Rare Chinese ancient texts collected in Japan Photo: PROVIDED TO CSST

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The year 2025 marks the sixth anniversary of the Global Integration of Chinese Ancient Books project, an initiative dedicated to locating, copying, digitizing, compiling, and studying ancient Chinese books scattered abroad, with the ultimate goal of building an open-access database for all.

On Feb. 14, Zheng Jiewen, director of the International Sinological Research Center at Shandong University (SDU) and chief expert of the Integration project, returned from the Spring Festival holiday and pressed on with his mission to collect ancient Chinese classics dispersed overseas.

In 2013, Zheng led a team to design the foundational framework and implementation plan for the Integration project, building on the Zihai Compilation and Research Project, a major initiative of the National Social Science Fund. The project’s aim was to expand the scope of ancient book compilation and research beyond zi (treatises) to include all four major categories of ancient Chinese texts: jing (classics), shi (histories), zi, and ji (anthologies). By identifying ancient Chinese literature outside of China, reproducing, publishing, organizing, and studying the versions not available on the Chinese mainland, the project seeks to enhance the collection system for ancient Chinese texts. Its broader goals include supporting cultural development, facilitating international cultural exchanges, and providing valuable research data for sinologists worldwide. In 2018, the project was incorporated into the Chinese Ancient Books Protection Plan as a national key cultural initiative.

Zheng told CSST that the core tasks of the project include investigation and cataloging, replication and return, sorting and collation, research on ancient Chinese texts and sinology, and database construction. Each task is managed by a specialized team within the project.

After years of concerted effort, the Integration project has achieved significant progress. The investigation and cataloging team has surveyed more than 2,000 libraries, gaining an initial understanding of the storage and collection of over 1 million ancient Chinese books abroad. In various regions, 132 teams have been established to manually inspect and catalog Chinese classics housed in 613 libraries. They have also completed the inspection and cataloging of 500,000 entries from 92 libraries, including 10,000 Chinese documents collected in North Korea.

The replication and return team has cross-referenced and identified 3,490 categories of classics missing from the Chinese mainland, facilitated the return of 1,875 categories, and published 1,045 of the missing categories.

The sorting and collation team, led by Wang Chenglue, director of the Ancient Books Research Institute at SDU, has organized and cataloged 185 volumes of academically valuable rare books collected abroad, finalizing 96 volumes.

In recent years, the call for recovering Chinese cultural treasures has garnered increasing international support, facilitating the return of ancient documents as part of the Integration project. China’s friendly relationships with many countries have also played a significant role in this endeavor. In 2024, Li Shucai, president of SDU, led a delegation to visit the National Library of France and presented the library with a collection of rare Chinese books stored in Europe, a direct outcome of the Integration project. The visit also led to an agreement for further cooperation between the two institutions.

Thanks to nearly 1,000 participants in the Integration project, 1,875 categories of ancient literature have been returned to China in copy or digitized forms. Their sustained efforts over six years have restored unique or fragmented volumes, enriching the cultural landscape of the Chinese nation. As Zheng stated, every participant understood from the outset that this is not just an academic task, but a cultural mission to trace and preserve the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization.

According to Zheng, the future focus of the Integration project will be on further investigating, cataloging, and returning ancient Chinese books scattered overseas, particularly in closed libraries, such as temples in Japan, Europe, and other regions. Despite the many challenges, team members are confident that, with persistent effort, the comprehensive return of ancient Chinese books worldwide—expected to significantly enrich research in relevant fields—will eventually be realized.

Edited by CHEN MIRONG