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The Wen Xuan ( [wə̌n.ɕɥɛ̀n] ; Chinese : 文選 ), usually translated Selections of Refined Literature , is one of the earliest and most important anthologies of Chinese poetry and literature , and is one of the world's oldest literary anthologies to be arranged by topic. It is a selection of what were judged to be the best poetic and prose pieces from the late Warring States period (c. 300 BC) to the early Liang dynasty (c. AD 500), excluding the Chinese Classics and philosophical texts. The Wen Xuan preserves most of the greatest fu rhapsody and shi poetry pieces from the Qin and Han dynasties , and for much of pre-modern history was one of the primary sources of literary knowledge for educated Chinese.

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105-448: The Wen Xuan was compiled between AD 520 and 530 in the city of Jiankang (modern Nanjing ) during the Liang dynasty by Xiao Tong , the eldest son of Emperor Wu of Liang , and a group of scholars he had assembled. The Liang dynasty, though short-lived, was a period of intense literary activity, and the ruling Xiao family ensured that eminent writers and scholars were frequently invited to

210-770: A 1671 account by a French missionary. The commoners and officials in Beijing and Nanjing were waiting to support whichever side won. An official from Qing Beijing sent letters to family and another official in Nanjing, telling them all communication and news from Nanjing to Beijing had been cut off, that the Qing were considering abandoning Beijing and moving their capital far away to a remote location for safety since Koxinga's iron troops were rumored to be invincible. Koxinga's forces intercepted these letters and after reading them Koxinga may have started to regret his deliberate delays allowing

315-889: A Japanese-collaborationist government known as the " Nanjing Regime " or "Reorganized National Government of China" led by Wang Jingwei was established in Nanjing as a rival to Chiang Kai-shek 's government in Chongqing. In 1946, after the Surrender of Japan , the KMT relocated its central government back to Nanjing. In April 1949, Communist forces crossed the Yangtze River and the Communist People's Liberation Army (PLA) captured Nanjing. The KMT government retreated to Canton ( Guangzhou ) until October 15, Chongqing until November 25, and then Chengdu before retreating to

420-501: A catalogue in eight volumes was compiled. Louvois considered the erection of an opulent building to host it on what would become the Place Vendôme , a project that was however left unexecuted following the minister's death in 1691. The library opened to the public in 1692, under the administration of Abbott Camille le Tellier de Louvois , the minister's son. The Abbé Louvois was succeeded by Jean-Paul Bignon , who in 1721 seized

525-577: A complete reform of the library's system. Catalogues were made which appeared from 1739 to 1753 in 11 volumes. The collections increased steadily by purchase and gift to the outbreak of the French Revolution , at which time it was in grave danger of partial or total destruction, but owing to the activities of Antoine-Augustin Renouard and Joseph Van Praet it suffered no injury. The library's collections swelled to over 300,000 volumes during

630-522: A copy of any book in France in the National Library. Napoleon furthermore increased the collections by spoil from his conquests. A considerable number of these books were restored after his downfall. During the period from 1800 to 1836, the library was virtually under the control of Joseph Van Praet. At his death it contained more than 650,000 printed books and some 80,000 manuscripts. Following

735-662: A decisive, single grand showdown as his father successfully did against the Dutch at the Battle of Liaoluo Bay , throwing away the surprise and initiative which led to its failure. Koxinga's attack on Qing held Nanjing which would interrupt the supply route of the Grand Canal leading to possible starvation in Beijing caused such fear that the Manchus (Tartares) considered returning to Manchuria (Tartary) and abandoning China according to

840-736: A digitized copy of Scenes of Bohemian Life by Henri Murger (1913) became Gallica's millionth document. In February 2019, the five millionth document was a copy of the manuscript "Record of an Unsuccessful Trip to the West Indies" stored in the Bibliothèque Inguimbertine and on 30 March 2023 the ten millionth document was added. As of 2024 , Gallica had made available online approximately 10 million documents : Most of Gallica's collections of texts have been converted into text format using optical character recognition (OCR-processing), which allows full-text search in

945-524: A full city block in Paris, surrounded by rue de Richelieu (west), rue des Petits-Champs (south), rue Vivienne  [ fr ] (east), and rue Colbert  [ fr ] (north). There are two entrances, respectively on 58, rue de Richelieu and 5, rue Vivienne. This site was the main location of the library for 275 years, from 1721 to 1996. It now hosts the BnF Museum as well as facilities of

1050-579: A history 2595 years long. In 541, Wu built Laizhu Town in Gaochun—because of its strong city, it was also called Gucheng. Fuchai , King of the State of Wu , founded a fort named Yecheng in today's Nanjing area in 495   BC. Wu was conquered by the State of Yue in 473 BC, and the city was rebuilt at the mouth of the Qinhuai River in the following year. Later it was called Yuecheng ( 越城 ) on

1155-434: A large section of the city for the bannermen 's cantonment, and occupied the former imperial Ming Palace , but otherwise the city was spared the mass murders and destruction that befell Yangzhou . Despite capturing many counties in his initial attack due to surprise and having the initiative, Koxinga announced the final battle in Nanjing in 1659 ahead of time giving plenty of time for the Qing to prepare because he wanted

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1260-467: A long history, is among the world's top 20 universities ranked by the Nature Index . The ratio of college students to the total population ranks No.1 among large cities nationwide. Nanjing has the fifth-largest scientific research output of any city in the world. As of 2024, it has been ranked as the world's second most prolific scientific research center in earth and environmental sciences and

1365-456: A major center of culture, education, research, politics, economy, transport networks and tourism, being the home to one of the world's largest inland ports . The city is also one of the fifteen sub-provincial cities in the People's Republic of China's administrative structure , enjoying jurisdictional and economic autonomy only slightly less than that of a province . It has also been awarded

1470-514: A new Ming Palace complex, and government halls. It took 200,000 laborers 21 years to finish the wall, which was intended to defend the city and its surrounding region from coastal pirates. The present-day City Wall of Nanjing was mainly built during that time and today it remains in good condition and has been well preserved. It is among the longest surviving city walls in China. The Jianwen Emperor ruled from Yingtian from 1398 to 1402. It

1575-664: A number of odd or illogical choices. A large number of manuscripts and fragments of the Wen Xuan have survived to modern times. Many were discovered among the Dunhuang manuscripts and are held in various museums around the world, particularly at the British Library and Bibliothèque Nationale de France , as well as in Japan , where the Wen Xuan was well known from at least the 7th century. One Japanese manuscript, held in

1680-590: A number of other names, and some historical names are now used as names of districts of the city. The city was known as Yuecheng and Jinling or "Ginling" ( 金陵 ) from the Warring States Era. Jianye ( 建业 ; Chien-yeh ), which means 'build an empire', was officially designated for the city during the Eastern Wu dynasty . The city first became a Chinese national capital as early as the Jin dynasty and

1785-427: A period of development that made it the largest and richest collection of books in the world. He was succeeded by his son who was replaced, when executed for treason, by Jérôme Bignon , the first of a line of librarians of the same name. Under de Thou, the library was enriched by the collections of Queen Catherine de Medici . The library grew rapidly during the reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV , due in great part to

1890-646: A process during which many treasures were lost. Henry IV had it moved to the Collège de Clermont in 1595, a year after the expulsion of the Jesuits from their establishment. In 1604, the Jesuits were allowed to return and the collection was moved to the Cordeliers Convent , then in 1622 to the nearby Confrérie de Saint-Côme et de Saint-Damien  [ fr ] on the rue de la Harpe . The appointment of Jacques Auguste de Thou as librarian initiated

1995-659: A sarcastic allusion to the successful TGV high-speed rail system). After the move of the major collections from the Rue de Richelieu , the National Library of France was inaugurated on 15 December 1996. As of 2016 , the BnF contains roughly 14 million books at its four Parisian sites (Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand, Richelieu, Arsenal , and Opéra ) as well as printed documents, manuscripts, prints, photographs, maps and plans, scores, coins, medals, sound documents, video and multimedia documents, and scenery elements. The library retains

2100-547: A series of regime changes in France, it became the Imperial National Library and in 1868 was moved to newly constructed buildings on the Rue de Richelieu designed by Henri Labrouste . Upon Labrouste's death in 1875 the library was further expanded, including the grand staircase and the Oval Room, by academic architect Jean-Louis Pascal . In 1896, the library was still the largest repository of books in

2205-459: Is a collective term for six Chinese dynasties mentioned above which all maintained national capitals at Jiankang. The six dynasties were: Eastern Wu (222–280), Eastern Jin dynasty (317–420) and four southern dynasties (420–589). At the end of the Eastern Han dynasty , the warlord Sun Quan , who ruled Jiangdong , moved his ruling office to Moling in 211 AD. The following year, he built

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2310-518: Is a public establishment under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture . Its mission is to constitute collections, especially the copies of works published in France that must, by law, be deposited there, conserve them, and make them available to the public. It produces a reference catalogue, cooperates with other national and international establishments, as well as participates in research programs. The National Library of France traces its origin to

2415-597: Is also full of erroneous and far-fetched glosses and interpretations. Besides the Li Shan and "Five Officials" commentaries, a number of other Wen Xuan editions seem to have circulated during the Tang dynasty . Almost none of these other editions have survived to modern times, though a number of manuscripts have been preserved in Japan . A number of fragments of the Wen Xuan or commentaries to it were rediscovered in Japan in

2520-651: Is believed that Nanjing was the largest city in the world from 1358 to 1425 with a population of 487,000 in 1400. Having usurped power from his nephew and uncertain of the loyalty of the region's officials, the Yongle Emperor relocated the capital in 1421 to Beijing, where he had long served as the regional governor as the Prince of Yan . Because the new status of Yingtian was included in the Hongwu Emperor's " ancestral injunctions " for his dynasty, however,

2625-763: Is now Qixia . In the Jiangning district, ruins of primitive villages from the Neolithic Age were discovered. About 4000 years ago, dense Bronze Age primitive settlements appeared in the Qinhuai River Basin, labeled as the Hushu culture. The earliest cities in Nanjing were formed around these settlements. Due to the volume of archeological finds in the area related to the Taowu and Hushu cultures, many historians, anthropologists, and archeologists frequent

2730-596: Is organised: Gallica is the digital library for online users of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and its partners. It was established in October 1997. Today it has more than six million digitized materials of various types: books, magazines, newspapers, photographs, cartoons, drawings, prints, posters, maps, manuscripts, antique coins, scores, theater costumes and sets, audio and video materials. All library materials are freely available. On 10 February 2010,

2835-611: Is the national library of France , located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as Richelieu and François-Mitterrand . It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including books and manuscripts but also precious objects and artworks, are on display at the BnF Museum (formerly known as the Cabinet des Médailles ) on the Richelieu site. The National Library of France

2940-775: The Mencius ; 3) collections of rhetorical speeches, such as the Intrigues of the Warring States ( Zhan guo ce ) ; and 4) historical narratives and chronicles such as the Zuo Tradition ( Zuo zhuan ) . After Xiao Tong's death in 531 he was given the posthumous name Zhaoming 昭明 ("Resplendent Brilliance"), and so the collection came to be known as the "Zhaoming Wen xuan ". Despite its massive influence on Chinese literature, Xiao's categories and editorial choices have occasionally been criticized throughout Chinese history for

3045-661: The Annotations of the Six Officials , which had Ganzhou and Jianzhou versions, was based on the Six Scholars edition but altered the ordering of certain sections. In the early 19th century, scholar Hu Kejia produced a collated and textually critical edition entitled Kao Yi ( Chinese : 考異 ; lit. 'A Study of the Differences';). This edition became the basis for most modern printings of

3150-1392: The Eisei Bunko Museum , is a rare fragment of a Wen Xuan commentary that may predate Li Shan's authoritative commentary from the mid-6th century. The Wen Xuan contains 761 works organized into 37 separate categories: Rhapsodies ( fu 賦 ), Lyric Poetry ( shī 詩 ), Chu -style Elegies ( sāo 騷 ), Sevens ( qī 七), Edicts ( zhào 詔), Patents of Enfeoffment ( cè 册), Commands ( lìng 令), Instructions ( jiào 教), Examination Prompts ( cèwén 策文), Memorials ( biǎo 表), Letters of Submission ( shàngshū 上書), Communications ( qǐ 啓), Memorials of Impeachment ( tánshì 彈事), Memoranda ( jiān 牋), Notes of Presentation ( zòujì 奏記), Letters ( shū 書), Proclamations of War ( xí 檄), Responses to Questions ( duìwèn 對問), Hypothetical Discourses ( shè lùn 設論), Mixed song/rhapsody ( cí 辭), Prefaces ( xù 序), Praise Poems ( sòng 頌), Encomia for Famous Men ( zàn 贊), Prophetic Signs ( fú mìng 符命), Historical Treatises ( shǐ lùn 史論), Historical Evaluations and Judgments ( shǐ shù zàn 史述贊), Treatises ( lùn 論), "Linked Pearls" ( liánzhū 連珠), Admonitions ( zhēn 箴), Inscriptions ( míng 銘), Dirges ( lěi 誄), Laments ( aī 哀), Epitaphs ( béi 碑), Grave Memoirs ( mùzhì 墓誌), Conduct Descriptions ( xíngzhuàng 行狀), Condolences ( diàowén 弔文), and Offerings ( jì 祭). The first group of categories –

3255-543: The First Opium War , was signed in the city harbor on Royal Navy warships. As the capital of the brief-lived rebel Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the mid-19th century, Nanjing was known as Tianjing ( 天京 ; 'Heavenly Capital" or "Capital of Heaven'). The rebellion destroyed most of the former Ming imperial buildings in the city, including the Porcelain Tower , considered up to that time as one of

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3360-480: The Gruthuyse collection and with plunder from Milan . Francis I transferred the collection in 1534 to Fontainebleau and merged it with his private library. During his reign, fine bindings became the craze and many of the books added by him and Henry II are masterpieces of the binder's art. Under librarianship of Jacques Amyot , the collection was transferred to Paris and then relocated on several occasions,

3465-759: The International Military Tribunal for the Far East and the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal after the atomic bombings, was between 300,000 and 350,000. The city itself was also severely damaged during the massacre. The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall was built in 1985 to commemorate this event. A few days before the fall of the city, the National Government of China was relocated to the southwestern city Chongqing and resumed Chinese resistance. In 1940,

3570-917: The Nanjing Massacre from late 1937 to early 1938. Nanjing became the capital city of Jiangsu province in 1952, after serving as a Direct-administered Municipality from 1949 to 1952 following the establishment of the People's Republic of China. It has many important heritage sites, including the Presidential Palace , Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum . Nanjing is famous for human historical landscapes, mountains and waters such as Fuzimiao , Ming Palace , Chaotian Palace , Porcelain Tower , Drum Tower , Stone City , City Wall , Qinhuai River , Xuanwu Lake and Purple Mountain . Key cultural facilities include Nanjing Library , Nanjing Museum and Jiangsu Art Museum. The city has

3675-579: The Northern and Southern dynasties period. After the Eastern Jin fell in 420, it continued to serve as the capital for the Southern dynasties of Liu Song , Southern Qi , Liang and Chen . During this time, Jiankang was the international hub of East Asia. Based on historical documents, the city had 280,000 registered households. Assuming an average Nanjing household consisted of about 5.1 people,

3780-589: The Qianlong Emperor , Jiangnan was fully divided into the present provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu . Separately, however, these provinces were reunited under the supervision of a new Viceroy of Liangjiang after 1723, whose seat was based in Jiangning. It was the site of a Qing Army garrison. It had been visited by the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors a number of times on their tours of the southern provinces. The 1842 Treaty of Nanking , which put an end to

3885-675: The Republic of China under the nationalist Kuomintang (1927–37, 1946–49) before its flight to Taiwan by Chiang Kai-Shek during the Chinese Civil War . The city also served as the seat of the rebel Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1853–64) and the Japanese puppet regime of Wang Jingwei (1940–45) during the Second Sino-Japanese War . It suffered many notable devastating atrocities in both conflicts, most notably

3990-468: The Republic of China (1912–49) , jing ( 京 ; 'capital') was adopted as the abbreviation of Nanjing. Archaeological discovery shows that the so-called " Nanjing Man " lived more than 500,000 years ago. Zun , a kind of wine vessel, were found to exist in Beiyinyangying culture of Nanjing about 5000 years ago. About 7000 years ago, there was an agricultural civilization in the area that

4095-594: The Stone City at the site of Jinling Yi, and renamed Moling to Jianye. Jianye later became the capital of the Eastern Wu dynasty during the Three Kingdoms period, after Sun Quan proclaimed himself emperor in 229, opening Nanjing's history as a state capital. By the time Wu was conquered by the Western Jin dynasty in 280, Jianye and its neighboring areas had been well cultivated, developing into one of

4200-616: The Tang dynasty (618–907), and its study rivalled that of the Five Classics during that period. The Wen Xuan was required reading for any aspiring scholar and official even into the Song dynasty . Throughout the Yuan and Ming dynasties study of the Wen Xuan lapsed out of popularity, though the great philologists of the Qing dynasty revived its study to some extent. Three volumes of

4305-619: The Wen Xuan ' s preface, Xiao explains that four major types of Chinese writing were deliberately excluded from it: 1) the traditional "Classics" that were anciently attributed to the Duke of Zhou and Confucius , such as the Classic of Changes ( I Ching ) and the Classic of Poetry ( Shi jing ) ; 2) writings of philosophical "masters", such as the Laozi (Dao De Jing) , the Zhuangzi , and

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4410-477: The Wen Xuan in the original Chinese. In 718, during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang , a new Wen Xuan commentary by court officials Lü Yanji, Liu Liang, Zhang Xian, Lü Xiang, and Li Zhouhan entitled Collected Commentaries of the Five Officials ( Chinese : 五臣集注 ; pinyin : Wǔchén jí zhù ) was submitted to the imperial court. This "Five Officials" commentary is longer and contains more paraphrases of difficult lines than Li Shan's annotations, but

4515-481: The Wen Xuan , such as the Zhonghua Book Company 's 1977 edition and the Shanghai Guji 1986 edition. By the early 8th century the Wen Xuan had become an important text that all young men were expected to master in preparation for literary examinations. Famed poet Du Fu advised his son Du Zongwu to "master thoroughly the principles of the Wen Xuan ." Copies of the Wen Xuan were obtained by nearly all families that could afford them in order to help their sons study

4620-440: The island of Taiwan on December 10 where Taipei was proclaimed the temporary capital of the Republic of China. By late 1949, the PLA was pursuing remnants of KMT forces southwards in southern China, and only Tibet and Hainan Island were left. Biblioth%C3%A8que Nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France ( French: [biblijɔtɛk nɑsjɔnal də fʁɑ̃s] ; 'National Library of France'; BnF )

4725-422: The world's third most prolific scientific research center in chemistry and physical sciences , according to the Nature Index . Nanjing, one of the nation's most important cities for over a thousand years, is recognized as one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China . It has been one of the world's largest cities , enjoying peace and prosperity despite various wars and disasters. Nanjing served as

4830-438: The "Rhapsodies" ( fu ) and "Lyric Poetry" ( shi ), and to a lesser extent the " Chu -style Elegies" and "Sevens" – are the largest and most important of the Wen Xuan . Its 55 fu , in particular, are a "remarkably representative selection of major works", and includes most of the greatest fu masterpieces, such as Sima Xiangru 's " Fu on the Excursion Hunt of the Emperor" ( Tiānzǐ yóuliè fù 天子遊獵賦), Yang Xiong 's " Fu on

4935-450: The 1950s, including one from Dunhuang discovered in the Eisei Bunko Museum and a complete manuscript of a shorter Kujō (九條, Mandarin : Jiǔtiáo ) edition printed as early as 1099. The best known of these other editions is Collected Commentaries of the Wen Xuan ( Wénxuǎn jízhù 文選集注, Japanese : Monzen shūchū ), an edition of unknown authorship that contains some old Tang dynasty commentaries that were lost in China. Published during

5040-419: The BnF, the library of the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art (in the Saller Labrouste since 2016), and the library of the École Nationale des Chartes . It was comprehensively renovated in the 2010s and early 2020s on a design by architects Bruno Gaudin  [ fr ] and Virginie Brégal. On 14 July 1988, President François Mitterrand announced "the construction and the expansion of one of

5145-413: The Drum Tower Hospital and the boys' school would be expanded by later missionaries to become the University of Nanking and Medical School. The old mission property became the No. 13 Middle School, the oldest continually-used school grounds in the city. The Xinhai Revolution led to the founding of the Republic of China in January 1912 with Sun Yat-sen as the first provisional president and Nanjing

5250-399: The French people." A new administrative organization was established. Napoleon took great interest in the library and among other things issued an order that all books in provincial libraries not possessed by the Bibliothèque Nationale should be forwarded to it, subject to replacement by exchanges of equal value from the duplicate collections, making it possible, as Napoleon said, to find

5355-407: The Manchus in late May 1645, the Hongguang Emperor fled Nanjing, and the imperial Ming Palace was looted by local residents. On June 6, Dodo's troops approached Nanjing, and the commander of the city's garrison, Zhao the Earl of Xincheng, promptly surrendered the city to them. The Manchus soon ordered all male residents of the city to shave their heads in the Manchu queue way . They requisitioned

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5460-403: The Nanjing area. Hushu culture developed into Wu culture under the influence of the Shang and Zhou, who encroached from Central Plains. From the traditions, Taibo of Zhou came to Jiangnan and established the state of Wu during the 12th century BC. In 571 BC, the State of Chu established Tangyi in Liuhe. This is the oldest extant administrative establishment in Nanjing; as of 2024 it has

5565-513: The Qing to prepare for a final massive battle instead of swiftly attacking Nanjing. Koxinga's Ming loyalists fought against a majority Han Chinese Bannermen Qing army when attacking Nanjing. The siege lasted almost three weeks. Koxinga's forces were unable to maintain a complete encirclement, which enabled the city to obtain supplies and even reinforcements—though cavalry attacks by the city's forces were successful even before reinforcements arrived. Koxinga's forces were defeated and "slipped back" to

5670-412: The Sweet Springs Palace" ( Gān Quán fù 甘泉賦), Ban Gu 's " Fu on the Two Capitals" ( Liǎng dū fù 兩都賦), and Zhang Heng 's " Fu on the Two Metropolises" ( Èr jīng fù 二京賦). The first annotations to the Wen Xuan appeared sixty to seventy years after its publication and were produced by Xiao Tong's cousin Xiao Gai. Cao Xian , Xu Yan , Li Shan  [ zh ] , Gongsun Luo, and other scholars of

5775-405: The Terrace empty, and the river flows on. Flourishing flowers of Wu Palace are buried beneath dark trails; Caps and gowns of Jin times all lie in ancient mounds. The Three-peaked Mountain lies half visible under the blue sky, The two-forked stream is separated by the White-Egret Isle in the middle. Clouds always block the sun, Chang'an cannot be seen and I grieve. — About

5880-490: The Yongle Emperor was obliged to preserve its special status, at least in name. The "northern capital" came to be known as Beijing and the 'southern capital' as Nanjing ( 南京 ). Both controlled territories "directly administered" by the emperor and his staff, Beizhili in the north and Nanzhili in the south. The Hongxi Emperor wanted to restore Nanjing as the sole imperial capital and undertook preparations to do so. On February 24, 1425, he appointed Admiral Zheng He as

5985-449: The assistance of his closest friends and associates. Xiao was a precocious child and received an excellent classical Chinese education. His two official biographies both state that by age four he had memorized the Five Classics and at age eight gave a relatively competent lecture on the Classic of Filial Piety to a group of assembled scholars. As Xiao matured, he developed a love of scholarship and books, and by his early teenage years

6090-424: The assistance of his son Li Yong (李邕). Li's annotations, which have been termed "models of philological rigor", are some of the most exemplary in all of Chinese literature, giving accurate glosses of rare and difficult words and characters, as well as giving source information and loci classici for notable passages. His commentary is still the recognized as the most useful and important tool for reading and studying

6195-418: The capital of Eastern Wu (229–280), one of the three major states in the Three Kingdoms period; the Eastern Jin and each of the Southern dynasties ( Liu Song , Southern Qi , Liang and Chen ), which successively ruled southern China from 317 to 589; the Southern Tang (937–75), one of the Ten Kingdoms ; the Ming dynasty when, for the first time, all of China was ruled from the city (1368–1421); and

6300-408: The capital of the Republic of China, and this became internationally recognized once KMT forces took Beijing in 1928. The following decade is known as the Nanjing decade . During this decade, Nanjing was of symbolic and strategic importance. The Ming dynasty had made Nanjing a capital, the republic had been established there in 1912, and Sun Yat-sen 's provisional government had been there. Sun's body

6405-401: The city or from superstitious fear of its geomantic properties . A monument to the huge human cost of some of the gigantic construction projects of the early Ming dynasty is the Yangshan Quarry (located some 15–20 km (9–12 mi) east of the walled city and Ming Xiaoling mausoleum), where a gigantic stele , cut on the orders of the Yongle Emperor, lies abandoned. As the center of

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6510-509: The city had more than 1.4 million residents. A number of sculptural ensembles of that era, erected at the tombs of royals and other dignitaries, have survived (in various degrees of preservation) in Nanjing's northeastern and eastern suburbs, primarily in Qixia and Jiangning District . Possibly the best preserved of them is the ensemble of the Tomb of Xiao Xiu (475–518), a brother of Emperor Wu of Liang . The phoenix birds once frolicked on Phoenix Terrace, The birds are gone,

6615-436: The collection. Li Shan (李善, d. 689) was a student of Cao Xian and a minor official who served on the staff of Li Hong , a Crown Prince of the early Tang dynasty . Li had an encyclopedic knowledge of early Chinese language and literature which he used to create a detailed commentary to the Wen Xuan that he submitted to the imperial court of Emperor Gaozong of Tang in 658, though he may have later expanded and revised it with

6720-444: The commercial, cultural and political centers of China. Not long after the unification of China, the Western Jin collapsed under the weight of civil wars by eight princes and rebellions from the so-called " Five Barbarians " in the north. Jianye, renamed to Jiankang in 313 to avoid Emperor Min of Jin's taboo name , was safely isolated from the chaos and became a popular refuge for the northern nobles and wealthy families. In 318,

6825-475: The defender of Nanjing and ordered him to continue his command over the Ming treasure fleet for the city's defense. Zheng He governed the city with three eunuchs for internal matters and two military noblemen for external matters, awaiting the Hongxi Emperor's return along with the military establishment from the north. The emperor died on May 29, 1425, before this could have taken place. The succeeding Xuande Emperor preferred to remain in Beijing, leaving it

6930-400: The empire, early-Ming Nanjing had worldwide connections. It was home of the admiral Zheng He , who went to sail the Pacific and Indian Oceans , and it was visited by foreign dignitaries, such as a king from Borneo ( 渤泥 ; Bóní ), who died during his visit to China in 1408. The Tomb of the King of Boni , with a spirit way and a tortoise stele , was discovered in Yuhuatai District (south of

7035-428: The first full English translation of the Wen Xuan have been published by the American sinologist David R. Knechtges , professor emeritus of Chinese at the University of Washington , who aims to eventually complete the translation in five additional volumes. The Wen Xuan was compiled during the 520s by Xiao Tong —the son and heir apparent of Emperor Wu of Liang —at the Liang capital Jiankang (modern Nanjing ) with

7140-409: The former opulent capital Jinling (present-day Nanjing) in the poem Climbing Phoenix Terrace at Jinling by Li Bai of the Tang dynasty The period of division ended when the Sui dynasty reunified China and almost destroyed the entire city, turning it into a small town. The city was razed after the Sui took it over. It was renamed Shengzhou ( 昇州 ) in the Tang dynasty and resuscitated during

7245-421: The imperial and provincial courts. As Crown Prince, Xiao Tong received the best classical Chinese education available and began selecting pieces for his new anthology in his early twenties. The Wen Xuan contains 761 separate pieces organized into 37 literary categories, the largest and most well known being "Rhapsodies" ( fu ) and "Lyric Poetry" ( shi ). Study of the Wen Xuan enjoyed immense popularity during

7350-414: The interest of Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert , himself a dedicated collector of books. The site in the Rue de la Harpe becoming inadequate, the library was again moved, in 1666, to two adjacent houses in Rue Vivienne. After Colbert, Louis XIV's minister Louvois also took interest in the library and employed Jean Mabillon , Melchisédech Thévenot , and others to procure books from every source. In 1688,

7455-401: The largest and most modern libraries in the world, intended to cover all fields of knowledge, and designed to be accessible to all, using the most modern data transfer technologies, which could be consulted from a distance, and which would collaborate with other European libraries". Due to initial trade union opposition, a wireless network was fully installed only in August 2016. In July 1989,

7560-422: The late Sui dynasty and Tang dynasty helped promote the Wen Xuan until it became the focus of an entire branch of literature study: an early 7th century scholar from Yangzhou named Cao Xian (曹憲) produced a work entitled Pronunciation and Meaning in the Wen Xuan ( Chinese : 文選音義 ; pinyin : Wénxuǎn Yīnyì ) and the others – who were his students – each produced their own annotations to

7665-709: The late Tang. It was chosen as the capital and called Jinling ( 金陵 ) during the Southern Tang (937–976), which succeeded the state of Yang Wu . It was renamed Jiangning ( 江寧 , "Pacified Area of the Yangtze ") in the Northern Song and renamed Jiankang in the Southern Song . Jiankang's textile industry burgeoned and thrived during the Song despite the constant threat of foreign invasions from

7770-569: The library materials. Each document has a digital identifier, the so-called ARK ( Archival Resource Key ) of the National Library of France and is accompanied by a bibliographic description. Raoul Rigault , leader during the Paris Commune in 1871, was known for habitually occupying the library and reading endless copies of the newspaper Le Père Duchesne . Alain Resnais directed Toute la mémoire du monde ( transl.  All

7875-675: The library of the Eastern Palace – the Crown Prince's official residence – contained over 30,000 volumes. Xiao spent much of his leisure time in the company of the leading Chinese scholars of his day, and their serious discussions of literature impelled the creation of the Wen Xuan . His main purpose in creating the Wen Xuan was the creation of a suitable anthology of the best individual works of belles-lettres available, and he ignored philosophical works in favor of aesthetically beautiful poetry and other writings. In

7980-459: The literary styles of the works it contained. This practice continued into the Song dynasty until the imperial examination reforms of the late 11th century. In the mid-16th century, during the Ming dynasty , an abridged version of the Wen Xuan was created to help aspiring officials study composition for the eight-legged essays on Ming-era imperial exams. The Wen Xuan ( Japanese : Mon-zen )

8085-516: The most modern cities in China. In 1937, the Empire of Japan started a full-scale invasion of China after invading Manchuria in 1931, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War (often considered a theater of World War II ). Their troops occupied Nanjing in December and carried out the systematic and brutal Nanjing Massacre (the "Rape of Nanjing"). The total death toll, including estimates made by

8190-637: The north by the Jurchen -led Jin dynasty . The court of Da Chu , a short-lived puppet state established by the Jurchens, and the court of Song were once in the city. The Southern Song were eventually destroyed by the Mongols ; during their rule as the Yuan dynasty , the city's status as a hub of the textile industry was further consolidated. According to Odoric of Pordenone , Chilenfu (Nanjing) had 360 stone bridges, which were finer than anywhere else in

8295-541: The opportunity of the collapse of John Law 's Mississippi Company . The company had been relocated by Law into the former palace of Cardinal Mazarin around Hôtel Tubeuf , and its failure freed significant space in which the Library would expand (even though the Hotel Tubeuf itself would remain occupied by French East India Company and later by France's financial bureaucracy until the 1820s). Bignon also instituted

8400-503: The outskirts of the present-day Zhonghua Gate , which was the beginning of the construction of the main city of Nanjing. In 333 BC, Chu defeated Yue and built Jinling Yi ( 金陵邑 ) on in the western part of Nanjing. It was the earliest administrative construction in the main city of Nanjing. The name of Jinling comes from this. In 210 BC, the First Emperor of Qin visited the east and changed Jinling City to Moling ( 秣陵 ). The area

8505-493: The primary and de facto capital and Nanjing as permanent secondary or reserve capital. Owing to the continuing importance of the ancestral injunctions , however, Nanjing was designated in official documents as the actual capital and Beijing as a temporary capital from 1425 to 1441. In 1441, the Yingzong Emperor ordered the "provisional" ( 行在 ) prefix removed from Beijing's government seals and further ordered that

8610-537: The province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of 6,600 km (2,500 sq mi), and as of 2021 a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yangtze River Delta region, Nanjing has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture , having served as the capital of various Chinese dynasties , kingdoms and republican governments dating from the 3rd century to 1949, and has thus long been

8715-722: The radical phase of the French Revolution when the private libraries of aristocrats and clergy were seized. After the establishment of the French First Republic in September 1792, "the Assembly declared the Bibliothèque du Roi to be national property and the institution was renamed the Bibliothèque Nationale . After four centuries of control by the Crown, this great library now became the property of

8820-760: The reign of Emperor Zhezong of Song , in the second lunar month of 1094, the Youzhou Prefecture Study Book contained the first compilation of the annotations of both the Five Officials and Li Shan. The later Annotations of the Six Scholars edition (i.e. the Five Officials and Li Shan), such as Guang Dupei's woodblock printing and the Mingzhou printing was the most well-known edition of the Youzhou book. Another edition, called

8925-671: The royal library founded at the Louvre Palace by Charles V in 1368. Charles had received a collection of manuscripts from his predecessor, John II , and transferred them to the Louvre from the Palais de la Cité . The first librarian of record was Claude Mallet, the king's valet de chambre, who made a sort of catalogue, Inventoire des Livres du Roy nostre Seigneur estans au Chastel du Louvre . Jean Blanchet made another list in 1380 and Jean de Bégue one in 1411 and another in 1424. Charles V

9030-599: The ruling prince in Jiankang, Sima Rui proclaimed himself the new emperor and reestablished the dynasty as the Eastern Jin dynasty . This marked the first time a Chinese dynastic capital was moved from the north to southern China , as the north came under the rule of the Sixteen Kingdoms . Jiankang was the centre of administration in the south for more than two and a half centuries, even as China entered

9135-536: The services of the architectural firm of Dominique Perrault were retained. The design was recognized with the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture in 1996. The construction was carried out by Bouygues . Construction of the library ran into huge cost overruns and technical difficulties related to its high-rise design, so much so that it was referred to as the "TGB" or " Très Grande Bibliothèque " ( lit.   ' Very Large Library ' ,

9240-540: The ships which had brought them. Under the Qing dynasty from 1645 to 1911, Nanjing returned to its previous name Jiangning . At first, it continued to administer the territory of Nanzhili under the name Jiangnan ("Area South of the Yangtze") but this administration was soon broken up into "Right" and "Left" governments based in Suzhou and Jiangning respectively. After a series of reorganizations, at some point under

9345-455: The southern imperial administration would henceforth be required to prefix "Nanjing" to their own seals to distinguish them. Besides the city wall, other Ming-era structures in the city included the famous Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum and Porcelain Tower , although the latter was destroyed by the Taipings in the 19th century either to prevent a hostile faction from using it to observe and shell

9450-411: The spelling as "Nanjing". During the Qing dynasty , the city was called Jiangning ( 江寧 ; Kiang-ning ), whose first character jiang ( Chinese : 江 ; pinyin : jiāng ; lit. 'river', i.e. the Yangtze ) is the former part of the name Jiangsu and second character ning ( 寧 , simplified form 宁 ; 'peace') is the shortened name of Nanjing. When it was the capital of

9555-767: The title of 2008 Habitat Scroll of Honor of China, Special UN Habitat Scroll of Honor Award and National Civilized City. Nanjing is also considered a Beta (global second-tier) city classification, together with Chongqing , Hangzhou and Tianjin by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network , and ranked as one of the world's top 100 cities in the Global Financial Centres Index . As of 2021, Nanjing has 68 institutions of higher learning, including 13 double-first-class universities , ten 111-plan universities, eight 211 universities , and 97 academies. Nanjing University , which has

9660-494: The use of the Rue de Richelieu complex for some of its collections. The Manuscripts department houses the largest collection of medieval and modern manuscripts worldwide. The collection includes medieval chansons de geste and chivalric romances , eastern literature, eastern and western religions, ancient history, scientific history, and literary manuscripts by Pascal, Diderot, Apollinaire, Proust, Colette, Sartre, etc. The collection

9765-652: The walled city) in 1958, and has been restored. Over two centuries after the removal of the capital to Beijing, Nanjing was destined to become the capital of a Ming emperor one more time. After the fall of Beijing to Li Zicheng 's rebel forces and then to the Manchu -led Qing dynasty in the spring of 1644, the Ming prince Zhu Yousong was enthroned in Nanjing in June 1644 as the Hongguang Emperor. His short reign

9870-557: The wonders of the world. Both the Qing viceroy and the Taiping king resided in buildings that would later be known as the Presidential Palace . When Qing forces led by Zeng Guofan retook the city in 1864, a massive slaughter occurred in the city with over 100,000 estimated to have committed suicide or fought to the death. Since the Taiping Rebellion began, Qing forces allowed no rebels speaking its dialect to surrender. This

9975-677: The world, although it has since been surpassed by other libraries for that title. By 1920, the library's collection had grown to 4,050,000 volumes and 11,000 manuscripts. In 2024, the library removed four 19th-century books from its public access, namely two volumes of The Ballads of Ireland published in 1855, a bilingual anthology of Romanian poetry dating from 1856, and book of the Royal Horticultural Society published between 1862 and 1863, after tests indicated that their covers and bindings were coloured using green pigments containing arsenic . The Richelieu site occupies

10080-570: The world. It was well populated and had a large craft industry. After Zhu Yuanzhang (known from his era as the Hongwu Emperor ) overthrew the Yuan and established the Ming dynasty , he renamed the city Yingtian ( 應天 ) , rebuilt it, and made it the dynastic capital in 1368, overseeing the surrounding areas under a special administration. The Hongwu Emperor constructed a 48 km (30 mi) long city wall around Yingtian , as well as

10185-460: Was a patron of learning and encouraged the making and collection of books. It is known that he employed Nicholas Oresme , Raoul de Presles (conseiller de Charles V)  [ fr ] , and others to transcribe ancient texts. At the death of Charles VI , this first collection was unilaterally bought by the English regent of France, the Duke of Bedford , who transferred it to England in 1424. It

10290-448: Was apparently dispersed at his death in 1435. Charles VII did little to repair the loss of these books, but the invention of printing resulted in the starting of another collection in the Louvre inherited by Louis XI in 1461. Charles VIII seized a part of the collection of the kings of Aragon . Louis XII , who had inherited the library at Blois , incorporated the latter into the Bibliothèque du Roi and further enriched it with

10395-719: Was brought and placed in a grand mausoleum to cement Chiang's legitimacy. Chiang was born in the neighboring province of Zhejiang and the general area had strong popular support for him. In 1927, the Nationalist government proposed a comprehensive planning proposal, the Capital Plan ( 首都計劃 ), to reconstruct the war-torn city of Nanjing into a modern capital. It was a decade of extraordinary growth with an enormous amount of construction. A lot of government buildings, residential houses, and modern public infrastructures were built. During this boom, Nanjing reputedly became one of

10500-464: Was described by later historians as the first reign of the so-called Southern Ming dynasty . Zhu Yousong, however, fared a lot worse than his ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang three centuries earlier. Beset by factional conflicts, his regime could not offer effective resistance to Qing forces, when the Qing army, led by the Manchu prince Dodo approached Jiangnan the next spring. Days after Yangzhou fell to

10605-542: Was one of two historically significant instances of systematic civilian massacres in Nanjing, the other one was the Houjing Disturbance of the 6th century. The New York Methodist Mission Society's superintendent Virgil Hart arrived in Nanjing in 1881. After some time, he succeeded in buying land near the city's Southern Gate and Confucian Temple to build the city's first Methodist church, Western hospital and boys' school. The hospital would later be unified with

10710-404: Was renamed Jiankang . Nanjing is also called Jincheng ( 金城 , Golden City), derived from Jinling City. The name Nanjing , which means "southern capital", was officially designated for the city during the Ming dynasty , about six hundred years later. In English, the spelling Nanking was traditional until pinyin , developed in the 1950s and internationally adopted in the 1980s, standardized

10815-541: Was selected as its new capital. However, the Qing Empire controlled large regions to the north, so the revolutionaries asked Yuan Shikai to replace Sun as president in exchange for the abdication of Puyi , the last emperor. Yuan demanded the capital be moved to Beijing (closer to his power base). In 1927, the Kuomintang (KMT; Nationalist Party) under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek again established Nanjing as

10920-532: Was successively part of Kuaiji , Zhang and Danyang prefectures in Qin and Han dynasty, and part of Yangzhou region which was established as the nation's 13 supervisory and administrative regions in the 5th year of Yuanfeng in Han dynasty (106   BC). Nanjing was later the capital city of Danyang Prefecture, and had been the capital city of Yangzhou for about 400 years from late Han to early Tang . Six Dynasties

11025-525: Was transmitted to Japan sometime after its initial publication and had become required reading for the Japanese aristocracy by the Heian period . Admired for its beauty, many terms from the Wen Xuan made their way into Japanese as loanwords and are still used. Nanjing Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu province in eastern China . The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of

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