ARTICLE REVIEW “A Preservation Framework for Chinese Ancient Book” 1.0. Introduction China is known

Books have been the main source of obtaining information and discovering a world of knowledge, imagination, and exploration throughout all periods of time.

The Ming Dynasty ruled China from 1368 to 1644 (Morris). The Ming Dynasty was established by King Zhu Yuanshang, who named the dynasty not after Nohis family but the word ming which can mean “bright” or “luminous” (“The Chinese Ming”). It had a population around eighty-five million making it the largest civilization on Earth. As Professor Clunas points out in the exhibition’s exemplary catalog, everything about it was on a grand scale: “It had a greater land area, bigger cities (and more big cities), bigger armies, bigger ships, bigger palaces, bigger bells, more literate people, more religious professionals.” (Morris). Not only was the Ming Dynasty bigger, it brought many major advances in art, technology, and philosophy during its time.

Qing Dynasty is the last empire in China. It was founded by Manchus in 1644 and ended in 1912 after Xianhai Revolution. Even though Qing Dynasty was an empire and was under the discipline of ‘Mandate of Heaven’, it prospered more than the other three governments. In the first 150 years of Qing Dynasty, it enjoyed stability and peacefulness for a long time without being noticed by foreign powers. During this time, even the culture and artistic practices bloomed. The Dream of the Red Chamber, which is China’s greatest novel, was written During Qing Dynasty. People had more time to enjoy their cultural life.

Books open your perspective about life, they give you different perspectives and points of view. They carry knowledge and it

Furthermore, the source materials for writing the book were found in the dynasty. Evidently, in the era of Sima Qian, the Shiji provided a ground for the to-come dynastic histories. However it varies from them in many ways. It is characterized with a long time span and similar attempts to incorporate the whole mortal history was rare among later Chinese historians. Also, the source material was too varied. Qian’s father was supposed to complete writing the definitive history of the Chinese past, a feat that he did not finish. The same was later completed by Sima

Former Encyclopædia Britannica editor Kenneth Pletcher described the record keeping of the Han administration, “Han administration required detailed record keeping, which generated a proliferation of documents. Official returns were sometimes kept in duplicate, and each agency kept running files to record its business” (Pletcher 2010, 79). Bulky bamboo or expensive silk were impractical for this kind of meticulous record keeping, but official documents were recorded and stored easily because of the invention of paper. The Han government had also taken an interest in “literary accomplishment” and “scholastic competence” for the Ancient Chinese people, likely as a result of the invention of paper (Pletcher 2010, 79). Alexander Monro wrote about how the books of Han Dynasty “became the guiding stars of Chinese education, governance, and philosophy” (Monro 2016, 44).

Schafer, Edward H. Ancient China. Great Ages of Man: A History of the World 's Cultures. NY: Time Life Books, 1967.

Narrowing down exactly what the oldest preserved books in the world are is something that is a little tricky, even for scholars. This is because there are a lot of debates about what actually constitutes as a book. For example, does clay tablets or scrolls count? Is the content what matters most or the shape? Does the fact that it is printed or hand written make a difference? Because of these debates it is unlikely that there will ever be a conclusive answer to what exactly the oldest books in the world are. However, here are five examples of preserved books that are undeniably ancient and of great historical value.

The first reason why the Tang dynasty is the most impactful is that many cultural advancements occurred which affected the future culture of China. For example, a form of novel was created called Chuan Qi. This type of novel had a complex storyline and often reflected real life. These novels later became the basis for future stories (“Tang Dynasty”). In other words, the novels created in the Tang dynasty influenced the structure of future stories. Another example of the Tang dynasty’s cultural impact is through poems and

Additionally, history became a focus of literature due to the infamous book burning in the Qin dynasty. Extensive records on foreign countries and of China’s history, such as The Hon Hanshu and Shiji (Historical Records), suggests eagerness in widening their knowledge of the world, rather than focusing on themselves. The need to record history of all periods, reinforced the mentality that advanced education is absolutely necessary which continues to be a prominent value in Chinese

The empires of this time period had some innovative ideas and discoveries that permanently changed their nations and in some cases, the world. Both Rome and China had two unique and important cultural characteristics that completely changed their nations. For the Romans, their unique cultural characteristics were new ideas. The first of these new ideas, their unique Judicial System is the basis for many current judicial systems around the world, the other new idea, Christianity is now one of the worlds most practiced Religions. Whereas the unique cultural characteristics of China, namely the creation of paper and the formation of the “silk road” were more practical cultural characteristics, but no less impactful for both their

Ancient China was always able to flourish as a powerful economic and imperialistic country. Behind this great amount of early success were great dynasties that played great roles in China’s history. China has always been highly influenced by its great ancient dynasties. These dynasties were able to establish monetary systems, road and canal systems for trade, and also build great elaborate historic structures that still stand today. They also influenced different philosophies such as Taoism and Confucianism. In the long history of China, many great dynasties appear that have helped a lot to the development of the whole country. Among them, there are

The books would re-demonstrate the place in the hierarchy that these elite individuals had already knew about. Manuscript patronage was also seen as an act of image making. So with this one was presenting them through their wealthy identity and culture. The book culture was a way to unify the elites through the circulation of the books throughout the palaces. With these circulations they would gather the elites. These gatherings would contain stories that would be shared, this was away to bound the elites together. Books were also used as a way to train new workers on how to act and also how the community was organized like.

China has about five thousand years history which is a very long period of time. Also, the Chinese civilization was growing with these periods of time and it will continues greater than ever. Many wars and unhappinesses were happening during this period. Although, the time has passed, the histories and the civilizations have not passed. These family virtues, serious, working attitudes, sense of justice and the great Confucian tradition have been deeply assimilated into the Chinese people. Some Chinese traditions are different from North American’s. The Chinese culture has many special characteristics which are very interesting for people to learn.

Confucius was a philosopher that has been highly associated of a saint of godlike figure even with temples devoted to him. His ideas were importance since China wants to be represented as Confucian and Communist that complement one another. Hence, the author devoted the first and one whole explaining about Confucius himself then slowly expanding into his contribution to China as a whole to build a big picture.