Asian Library

More on our collection of Unofficial Poetry Journals from China (UNPO)!

First, the collection has gained in historical depth through the addition of poetry collections by Chinese workers from the 1950s to the 1970s (https://edu.nl/f9bpb).
Second, the collection now comes with a satellite set of material _documenting_ unofficial poetry. This satellite collection contains both official and unofficial publications. Its shelfmark is UNPOD (as in UNPO *D*ocuments).

UNPOD items are linked to the UNPO shelfmark where applicable. For example, publications on 今天 (_Jintian / Today_, shelfmark UNPO.2), have shelfmark UNPOD.2.1, UNPOD.2.2, and so forth. For 他们 (_Ta men / They_, shelfmark UNPO.15), look for UNPOD.15.1, UNPOD.15.2, etc.

Publications documenting unofficial poetry in *G*eneral are catalogued as UNPOD.G.+number. E.g.: 芒克 Mang Ke’s瞧! 这些人 (Gifted generation) has shelfmark UNPOD.G.15.

For a full list of UNPOD items, see: https://edu.nl/eyjww. This is work in progress: if we’ve missed items held by Leiden University Libraries that should be added to the UNPOD set, or if you know of other material documenting unofficial poetry that is not currently part of our holdings, please get in touch!

Recent arrivals! Paper and digital books on Asia available now.
Please use http://catalogue.leidenuniv.nl to request or access.
Explore more: https://acquisitions.library.universiteitleiden.nl/latest

Interested in Chinese phonetics and lexical system? The 8 volumes of A Brief History of the Chinese Language are waiting for you at the Asian Library: https://edu.nl/n834x.
“The history of the Chinese language is generally split into three phases: 1) Old Chinese, the form of the Chinese language spoken between the 18th century BC and the 3rd century AD, 2) Middle Chinese, between the 4th century AD to around the 12th century AD, and 3) Modern Chinese, since the 13th century, comprised of an ‘early modern’ phase before the early 20th century and the contemporary period since. The first three volumes examine the phonetical systems of the language in each period and distinct changes across time, covering the initials system, finals system and tone system. The subsequent 5 volumes focus on lexical development throughout the different phases. The author also analyses basic issues of Chinese language study, the standardization of a modern common language and the foreign influence on the lexicon, helping us to better understand the history and development of the Chinese language.
Illustrated with abundant examples, this comprehensive groundwork on Chinese phonetical history will be a must read for scholars and students studying Chinese language, linguistics and especially Chinese phonetics and lexicon.” (Description by the publisher).

The second volume on Buddhist stone sutras in Shaanxi has arrived: https://edu.nl/augwk. It presents the engravings on the west wall of the cave at Jinchuanwan (金川灣石窟). This cave was built in the 7th century by followers of the Three Stages School (三階教). Based on the teachings of the monk Xinxing (信行, 540–594), this Buddhist school was suppressed as heretical and its writings were banned form the official canon as apocryphal. The engraving reproduced in this volume count therefore among the surviving writings of the Three Stages School and reflect its textual and conceptual world.
The first volume of the three from this series on Shaanxi Buddhist Stone Sutras is also available, along with the five volumes on Stone Sutras from Shandong (https://edu.nl/yxc76), and the five from the series on Sichuan (https://edu.nl/gcvpn).

Today, two books for Chinese characters, typography and design lovers:
“Chinese pictograms : the pictographic evolution & graphic creation of hanzi” (https://edu.nl/vn8wx) and “漢字, Hanzi, kanji, hanja 2 : graphic design with contemporary Chinese typography” (https://edu.nl/e7ndt).

As our collection of unofficial journals of poetry by Chinese migrant workers is growing (Workers Poetry 工人诗歌 edu.nl/efq3n, New Workers新工人 edu.nl/we4tj, Battler Poets打工诗人 edu.nl/mxnqw - more on a new update of our online collection soon), we have also enriched our holdings with workers poetry from the Maoist era.

This addition brings a depth of time to the genre. It is interesting to note that some of these collections were published unofficially, although the situation can not be compared to publications which flourished outside the official circuit after the Cultural Revolution.

Check our holding of Chinese workers poetry from the 20th and 21st centuries: edu.nl/hrkh6

The Comprehensive Catalogue of Manchu Ancient Books of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Library (内蒙古自治區圖書館满文古籍圖書綜錄 https://edu.nl/63j7q) features about 330 entries about Manchu books and manuscripts, covering the period from 1654 to 1918. Some of these publications are bilingual or trilingual, as they include Chinese and Mongolian.

Entries are 0rganised according the following categories: Classics (經), Histories (史), "Masters" (子), Letters (集), and Collections (叢) and cover a large range of subjects: philosophy, ethics, religion, economy, law, military, language, writing, literature, history, geography, mathematics, astronomy, etc.

Each entry provides the following information: title, author, edition, imprimatur, notes, abstract, shelfmark. Entries are accompanied by illustrations.

An important publication for Qing History Studies and Manchu Studies.

Just in! New books available now.
Please use http://catalogue.leidenuniv.nl to request or
access.
Find more at
https://acquisitions.library.universiteitleiden.nl/latest

Interested in Chinese land policy and rural life? Immerse yourself in “Chinese Traditional Contracts in Bavarian State Library in Munich (Germany)” (德国巴伐利亚州立图书馆藏中国契约文书 https://edu.nl/d8r3c).
This publication features reproductions of contracts from rural areas, collected in the 1980s, in northern China, by the Bavarian State Library.
The majority was produced under the Qing Dynasty and during the first half of the 20th century; some were established in the late Ming Dynasty.

More books on Asia available now.
Please use http://catalogue.leidenuniv.nl to request or access.
Find more: https://acquisitions.library.universiteitleiden.nl/latest

In the past two years, the Asian Library has strengthen its holdings on Chinese and Taiwanese Science fiction, with the acquisition of literary works and secondary sources in Chinese: https://edu.nl/up76m (many items are still on their way to Leiden).

This is complemented by studies on the subjects in Western languages and translations: https://edu.nl/yr6mu.

Summer reading suggestions include: Novel on the Moon Colony 月球殖民地小說 - the first Chinese SF work published in 1904-, works by Chi Ta-wei 紀大偉, Liu Cixin刘慈欣, Ni Kuang 倪匡, Wang, Jinkang 王晋康, Zheng Wenguang 郑文光.

New books on Asia available now.
Please use http://catalogue.leidenuniv.nl to request or access.
Find more: https://acquisitions.library.universiteitleiden.nl/latest

This week, a Quizz for scripts’ lovers!

Can you associate the photos below (1, 2, 3, etc. – with numbers corresponding to the order of appearance of the image) taken from the Illustrated Catalogue of Ancient and Rare Books of Yunnan Province’s Minority Ethnic Groups (云南少数民族古籍珍本集成总目图录 https://edu.nl/qxtev), with the following ethnic groups? e.g.: 3F

A. Dǎi 傣
B. Hāní 哈尼
C. Lìsù 傈僳
D. Nàxī 纳西
E. Plang (Bùláng) 布朗
F. Prinmi (Pǔmǐ) 普米
G. Sui (Shuǐ) 水
H. Yí 彝
I. Zhuàng 壯/壮

Answers will be posted next week in the comments

Learn about the minority languages in the People’s Republic of China in the Encyclopedia of Chinese language and linguistics (https://edu.nl/fa6w6).

This year marks the 400th anniversary of the historical connection between Taiwan and the Netherlands. In 1624, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) established a settlement in the South of the Island where they built Fort Zeelandia.

The National Museum of Taiwan Literature in Tainan (with which Leiden University Libraries signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2023) opened an exhibition on June 25, 2024: “Layers of Literature, City of Stories: Traversing 400 years of Literary History (文學千層．故事連城：從17世紀開始的超時空之旅特展 https://edu.nl/3bjdf).”

The Asian Library contributes to this exhibition with the loan of a letter to an admiral of the Dutch fleet, written in 1664 by Zheng Jing 鄭經 , the son of Zheng Chenggong 鄭成功 (1624-1662, aka. Koxinga). Koxinga was a Southern Ming general who resisted the Qing dynasty after the conquest of the empire by the Manchu; he also opposed Dutch settlements in the Straight of Formosa and on the Island.

The letter recounts part of this shared history, mentioning Dutch outposts in Fuzhou 福州, Jinmen 金門, and the Pescadores 澎湖島. In his letter, Zheng Jing calls for an end to hostilities and the establishment of commercial relations.

On the first section of the letter is a large red seal: “ Field Marshal of the Punitive Expedition” (招討大將軍印), the title conferred on Zheng Chenggong in 1646 by the Southern Ming.

The document is accompanied by a sheet of paper listing what could have been a list of presents: silk, oranges and to***co (see Catalogue of Chinese and Sino-Western Manuscripts in the Central Library of Leiden University, p.77-78, https://edu.nl/tdkgr).

The letter is accessible via our digital collections: https://edu.nl/v8mpm.

This loan was an opportunity for Adelene Koh to round off in style her internship at the library's conservation workshop; not only she prepared the document for transport to Taiwan, she also supervised its installation for the exhibition in Tainan.

During her stay in Leiden, Adelene Koh worked at the conservation of Indonesian manuscripts and of two items from our East Asian special collections: one manuscript once collected by Robert van Gulik (華制裱畫圖 https://edu.nl/8qfmn) and a Buddhist block print (觀音準提經 https://edu.nl/fpqar).

For the first item, the front cover was reattached and a corner repaired. For the second one, pages were flattened out and folds removed, fragile pages and the cover were strengthen.

Adelene did a great work here and we wish her the best for her new internship in Tainan.

Photo credit for the installation of the exhibition: Louis Kwok.

Would you like to test your knowledge of Chinese entomology vocabulary? The third volume in the first series of the Overseas Collection of Qing Dynasty Export Paintings(海外藏清代外销画集) is waiting for you at the Asian Library: https://edu.nl/aw4tj.

With the other 28 volumes you can also test your knowledge on sericulture, rice growing, porcelain, paper, etc.

Above all, you can admire reproductions of Qing dynasty export paintings preserved outside China. Mainly produced in the Guangzhou region, these paintings were popular with foreigners trading with China at the time. These paintings, which also reflect Chinese customs and traditions, are therefore mainly preserved overseas. The advent of photography gradually led to the disappearance of the genre.

This also the opportunity to (re)-read Rosalien van der Poel blog post on one of the export paintings kept at Leiden University Libraries: “Signed 北京: 周培春 畫 Beijing: Zhou Peichun hua – Chinese paintings for foreign visitors” (https://edu.nl/ybce8).

Printed in 1967, one year after the beginning of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), this map of Beijing shows how public spaces combined terminology from the old and new society (with the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 as official marker of the transition), as street names where changed and echoed the political atmosphere of the time.

Back then, to walk from the Imperial Palace (故宫) to the Temple of Earth (地坛) (both names remaining unchanged), one could walk through the Red Guard Park ( 红卫兵公园- old Prospect Hill 景山 or Coal Hill 煤山), or take the Every Generation is Red Road (代代红路), then follow the General Line Road (总路线路) before turning right (a turn to take at one’s own risk….) and take the Worker-Peasant-Soldier East Avenue (工农兵东大街). One would then meet the Great Leap Forward Road (大跃进路) and safely turn left.

Going South form the Imperial Palace, toward the Temple of Heaven (天坛), one would walk across the Gate of the Heavenly Peace Square (天安门广场), and continue along the Front Gate Avenue (前门大街) all the way to the Temple. No need to turn left or right into the Anti-Imperialist Road (反帝路), the Red Light Road (红光路), nor the Red Guards East Road (红卫东路).

At that time, the map of Beijing public transport featured a quote from the Little Red Book, just like all pages of this folded map, and Lin Biao could still be cited.

Once catalogued, this map will be available at the Asian Library.

The 100 books of “Selected volumes of Xu Dishan collection in the Australian National University Library” (澳大利亚国立大学图书馆许地山藏书珍本选辑) are available at the Asian Library.

Born in Taiwan, Xu Dishan [许地山 (1893-1941), studied philosophy, religions, and folklore, in China, the USA, England and India. Xu was also a writer, a translator and a book collector.

His collection of approximately 469 titles is kept at the Australian National University and comprises many rare editions of books on religions.

Published in 2023, the series features works printed under the Ming (1368-1644) and the Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, and during the republican era (1911-1949) – detailed list here: edu.nl/ve7rr).

On Friday 3 May, 3-5 pm (Vrieshof 1/0.06), Xu Guanmian (Peking University), will give a talk: "Sense Embodied: Cloves and Olfactory Transitions in Middle Period China."

In Chinese olfactory history, there is a dominant narrative that emphasizes the ethereal and sublime, ideally delighting the disembodied mind of male literati, while casting aside sensual and bodily fragrances, especially those associated with femininity and appetites. Revisiting this narrative, this study delves into the history of a carnally important aromatic, cloves, whose scent holds prominence in the mainstream narrative of global history but is ostensibly overlooked in Chinese history. This study seeks to understand how and why cloves, originally the dried flower buds of the tropical tree Syzygium aromaticum, grown exclusively in select volcanic islands of eastern Indonesia, evolved from being a perfume for the body to an essential ingredient in a floral turn of Chinese incense culture and an important warming agent in Chinese medicine. Through this case study, we inquire into how an exotic aromatic like cloves interacted with Chinese smell-culture and, moving beyond the dominant literati discourse, reveal its own agency in shaping Chinese olfactory practices.

Link to Guanmian Xu: https://ocean.pku.edu.cn/info/1184/4529.htm