253 DOI: 10.4312/as.2017.5.2.253-260
A Report on the “Global Integration of Ancient 
Chinese Books” Project 
Project leader: Prof. Zheng Jiewen 郑杰文, Shandong University
Peter Wai Ming CHENG
∗ 23
Part 1 
Zheng Jiewen is one of the few prestigious third generation scholars studying the 
traditional Chinese classics in China, coming after Feng Youlan, Ji Xianlin and 
Tang Yijie.
Professor Zheng has been studying the Pre-Qin scholars and has made remark-
able achievements with regard to Mohism, the School of Diplomacy, and the 
School of the Minor-talks. 
He is one the leading lights of Zi (a category for philosophical works, established 
in the first encyclopedia during the Han Dynasty) studies, and especially the study 
of Mohism, in China. His book The History of Mohism ( 中国墨学通史) has been 
placed in the National Social Sciences Foundation Library, and won first prize in 
the highest awards given for liberal arts disciplines by the Chinese government, 
the National College Humanities and Social Science Outstanding Achievements 
Awards. Articles were published in Guangming Daily, China Reading Weekly, Ori-
ental Philosophy Research (Korean) and ten other academic journals, all noting its 
creativity. Ping-ti Ho of the University of Chicago, member of the Academia Sinica 
and American Academy of Arts and Sciences at that time, cited and spoke highly of 
this book. It is seen as a work that addresses previous gaps in the academic literature, 
because it is the first that elaborates on the general history of Mohism.
Professor Zheng is also a leader in the study of the School of Diplomacy and the 
School of the Minor-talks. His books, New Theory of the Warring State Strategies 
(战国策文新论), Theory of Chinese Ancient Political Strategists (中国古代纵横家
论), Study of Gui Guzi (鬼谷子研究), and Explanation of the Biography of Mu 
Tianzi (〈穆天子传〉通释), are all of tremendous academic influence. Due to 
his extraordinary achievements in Zi studies, in 2010 Professor Zheng was invited 
∗ Peter Wai Ming CHENG, Deputy Director (Research), 
 Senior Researcher, Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole, The University of Hong Kong.
 pwmcheng[at]hku.hk
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254 Peter Wai Ming Cheng: A Report...
to work as the chief expert of the biggest liberal arts research project at the nation-
al level in China, Zihai Compilation and Research. 
Part 2
Zihai Compilation and Research is a major project of the National Social Science 
Fund, established by the National Planning Office of Philosophical and Social 
Sciences at Shandong University. The final result of this project will be the Zihai 
Essential Editions, which will include hundreds of important Zi books, Zihai Rare 
Editions that will have hundreds of Zi rare editions, and Zihai Research Editions 
that will collect many research work on Zi studies.
The collections Zihai Special Volumes (子海特辑), Zihai Rare Editions (子海珍本
编), Zihai Rare Edition Images Catalogue (子海珍本编图录), Zihai Essential Edi-
tions (子海精华编), and Zihai Research Editions (子海研究编) will be published 
individually over a period of years. In 2011, three Zihai Special V olumes (子海特辑) 
were published by Phoenix Publishing House, and this included 20 unpublished 
papers written by Gao Heng, Luan Diaofu, Ding Shan, and Wang Xiantang. In 
2013, the first volume of Zihai Rare Editions (子海珍本编), including 120 books 
in the Mainland Chinese volume and 50 books in the Taiwanese volume, were 
published by Phoenix Publishing House and Taiwan Commercial Press, respec-
tively. Five kinds of Zi books have been digitized, including 47 block-printed 
editions and 47 autographs from the Song Ming period, 148 manuscripts from 
the Yuan Ming period, and 224 carved editions from the Ming period. There are 
thus a total of 503 of these works in the digital archive, representing 92.6% of the 
content, providing a resource of great academic value. 
The first volume of Zihai Rare Editions (子海珍本编) was very well-received. 
Shandong University established a project called the Global Compilation of An-
cient Chinese Books (hereinafter referred to as the Integration), enlarging the 
scope of target books from Zi to all four categories of ancient Chinese books. 
This project includes partnership not only with individuals and organizations in 
Taiwan, but also in Europe and America. In this way, the Integration will collect 
ancient books from all over the globe and publish them.
It is no accident that Shandong University has been entrusted with such an im-
portant project. Shandong University has always been very strong in its work in 
the liberal arts. In particular, it is known for its ability to organize projects that 
compile ancient documents and undertake thorough explorations of the ideas 
within them. Such efforts are supported by various academic teams that contain 
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255 Asian Studies V (XXI), 1 (2017), pp. 253–260
with numerous and highly specialized experts. With regard to the project consid-
ered here, an editorial board was set up drawing on staff from Shandong Univer-
sity along with 170 experts from other institutions, such as Nanjing University, 
Tokyo University, Howard University, the University of Munich, the University 
of Macau, National Taiwan University, Hong Kong Chinese University, and other 
universities from Hong Kong, Taiwan Macau, mainland China and the West. The 
resulting team was divided into three units working on the digitization of rare 
editions, compilation of essential editions and academic research.
Digitization is led by Professor Liu Xinming, who was hired by the Ministry of 
Culture in China as an expert on the inscriptions that appear on ancient bronzes 
and stone tablets. He is well-known in the field of cataloguing, literary criticism, 
and the identification of editions. Professor Liu is one of the main leading experts 
of the Integration and International Chinese Study Research Collaboration, and 
in this capacity presides over the cataloguing and digitization of the related books 
that are held overseas. Professor Liu has edited Zihai Rare Editions (子海珍本编) 
and Collection of Bibliographies in the Twenty-Five Histories (二十五史艺文经籍
志考补萃编) among other significant academic achievements, and he also works 
on philological theory and ancient stone inscriptions.
The compilation of essential editions is led by Professor Wang Chenglüe. Profes-
sor Wang helped Professor Wang Shaozeng in the compilation of the Shandong 
Literature Catalogue (山东文献书目), and an edition of the Records of Art and 
Literature in the Qing Dynasty (清史稿艺文志拾遗), and compiled the Collection 
of Various Editions of the Twenty-Four Histories (百衲本二十四史校勘记). Pro-
fessor Wang also helped Professor Dong Zhian in compiling The Collected Works 
of the Han Dynasty (两汉全书), Integration of Important Books for the Biographies 
of the Characters Outside the Twenty-Five Histories (二十五史外人物总传要籍集
成), and The Four Categories of Books in Tang Dynasty (唐代四大类书). His own 
books include Picture on the Things of Mao’s Song (毛诗品物图考), Notes About 
Pictures of Lisao (离骚全图校释), Zheng Xuan and Classics (郑玄与今古文经学), 
Research on Li Tao’s Life and Works (李焘学行诗文辑考), New Notes on the His-
tory of the East Han Dynasty (后汉书新注), and Collection of Bibliographies in the 
Twenty-Five Histories (二十五史艺文经籍志考补萃编).
The research unit of the project is led by Professor Zheng Jiewen.
The three units outlined above have achieved significant results after five years of 
diligent work.
Following the publication of the first volumes of the Zihai Rare Editions (from both 
Mainland China and Taiwan), the Zihai Rare Editions Overseas Volume ( Japan)   
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256 Peter Wai Ming Cheng: A Report...
(子海珍本编•海外卷（日本）) and Mainland Volume (Shanghai Library) (子海
珍本编•大陆卷（上海图书馆）), and will be published. The Zihai Rare Edition 
Overseas Volume ( Japan) will include 150 books in 34 digitized Zi volumes from Ja-
pan’s National Cabinet Document Library, National Diet Library, Housabunko Li-
brary, and Library of the Imperial Household Agency, Seikado Library, the Univer-
sity of Tokyo Library, and Waseda University Library. Mainland Volume (Shanghai 
Library) (子海珍本编• 大陆卷（上海图书馆）) will be published in three batches, 
and contain 1,000 ancient books in total, and the Three Editions of Conspectus of Penal 
Cases (刑案汇览三编) will also be published, with these edited by Shen Jiateng. 
In 2016, the first volume of the Zihai Essential Editions (子海精华编) came out, 
containing three million characters from a collection of nine different books. The 
Zihai Essential Edition (子海精华编) team has collected a total of 97 books, with 
the remaining 88 scheduled to be published soon.
The academic research unit is responsible for the Zihai Research Edition (子海研
究编). They are now working with overseas academics, as seen in the publication 
of Chinese version of Confucian Role Ethics by Professor Roger Thomas Ames, 
Probing into Zi Books (子书探微) by Wiebke Deneck, from Columbia University, 
A Study on Gui Guzi and Political Strategists (〈鬼谷子〉与纵横家研究) and Yi-
lin and Ancient Culture Study (〈易林〉与上古文化研究) by Professor Hans van 
Ess, from the University of Munich.
Part 3
The Integration is in progress, and includes the following four parts.
1.  Co-compilation of the Catalogue of Global Ancient Chinese Books (hereinafter 
referred to as the Catalogue). The Catalogue is the academic foundation of 
the Integration. Through the collaboration of members of the Global Con-
sortium for Chinese Studies, the expert team will be able to obtain detailed 
information about the major book collections held by overseas institutions, 
gather and compile a catalogue of ancient Chinese books, publish it and then 
issue a digitized version.
2.  The outcomes of the Integration. Based on the Catalogue the expert team 
will select books with the most ideological value and academic representa-
tiveness, digitize and selectively publish them. The final result will be serval 
times larger than the Complete Library in the Four Branches of Literature that 
was produced in the Qing Dynasty.
3.  Database for the Integration. This database aims to collect ancient books 
from both inside and outside China, and especially rare editions. The database 
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257 Asian Studies V (XXI), 1 (2017), pp. 253–260
will be equipped with rigorous academic system and a refined collection of 
collated and noted ancient books, and will provide a powerful search function 
for users. The database will be divided into the following sub-databases: 1. 
Database of the Catalogue of Global Ancient Chinese Books, 2. Database of 
the book images of Global Ancient Chinese Books, 3. Database of links to 
images on other servers (this will replace the first database after its comple-
tion). Together these sub-databases will offer the results of this project on the 
same platform.
4.  Translation and other promotional work. Once the books have been select-
ed and entered into the database, it is hoped that this project will influence 
the direction of scholars studying Chinese culture worldwide. One thousand 
books will thus be selected and then translated into modern Chinese and 
published outside of China. Two hundred books will be translated into for-
eign languages and published outside China, and this is also likely to influ-
ence the cultural choices of elite groups in other countries.
Part 4
Many ancient Chinese books are stored in collection agencies in Mainland Chi-
na, but a large number remain in other areas due to historical reasons, among 
which there are books of great academic value. For example, among some 3,000 
Song-Yuan Period ancient books, around 500 rare editions are stored in Taiwan. 
In addition to their academic value, these books have great value as antiques and 
artifacts.
Such items include the printed version of the Li He Poetry Anthology (李贺歌
诗编) on official document paper dates back to the end of the Northern Song 
/ beginning of Southern Song, the Brief History of the East Capital (东都事略) 
home-printed by Cheng Sheren at Mount Mei during Southern Song Shaoxi 
Period, the 10-line-per-page version of Picture and Classification on Xuncius (纂图
分门类题注荀子) printed in Jianyang, New Compilation of Geography and Scenic 
Spots (新编方舆胜览) printed in Jian’an in the third year of Xianchun, Xiaozhuan 
Notes on the Book of Loyalty (忠经篆注) printed at the end of Southern Song, the 
11-line-per-page version of Picture and Mutual Notes on Book of Changes (纂图互
注周易) printed in Jianyang during the Southern Song period, and Collection of 
Ouyang Xingzhou (欧阳行周文集) printed in Sichuan during the Song Dynasty. 
These books are of great significance for academic research. Moreover, when orig-
inally in circulation certain ancient books were segmented into several parts, and 
these parts stored in difference places. Fortunately, although the books are thus 
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258 Peter Wai Ming Cheng: A Report...
fragmentary in nature, by putting them together we can get most of their con-
tent, and in some case even the whole content. The first volume of the Zihai Rare 
Editions is a good example of such piecing together of ancient works. Academia 
Sinica in Taiwan was able to preserve 122 volumes of the Japanese manuscripts 
of the Second Edition of Chinese Medicine Encyclopedia in Dade ( 《大德重校圣济
总录》 ) , while the Japanese Imperial Household Agency Library kept another 35 
volumes from the Song period, and a further 37 volumes are stored in libraries in 
Mainland China. The project team thus gathered all these volumes during their 
digitization efforts, and so were able to provide very comprehensive data. As such, 
Professor Zheng believes that instead of keeping the books to themselves, book 
collection institutes, libraries and so on should contribute these resources to aca-
demic research efforts. This is why Professor Zheng advocates a complementary 
and integrated approach to the collection and study of ancient Chinese books, 
both in and outside China.
Part 5
As part of the Integration project the team of experts is devoted to the investiga-
tion, cataloguing and digitization of these ancient books, as well as the construc-
tion of a database, in order to meet current research trends. Since the 1990’s, the 
construction of this ancient books database has been gaining speed, helped along 
by a number of such databases with high academic value that have been developed 
over the years. The basic Chinese ancient books database, developed by the Beijing 
Airusheng Digital Technology Research Center and published by Huangshan 
Publishing House, includes 10,000 works in 170,000 volumes of ancient books 
from the Qin to the Republican periods. It provides a public version that contains 
the full content and images from one or two important versions of each work. 
Overall, this database contains 1.7 billion Chinese characters, 12,700 editions, 
and 10 million pages of images. 
The National Ancient Books’ Preservation Center, relying on the large ancient 
collections of the National Library, co-operates with a microcopy center and 
transfers the ancient text to high-definition images, which are then used in the 
Chinese Ancient Book Resources Database. This now has images of rare and good 
editions of 10,975 volumes, 91,467 books, and 6,124,464 images, which account 
for around one third of the total number of good editions collected by China’s 
National Library. Zhonghua Book Company also has a collection of recently-col-
lated editions of ancient books in its Database of Ancient Books of Chinese Clas-
sics. The first volume collects 260 kinds of books texts from all four categories, as 
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259 Asian Studies V (XXI), 1 (2017), pp. 253–260
collated by Zhonghua Book Company, among which are The Twenty-Five Histo-
ries (二十五史), Consultancy (通鉴), Newly Organized Integration of Ancient Chi-
nese Scholars (新编诸子集成), Notation of the Thirteen Confucian Classics by Qing 
Scholars (清人十三经注疏), Notes of Historical Materials (史料笔记丛刊), Clas-
sical Chinese Literature Basic Books (中国古典文学基本丛书), and Ancient Bud-
dhist Books and Records (佛教典籍选刊). The Ancient Books Preservation Center 
of China’s National Library recently published a Database of Ancient Chinese 
Books as part of the national general survey. This is part of the Ancient Books Pro-
tection Plan, and it carried out for the first time a unified search for ancient books 
at the national level.
Although a valuable database for ancient Chinese books has been built up, based 
on those works in China, as yet there is now database featuring ancient books 
from outside the country. In the Global Integration for Ancient Chinese Books 
project the expert team will develop such a database based on the Catalogue and 
the final results of this project.
The database thus aims to collect ancient books from China and overseas, and 
especially rare editions. As noted earlier, this database will be based on a rigorous 
academic system and will include a collection of noted ancient books, and will 
provide a powerful search function. The database will be divided into the fol-
lowing sub-databases: 1. Database of the Catalogue of Global Chinese Ancient 
Books, 2. Database of the book images, 3. Database of links to images on other 
servers (which will replace the first database after its completion). There will be a 
physical database and virtual database, and together they will offer the results of 
the Integration project on the same platform.
The database of book images of Global Ancient Chinese Books is the catalogue 
containing information about books collected by the Integration. In the first 
stage the database collects around 190,000 different books. The information 
included in the database includes the serial number, title, number of volumes, 
author, version, form of arrangement, existing and lost volumes, collection insti-
tutes, and so on. As the project develops there will eventually be information on 
around 250,000 books, and the database will be connected to related databases 
both in and outside of China.
The database of book images of Global Ancient Chinese Books is also built as part 
of the Integration project. It contains images and information on selected books, 
mostly the good and rare editions. Shandong University has signed an agreement 
with The British Library, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, the China National 
Library, the Taipei Palace Museum, Housabunko Library, Seikado Library, the 
University of Tokyo Library, and the Russian State Library, and they will issue 
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260 Peter Wai Ming Cheng: A Report...
license agreements enabling the project to upload the original images of ancient 
books. In 2015 the International Sinology Research Center (hereinafter referred 
to as the Center) appointed Professor Wang Peiyuan as its chief, and twice sent a 
team to Russia to carry out cataloguing, selection, identification and digitization. 
The first batch of images included 600 rare editions stored at the Center, and 
1,800 good editions stored in Shandong University Library. More will be includ-
ed later. The search system of the database of the Catalogue of Global Ancient 
Chinese Books will be connected with the related book image database. 
From a technical perspective, the aforementioned database constitutes two sys-
tem: a catalogue database and a literature system. According to the current plan, 
90,000 kinds of ancient Chinese books in 1.2 million volumes and 16.22 mil-
lion pages will be included in the database, with a total of 8.61 million Chinese 
characters, and a data size of 1.813TB. The search system meets the Unicode 
international standard, and includes a very large set of Chinese characters, both 
traditional and simplified, as the search language. Moreover, it will also provide a 
major non-Chinese language environment, vague and specific search system, and 
online and offline versions for different users.
The Catalogue database will include comprehensive information on the books, 
such as name, sub-content, period, author, category, edition, and so on. By adopt-
ing text formatting, users can conveniently search for general information about 
the books using category name, period, and Pinyin. The database of book images 
will adopt the PDF graphic format. The original images will be shown to the us-
ers, which ensures both accuracy and practical value. At the same time, users can 
make notes with system, just like on paper books. These notes can then be saved 
separately, or along with the resources downloaded from the database. 
The process of digitizing and integrating the collections of ancient Chinese books 
held outside of China outlined in this paper will provide systematic research data 
for sinologists worldwide, and provide a relatively comprehensive overview of this 
aspect of Chinese culture. 
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