From a Merchant to a Bibliophile:Yu Songnian and His Collection of Books in Yi Jia Tang
Yu Songnian spared no effort to collect books,especially precious ancient books of the Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty after he obtained great wealth from the business.At the peak,he gathered the essence of private collections from all over China in Shanghai,totaling more than 100,000 volumes.In addition,he also collated these books and compiled them into the Yi Jia Tang Series accordingly became a supreme bibliophile during the period from Xianfeng emperor to Tongzhi emperor.The Taiping War caused a great disaster in the history of private book collecting in China.At that time,Yu Songnian re-collected various missed books from other collectors in Jiangnan area,preserving many valuable ancient books and further transforming his family to the role of"Confucian merchant".Yu Songnian's collections not only inherited the idea of"only pursuing books published in the Song Dynasty"from his predecessors,but also were influenced by the idea that"learning should be for practice",he collected not only rare books published in the Song and Yuan Dynasties,but also a large number of practical books,as well as many natural science books published by the West world,with a distinct brand of the times.Yu was keen on charity and valued talents and education.He not only generously lent and engraved books for circulation,but also invested his personal collections in local education.After his death,his collection of books became the source of such great book collectors as Lu Xinyuan and Ding Richang.It can be said that Yu Songnian played a key role in the history of private book collecting in China.
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