On April 8, Liaoning Provincial Library (Liaoning Ancient Book Protection Center) held the opening ceremony of a special exhibition on the protection and inheritance of ancient books named “Protect Ancient Books, Promote Traditional Culture”.

Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Master Embracing Simplicity, Model Words by Master Yang and other seven precious ancient books on display were carefully selected from the collection of 610,000 ancient books (120,000 best editions), spanning from the Han Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, and including manuscripts, block-printed editions, chromatography editions, movable type printings, illustrated books, and other various types of editions. They are the most representative and the finest books among the collections in the library. This is also the debut of the “treasures” in the Liaoning Provincial Library. Among them, the manuscript of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio is the only remaining manuscript of a classical Chinese literary work, which was written by the famous literary scholar Pu Songling during his lifetime in the Qing Dynasty.

The exhibition adopts advanced exhibition equipment, reproducing the scenes of Pu Songling hanging out in tea houses and bookshops to collect strange and unusual stories as creative materials, leading readers to immerse themselves in the stories and experience the interest of Pu Songling’s ingenious literature work. Technologies of sound and light are interwoven to create a fantastic exhibition environment, providing visitors with an immersive experience to learn the story of ancient books.

According to the introduction, Liaoning Provincial Library is the first batch of national key protection units for ancient books. The antique treasures in the library have been handed down and carefully cared by generations of library workers, embodying the unique spiritual values and imagination and creativity of the Chinese nation, and are the historical testimonies of the long and continuous Chinese civilization, as well as the treasures of human civilization.