Foreign Books

NL houses approximately 246,000 volumes of historical foreign language books, accounting for 64.1% of all  foreign language collections ,which  include the foreign books and periodicals taken over from the former National Central Library, the Library of Central University of Political Science, the Library of East Asia Tongwen Academy and the British Cultural Committee. Among them there are a considerable number of   17-19th century European publications written in French, English, Spanish and Portuguese, focusing on humanities such as philosophy, religions, history, geography, arts ect., with some especially mentioning Chinese philosophy, religions, history, and customs at that time. These books usually were taken to china or sometimes written by foreign priests, merchants, missionaries and explorers.

The oldest book among these collections is Histore de la Gverre des Tastares Contre la Chine, edited by Martin.p in 1654 (the Shunzhi reign in Qing dynasty). Besides, scores of books are worth mentioning. They are:

“The History 0f That Great and Renowned  Monarchy of China” by Seme De，F Alvare in 1655 (the Shunzhi reign of Qing dynasty), 

“Memories and Observation——Made in Late Journey through the Empire 0f China” by Compte,Louis Le in 1697 (the Kangxi reign of Qing dynasty),

“A Description of the Empire of China & Chinese—Tastant．together with the Kingdoms of  Korea & Tibet，containing the geography ＆ history  of the countries” by Du Halde，P．F．B．in 1738 (the Qianlong reign of Qing dynasty),

“Yu Le Grandet  Confucious，Historie Chine” by Chece M. in 1769 (the Qianlong reign of Qin dynasty) and so on.

NL also acquired many precious  historical foreign books through world exchanging and collecting conducted by International Publication Exchange Office of Educational Ministry (formerly International Exchange Bureau of Publications) . In 1934 the National Central Library exchanged with foreign countries the photocopies of Si Ku Quan Shu for a considerable number of foreign language books on China. These books have made contribution to the study on Chinese politics and diplomacy. They include the Buddhist books: “Chinese Buddhism” by Joseph Edikins in 1879, “Buddhism in China” by Beal S. in 1884; the biographies “The Life and Works of Mencius” by Legge James in 1875; the travels “A　voyage to China and East” by Peter Osber in 1771, “Travels in China…Peking to Canton” by John Barrow in 1804, “Diary of Pedestrian in Cashmere and Tibet” by Captain Knight in 1863.