A Study Of Chen Kui’s Book Collection

Chen Kui(1780-1825)born in Changshu,Jiangsu Province.He is a famous book collector in the Qing Dynasty.Chen Kui has a book collection of more than 100000 volumes.Together with Zhang Jinwu,another book collector at the same time,they are called "two friends of book collection".Both of them play a connecting role in the history of Changshu’s book collection.After the emergence of the two collectors,most of the other book collectors in Changshu were affected by them.Mr.Cao Peigen,a contemporary scholar,classifies the books of Changshu’s collection into three categories: the collection in pursuit of reading,the collection in pursuit of collecting ancient books and the collection of circulating by open means.The former two are the collection of books by Chen Kui,who collected most of the books in the Song and Yuan dynasties.He pays special attention to the search and purchase of local chronicles.On the basis of the collection,Chen Kui has collated and written many books.The investigation of the book collection activities of Chen Kui can not only reveal the book collection of Changshu during the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods,but also help us understand his contribution to the history of Chinese book collection.Firstly,this paper examines the family background,life and friends of Chen Kui through relevant biographies,diaries,chronologies and other materials.Personal book collection and reading activities are often affected by the local culture and family background.By combing the family lineage and communication activities of Chen Kui,we can better study Chen Kui’s book collection activities.Secondly,it discusses the relevant situation of the collection of books by Chen Kui.This paper makes a textual research on the location and scale of the collection of books,the sources and ways of collecting books,the characteristics and concepts of the collection,and the dispersion and current situation of the collection of books of Chen Kui,so as to understand the basic situation of the collection of books of Chen Kui.Thirdly,it studies the utilization of books by Chen Kui.Chen Kui’s collection of books is not to put his collection on the shelf and collect books for collection,but to collate and write on the basis of the collection as a scholar and achieve remarkable results.He emphasized that the writing is not more important than the essence.Some of Chen Kui ’s writings were not created yet,which is a pity,and some of them are "bluer than blue",which is twice as great as the original book and has been handed down to this day.Among them,Jiruilou Bibliography,Qinchuanzhi Zhucao and Jiruilou Wencao are the most influential.Finally,the author summarizes the achievements of the collection of books by Chen Kui,and discusses the status of the collection of books by Chen Kui and Jiruilou in the history of the collection of books in Changshu.The books collected by Chen Kui were inherited by Qian and Mao,and later by Qu and Weng,which can be said to serve as a bridge between the past and the future.Although his collection began to spread around after his death,and only a small part of his collection was handed over to other collectors and eventually put into public libraries,his spirit of collecting and writing books throughout his life has always inspired future generations and made great contributions to the cause of China’s book collection culture.