A new database on trial:Shen Bao (申報). One of the most important newspaper in modern China, Shen Bao has been a major source for many historians of the period. The database covers the content from 1872 to 1949, including editions from Shanghai, Hankow, and Hongkong, and provides full-text search and original images. Follow the link and click the arrow to log in.
http://
See what was happening on the front page of 10/13/1911, three days after the outbreak of the Xinhai revolution.
In 1910, a German teacher named Bruno Petzold arrived in Japan where he spent the rest of his life until he passed away in 1949. During these days, Petzold became a minister of Tendai Shu 天台宗 and eagerly collected all kinds of books concerning Buddhism. More than 6,000 Japanese books from his collection have been sold to the Harvard-Yenching Library around 1951, and, now, 500 scrolls from which have been digitized and available online. Anyone interested in Buddhism in Japan should not miss this wonderful collection.
When is the birthday of Confucius? In the 1952, a group of serious scholars determined that Confucius was born on September 28th. Since then, the day became known as Teachers’ Day in Taiwan, Hong Kong (before 1997), and other Chinese-speaking communities.
Then how should we celebrate? No Grand Ceremony here. But maybe it’s a good time to remember another great teacher Ge Kunhua 戈鯤化, the first Chinese language instructor at Harvard. Invited by President Charles William Eliot, Ge sailed to the United States, with little knowledge in English, in 1879 and started his teaching life in this country. The Chinese books he brought, to quote from a recent article, became “seeds that grew into the Harvard-Yenching Library’s current million-volume East Asian collection.” He also left a book, Chinese Verse and Prose 華質英文, which contains translations and annotations of fifteen Chinese poems. It is believed to be used as a textbook by him. In the preface of the book, he wrote,
“Year before last I accepted an invitation to Harvard College in America. Then I sailed over the sea toward the west. I took the time which was left form teaching Chinese, to learn to speak and wrote English, until my pronunciation and composition had somewhat improved, then to converse with the learned and accomplished about literature. They esteemed Chinese composition as admirable, because the writing is not in the same characters; though they are so wise in mind, yet they cannot readily find out the chaos, and several times asked me convening the poetry…Now the translation is done and printed, for the aid of the learned and accomplished, which they have respectfully asked.”
The book is now kept in the Widener library, the main library of Harvard University.
See more about Ge Kunhua:
http://
http://harvardealc.org/
If you have seen the digitized Korean collection, how can you miss our Chinese rare books! The cooperative project between Yenching Library and the National Library of China has brought more than 1,100 titles to the digital world, including all the classics and their exegeses, historical works, as well as the followings:
Ding qie Ye tai shi hui zuan Yu tang jian gang (鼎鍥葉太史彙纂玉堂鑑綱); Huang ming bai fang jia wen da (皇明百方家問答); Tian xia shan he liang jie kao (天下山河兩戒考); Ling xing xiao wu pu (靈星小舞譜); Xin juan Hai nei qi guan (新鐫海内奇觀); Xin chao nong qing mi shi (新抄濃情秘史); Xi xun sheng dian (西巡盛典); Shan shui lin xin juan chu xiang si da chi chuan qi (山水隣新鐫出像四大癡傳奇); Xin ke chu xiang dian ban shi shang kun qiang za chu zui yi qing (新刻出像點板時尚崑腔雜出醉怡情)
…and MORE! You can browse all the titles at :
As part of a cooperative project between Yenching Library and the National Library of Korea, 563 titles of rare books were digitized from 2007.
Examples: Chosŏn pigyŏl chŏnjip (朝鮮秘訣全集); Koryŏ yasa (高麗野史); Ahŭi yoram (兒戲要覽); Yumong mansŏk (豔夢漫釋); Yongsŏ chŭnggwang chŏngtʻomun (龍舒增廣淨土文); Yijo sahwa chʻoryak (李朝士禍抄畧); Mau ŭibang (馬牛醫方); Tae-Hanʾguk tae-Chʻŏngguk tʻongsang choyak (大韓國大清國通商條約)…
Rare books digitized in this project are accessible through HOLLIS. Click the following link and see if there are titles of your interests!
For those who study later imperial China, here’s the good news. Harvard-Yanching Library has subscribed a magnificent database, 中國方志庫 (Database of Chinese Local Records), which contains more than 10,000 local gazetteers from the Song to the Republican era, 10 million digitized images, and 2 billion words.
http://server.wenzibase.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/loginUser.action
Now log in with your HID and pin, click the arrow on the right, and try it out. (leave USER ID and PASSWORD blank)
Note: No more than one person can log in at a time. So don’t forget to log out and close the window when you are done.
Do you know we have the collection of books once owned by Tsurumi Shunsuke 鶴見俊輔, a distinguished philosopher and former Harvard College student, in Harvard Yenching Library? Check out this video!
“Unpacking My Library”: Discovering Tsurumi Shunsuke’s Books from WCFIA on Vimeo.