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The Rare Book Preservation Society (文献保存同志会) was founded in 1940 by Zheng Zhenduo 郑振铎, Zhang Shouyong 张寿镛、He Bingsong 何炳松、Zhang Yuanji 张元济、and Zhang Fengju 张凤举 for the purpose of secretly acquiring and preserving rare books and manuscripts in the Shanghai Jiangnan region. These cultural assets have been accumulated by a number of famous private libraries some over 1,000 years. They faced Japanese looting and forced sale under duress. In less than 2 years, the Society succeeded in saving over 130,000 volumes in the lands controlled by the Japanese. One hundred thirty crates were sent to Hong Kong (then a British colony) for safekeeping. Despite their best efforts the entire collection was looted anyway when the Japanese later overran Hong Kong. Fortunately after WWII and the Japanese surrender, Zhang Fengchu 张凤举 (fluent in English and Japanese) was sent to Japan April 1946 and recovered the collection after working closely with the U.S. Occupation forces in Tokyo. These were successively shipped back to Shanghai for the National Central Library 中央图书馆. ==Background and Events== After Pearl Harbor in 1940, the full scale Japanese invasion of China began. They controlled the entire coast of China except technically for the French Concessions (under Vichy control). (Background note: Before the Japanese occupation administration with its Japanese military police The great Jiangnan private libraries were formed over many generations. These rare books and manuscripts were not only threatened by war time destruction; but owners of these libraries felt pressured to sell due to financial needs. Agents for Japanese institutions and organizations such as Harvard Yenching had the goal of buying the cream of the crop. In his memoires 求书日录, Zheng Zhenduo wrote: "I discussed the situation many times with those scholars still remaining in Shanghai such as Zhang Jusheng 张菊生、Zhang Yongni 张咏霓、He Bingsong 何炳松、Zhang Fengju 张凤举 and others. We felt that this aggressive preservation 抢救 activity must commence immediately. We could not stand to see these rare books and manuscripts acquired by the Japanese or be exported. We jointly sent several telegrams to Chungking requesting government help to rescue and preserve this national cultural treasure." According to Jiang Fucong's memoires 蒋复璁 珍帚斋文集, "Joint telegrams from Shanghai scholars to the Education Ministry and the British Boxer Indemnity Fund directors requested prompt help to acquire and save these books and manuscripts. Zhu Jiahua 朱家骅 was Chairman of the Fund at the time. He felt that the opportunity must not be lost and suggesting using the projected construction funds of the National Central Library supplemented by the Boxer Fund. The Minister of Education Chen Lifu 陈立夫 wholeheartedly offered to help. To avoid Japanese detection, the secret "Rare Book Preservation Society" was formed by 5 scholars: Zheng Zhenduo 郑振铎、 Zhang Shouyong 张寿镛、He Bingsong 何炳松、Zhang Yuanji 张元济、and Zhang Fengju 张凤举. The Society's acquisitions took place from April 1940 to June 1941, south in Suzhou-Hangzhou to north in Beijing. In this time, Zheng Zheduo wrote 9 reports to Jiang Fucong. Zhen was no doubt the leader of all this underground activity. Others contributed according to their expertise. For example Zhang Fengju liaised with the Jiayetang 嘉业堂 and Siyuan 适园 libraries as well as part of the authentication efforts. The Nationalist government gave this priority and the Education Ministry issued secret directive 18543 with the seal of Minister Chen empowering the Society's work. ((Ministry of Education secret directives )) Altogether 130,000 books were acquired for the National Central Library by the Society.〔(NCL Chinese Rare Books/Special Collection )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rare Book Preservation Society」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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