The Life History Study of Private Library Collections in the Qing Dynasty
The gathering and dispersion of private library collections constitute a typical characteristic of ancient Chinese private libraries.Previous researches on this topic have been relatively monolithic in methodology and lack comprehensive investigation,making it difficult to accurately address questions regarding the duration and trend changes from aggregation to dispersion in these libraries.In light of this,drawing on theories from demography and historical geography,this paper introduces the concept of"library longevity"to examine the aforementioned issues from a life history perspective.The results indicate that the average lifespan of private library collections during the Qing Dynasty generally exhibited a fluctuating downward trend with significant periodic characteristics.The average lifespan of private library collections was 43.16 years,with nearly half lasting between 31 and 50 years.Inter-generational inheritance of private library collections posed significant challenges,with 84.20％only being sustained for one generation,while only 9.60％were passed down for two generations,and the proportion of multi-generational library legacies was extremely low.Spatial differences in the lifespan of private library collections at the provincial and prefectural levels were not significant.The primary factors influencing library longevity included economic foundations,successors,water and fire disasters,as well as wars and disturbances.
private library collectionslibrary longevitygathering and dispersion of books
NETL
NSTL
万方数据
