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Bookplate Index by Library or Collector
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Nanjing University Library This historical bookplate of Nanjing University Library in Nanjing, People’s Republic of China, was used from 1928 to 1949 as the collection symbol. On the top of the 2 1/8-by-3 1/4-inch bookplate the Chinese characters read from right to left “Guo Li Zhong Yang Da Xue Tu Shu Guan” (Chinese pronunciation), meaning National Central University Library. Under the words is a line drawing with an ancient pine tree in the middle and behind it a rising sun, shedding its rays in all directions. A group of hills with a pagoda forms the background. Beneath the picture is space to put the book’s classification number and accession number. This bookplate not only symbolizes the library collections, it also reflects the early history of Nanjing University Library. The pine tree that is the main focus of the picture still stands on the campus of Southeastern University, the former campus of Nanjing University. The tree has a reinforced concrete column in the core of the trunk to help support it, because it is about sixteen hundred years old. The tree dates from the Six Dynasties and has been identified by experts to be a cypress, even though it usually has been called the Six Dynasties Pine. Why was the pine used to play the principal part of the bookplate? An anecdote related with the book collection is as follows. Nanjing University was founded in 1902 as the Sanjiang Normal School. Then in 1905 its name was changed to Liangjiang Normal School. The president at that time was Li Ruiqing (1867-1920), a knowledgeable scholar who was known as “plum idiot” because he had an ardent love of plum blossoms. His thatched cottage was located just by the Six Dynasties Pine. The cottage was called “plum hut,” and it consisted of several rooms. “Plum hut” was his residence, classrooms for his graduate students, and his book-collecting room, an embryonic form of the library. The readers who wanted to use books in the plum hut would always go past the pine tree first. Today, if you are wandering on the campus under the pine in front of the plum hut (which has been rebuilt to be a modern hotel) and looking forward, the rolling hills will come into view, and you will be amazed to find it just like the picture on the bookplate. The higher and farther of the rolling hills is Zijin Mountain, the symbol of Nanjing city; the lower and nearer hill is Jiuhua Mountain, on top of which stands a small pagoda named San Zang Ta, the burying place for the famous Tang Dynasty monk Xuan Zhuang. In 1921 Liangjian Normal School was combined with another school; its new title was Southeastern University, and it was the second national university, after Beijing University, in old China. Construction of the university library began in 1922. In 1928, the university changed its name to National Central University. It was at that time that the bookplate came into use and the National Central University Library is the name appearing at the top of this cover’s bookplate. With this change, the university became more prosperous in all its aspects, with the library having its primary development and the collection enlarged. The rising sun on the plate alludes to this expansion. But, during the war afterwards, the university was moved to Chongqing; later it was returned to Nanjing again. This period and its moves were disastrous for the library because of the damage and losses from the book collection. The university was named Nanjing University in August 1949, and after that, the bookplate was no longer used. In 1952, Nanjing University was merged with Jin Lin University (The University of Nanking); the campus moved inside Jin Lin University, the two libraries were combined as one, and the library building of the University of Nanjing was used.
Now several decades have passed, and Nanjing University has become
one of the largest universities in China. The library has also developed a
new look. Currently, the library has about 3,200,000 volumes in its books
collection, among which are many valuable ancient books, local chronicles,
and rare editions. No bookplate is used in the library now; bookplates
have been replaced by several kinds of seals. Hua Weina and Hu Yali Department of Library and Information Science Nanjing University
[Originally published in Libraries & Culture, vol. 30, no. 1 (Winter 1995): 92-93.]
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| Last updated June 8, 2001 |
