immortal get married.

Yin Yi Ao peak boast snow, smile at the star drive across the Milky way.

Garden wind should be shumeiliu, path fog with fragrance scattered qiluo.

Then I call kanlu drunk, how can I reward him.

Book collection

Tianyige had a collection of more than 70000 volumes, which had been lost in large quantities since the war in the late Ming Dynasty, and half of the records of Ming Dynasty had been lost during the Kangxi reign of the Qing Dynasty. In Qianlong's time, the complete collection of Sikuquanshu was revised, and 602 kinds of books (one said 638 kinds) were transferred from Tianyige, but most of them were not returned. In 1840, during the Opium War, the British army occupied Ningbo and plundered dozens of geography and maps from Tianyige In the early years of the Republic of China, Xue Jiwei colluded with illegal booksellers and stole more than 1000 books. After these calamities, there were only over 13000 Tianyige books left in the early days of liberation.

On the eve of liberation, there were only over 13000 volumes left in Tianyi Pavilion, only one fifth of the original collection. Many rare books have become fragmentary chapters. No wonder someone sighed: "I've heard that Tianyi Pavilion has a collection of books, and Yingshi rutin has a bark fish. Today, the pearl is gone. I'm here to pick it up. "

However, the more than 13000 volumes of ancient books preserved over 300 years are still rare and valuable. There are few books left in the song and Yuan Dynasties, most of which are printed and copied in the Ming Dynasty. Among them, local chronicles and Ming Dynasty imperial examination title list are the most valuable. On the eve of the liberation of Ningbo, Zhou Enlai instructed the army to protect the Tianyi Pavilion so as to preserve this precious cultural heritage. On October 27, 1962, when Guo Moruo visited Tianyi Pavilion, he reflected on the past and the present, and wrote a metrical poem in the "Orchid Pavilion" of Tianyi Pavilion

Mingzhou Tianyi has a rich collection of books, and it has a good reputation for its good fortune.

Only one-fifth of the looting remains, and there are still more than ten thousand volumes so far.

Lin Quan is elegant and clean, with many strange stones and elegant pavilions.

Sixty percent of the land is liberated, and the people cherish the Pearl of victory.

After liberation, the management department of Tianyige took back the original collection of Tianyige after many visits. Many famous book collectors and their descendants in Ningbo donated their books to Tianyige for preservation. Among them, there are Feng mengzhuan's "Fu Yu Shi" collection, Zhu zanqing's "BIE Yu Zhai" collection, sun Xiangxiong's "zhe Ji Lu" collection, Zhang Xiuyan's "Qiao Li" collection, and Yang Ronglin's "Qing Fang Ge" collection. As a result, Tianyige has collected more than 300000 volumes of books, including 80000 rare books. There are two kinds of books with unique collection, which are rarely seen in domestic libraries: 274 kinds of local chronicles printed in the Jiajing period of Ming Dynasty; 411 volumes of Local Examinations in Ming Dynasty. These ancient books are valuable materials for studying the history, scenic spots, people, customs, meteorology, hydrology, geology and mineral resources of ancient times, especially the Ming Dynasty. In addition, there are many valuable manuscripts, such as the handwritten version of Sancai Guangzhi, a large-scale book compiled by the Wu family during the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty. It is said that it has never been printed. So far, no second handwritten copy has been found, which has been published

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