Yang Shoujing (1839-1915) was born in Yidu, Hubei Province. Juren in the first year of Tongzhi (1862). From 188 to 1884, Guangxu sent an embassy attache to Japan. In 1914, he was hired by Yuan Shikai as a consultant and participated in the political affairs of the Senate.
Yang Shoujing was fond of books since he was a child, but he failed to become an official. Yang Shoujing was elected at the age of twenty-four, and at the age of forty-eight in the twelfth year of Guangxu, he tried to be a scholar for seven times, but he finally fell out of the list because of bad luck. Nevertheless, every time he went to Beijing for an examination, he took the opportunity to travel around the Jingshi Bookstore and extensively collected ancient books and inscriptions, thus laying the foundation for his catalogue edition and epigraphy.
In March of the 6th year of Guangxu, Yang Shoujing failed in the sixth meeting. In desperation, he was invited by Japanese Minister He Ruzhang to be sent to Japan as an embassy attache in the summer of next year. At that time, at the time of the Reform, Japan advocated new learning and abandoned old learning. Classical Chinese books were even regarded as a symbol of backwardness and were thrown away at will. So Yang Shoujing was able to buy a lot of rare books and cheats that have been lost in China. Yang Shoujing also met a Japanese doctor named Mori Lizhi, who was also a bibliophile. Yang Shoujing couldn't put it down when he saw several copies of rare books and shadows he copied in Mori's place. Mori's opinion was that Yang Shoujing loved them so much and gave them generously, while Yang Shoujing got inspiration from them, and made up the sample of the Song and Yuan secret books he visited in Japan, which was later engraved and published, and was called "Liuzhen Spectrum", thus creating an epoch-making book shadow precedent in ancient book edition. Sen Lizhi also gave Yang Shoujing a copy of "Visiting Ancient Records through Classics". Since then, it has been more convenient for Yang Shoujing to visit by order. In just one year, he has purchased more than 3, volumes of ancient books.
A year later, Li Shuchang succeeded He Ruzhang as the ambassador to Japan. Li Shuchang (1837-1897), Chun Zhai, was born in Zunyi, Guizhou Province, and served as the ambassador to Japan twice in Guangxu. Li Shuchang is also a good scholar of ancient times. When he heard that Yang Shoujing visited many ancient books that have been lost in China, he was very moved. He entrusted Yang Shoujing to engrave the Ancient Yi Series on the basis of searching ancient books, so Yang Shoujing became more enthusiastic about visiting the ancient times. Yang Shoujing was originally good at calligraphy and painting. When he went to Japan, he brought more than 13, copies of tablets of Han, Wei, Six Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties. Using these tablets, Yang Shoujing not only spread the art of Chinese calligraphy to Japan, but also was known as the "father of modern Japanese calligraphy and Taoism", and exchanged them for many rare books that money could not buy. From the eighth year to the tenth year of Guangxu, Yang Shoujing assisted Li Shuchang to carve "Guyi Series", with 26 kinds of * * * and 2 volumes, most of which were lost in China at that time.
in the tenth year of Guangxu, Yang Shoujing returned to China with all the books he had visited in Japan, and in the fourteenth year of Guangxu, he built a garden in Huangzhou, Hubei Province, named "Neighboring the Soviet Union", because it was adjacent to Su Dongpo's former residence. In the 29th year of Guangxu reign, Yang Shoujing built the Sea View Hall in Wuchang, and moved the book to Wuchang. During the Revolution of 1911, Yang Shoujing took refuge in Shanghai, but his books were not shipped out. At that time, at the request of Nishiyuki, the Japanese Consul Temple in Hankou, Governor Li Yuanhong issued an enlightenment to protect Yang Shoujing's books: "If you take pictures of civilized countries, you will be proud of your country if you don't care to preserve them. It is hereby found that Yang Shen is respectful and has hundreds of thousands of ancient books, and all our compatriots should try their best to protect them. If anyone dares to damage or steal with intent, he will be prosecuted immediately upon detection. "Yang Shen is a learned man, and his compatriots should cherish him. * * * does his duty of protection, and pays attention to the rural sages by preserving ancient books." Yang Shoujing, who was seventy years old at that time, was deeply moved. In the first year of the Republic of China, Yang Shoujing transported the surviving books from Wuchang to Shanghai.
Yang Shoujing has never been a scholar in his life, but he is quite famous in academic circles. Yang's academic achievements are attributed to the study of the earth, and he is known as a historical geographer who opened a new era of geography. Second, epigraphy, in Yang's collection, epigraphy has always been a very important part; Third, edition bibliography, Yang Shoujing has hundreds of thousands of volumes of books, including tens of thousands of unique books in the country. In the 23rd year of Guangxu, Yang Shoujing published a record of all kinds of rare and secret ancient books he saw during his visit to Japan, which had a great influence on bibliography. Yang Shoujing also had a volume of 32 quatrains, which was written under the pseudonyms "Hui Tang" and "Wang Baoxin" in 1913.
In the third year of the Republic of China, Yang Shoujing was hired as a consultant of Yuan Shikai, and these books were moved to Beijing with Yang Shoujing. Most of them are now hidden in the Palace Museum in Taiwan.