All posts by Emily Jantz

CLIR Delegation to Visit UW, UBC (2015-10-29/30)

October 19, 2015News and EventsEmily Jantz

On Thursday, October 29, 2015, a delegation from CLIR’s Hidden Collections Program will visit UBC, followed by a visit to UW on Friday, October 30, 2015. The purpose of the visit is for the CLIR team to learn more about the “Discovering Modern China” project work and to discuss and exchange best practices and ideas between the grant recipients (UW and UBC), CLIR, and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which sponsored the Hidden Collections grants.

For the UW visit, on the 30th, we’re planning an afternoon of presentations, discussion, tours, and a display of some of the hidden treasures we’ve unearthed so far. We look forward to a fruitful exchange with our CLIR visitors!

四體合璧文鑑 (Si ti he bi wen jian)

September 23, 2015Stories and TreasuresMonographs, Qing dynasty, Woodblock printEmily Jantz

四體合璧文鑑: 三十二卷
(清)佚名撰
清[1644-1911]刻本
4冊

“Four-Script Textual Mirror: 32 chapters”
Anonymous compiler from the Qing dynasty
Published between 1644 and 1911
Woodblock printing
4 volumes

正文首列滿文詞語，其右側類蒙文譯詞，再次列藏文譯詞，藏文譯詞左下角列漢文譯詞，漢文譯詞右側標註滿文切音字。該辭典收詞豐富，為清代滿、蒙、漢、藏文字的互譯提供了較為全面的資料，其標註的滿文切音字對研究清代滿漢語音學也有重要價值。

This is a dictionary of Manchu, Chinese, Mongolian, and Tibetan. The Manchu words are written in the first column on the left, followed by the Mongolian words in the second column, and the Tibetan words in the last column. The Chinese words are written in the lower left corner of the last column. Each Chinese word is also annotated (to the right of the word) using the Manchu phonetic alphabet.

This dictionary contains a very large number of words and provides nearly comprehensive translations among the Manchu, Mongolian, Chinese, and Tibetan languages from the time of the Qing dynasty. Additionally, the inclusion of the pronunciation in the Manchu alphabet for the Chinese words provides important and valuable information for the study of Manchu-Chinese phonetics.

Item description and Chinese explanation by Boyue Yao; English translation by Xinyi Xu, edited by Emily Jantz.

Welcome back to UW, Prof. Yao!

June 1, 2015News and EventsEmily Jantz

Monday, June 1, 2015, Prof. Boyue Yao returned to the University of Washington after spending two months at the University of British Columbia as their CLIR Project Consultant, focusing on their ancient and rare materials.

He will continue his work on the CLIR project at UW, assessing and cataloging our rare Chinese materials that date from before the Republican Period (1912-1949). We are very pleased to welcome him back!

至聖先師像 (Zhi sheng xian shi xiang)

May 25, 2015Stories and TreasuresRubbingsEmily Jantz

至聖先師像（民國拓片）
允禮繪
清雍正十二年[1734]繪刻
原碑現藏陝西西安碑林

“Portrait of the Most Honored Teacher” (Rubbing, Republic of China period)
Original painting by Yunli
Stele engraved in 1734, now held in the Xi’an Forest of Steles

This rubbing is from a Qing dynasty stele that portrays Confucius in the center. On the top, the title reads “Zhi sheng xian shi xiang,” which means “portrait of the most honored teacher”—that is, Confucius (551-479 BC). Inscriptions in the upper right corner are followed by the artist’s seal in both Chinese and Manchu. The portrait was painted by Prince Yunli, also known as Guoyi qinwang, who was the 17th son of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing (reigned 1662-1723). The original stele was erected in 1734, and is now preserved in the Forest of Steles in Xi’an.

Zhijia Shen Presents in Beijing on the CLIR Project (2015-04-22)

April 22, 2015News and Events, Scholarly EngagementEmily Jantz

Zhijia Shen, Director of the UW East Asia Library and Principal PI of the “Discovering Modern China” CLIR Project, presented about the project at the Conference on the Future of Academic Libraries in China and North America at Beijing University on April 22-24, 2015.

Click to view the slides from this presentation. (Note: Presentation slides are in Chinese.)

UW Team Visits UBC (2015-04-16)

April 16, 2015News and EventsEmily Jantz

On April 16, 2015, UBC held a tea/reception to welcome Professor Yao and promote the CLIR Project. The team from UW traveled up to UBC to attend the reception and show our support for our project colleagues.

In addition, the team members from both sides took the opportunity to engage in small group, in-person meetings to discuss specific topics, such as technical services workflows and project financial aspects. Our UBC colleagues also treated us to lovely tours of their campus and the Asian Library.

Zhijia Shen & Jing Liu Present at CLIR Symposium (2015-03-12)

March 12, 2015News and Events, Scholarly EngagementEmily Jantz

Project Co-PIs—Zhijia Shen, Director of UW EAL, and Jing Liu, Chinese Studies Librarian of UBC Asian Library—gave a presentation entitled “International Collaboration to Reveal Rare Chinese Materials Hidden for Half a Century” at the CLIR Symposium on Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives in Philadelphia, March 12, 2015.

Click to view the slides from this presentation.

Public Lecture by Prof. Yao (2015-03-10)

March 11, 2015Scholarly EngagementEmily Jantz

On March 10, Professor Boyue Yao, CLIR Project Librarian and visiting scholar from Beijing University Library, delivered a public lecture, “Discovering the Origins of the Imperial University Library through Ancient Book Catalogs,” at the University of Washington East Asia Library.

Professor Yao spoke about his recent discoveries in ancient book catalogs—their contents, the seals that were used on them, etc.—and other sources which revealed that the Imperial University Library (now Peking University Library) was in fact founded in 1898, rather than 1902 as was previously thought.

Presentation Summary: 长期以来，北大校史都将1902年作为北京大学图书馆的创建年，比1898年建校的北京大学晚了整整4年！事实果真如此吗？原北大外国语学院沈弘教授从2002年开始，先后写了3篇文章，论证北京大学图书馆的前身京师大学堂藏书楼实际应该与京师大学堂同时建立，文章很有说服力，但遗憾的是一直无人理会。2013年，北大图书馆古籍编目人员在编目中发现了一部出版于1899年春的《大学堂书目》，于是事情终于出现了转机……

Photos from the event >>

Presentation by Prof. Yao (2015-03-10)

March 10, 2015News and EventsEmily Jantz

“Discovering the Origins of the Peking University Library through Ancient Book Catalogs” — A presentation by CLIR Project Librarian and renowned Chinese rare books expert Professor Boyue Yao, followed by Q&A session and a light reception.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015
3:30 p.m.
UW East Asia Library (Gowen Hall), 2M level

See here for more on what happened at the event >>

Pictures from Prof. Yao’s Presentation on March 10, 2015

Dr. Shen, Head of the East Asia Library, introduces Prof. Yao before the talk

Until just recently, the founding year of the library was believed to be 1902

...but this book, published in 1898, provides some contradictory evidence — …but this book, published in 1898, provides some contradictory evidence

The seals inside certain books also provided compelling evidence

Eventually the University accepted the results of the research, and the date on the library logo was changed

Discovering Modern China : UW and UBC Collections

CLIR Hidden Collections Project @ UW East Asia Library