Imperial Library of Southern Sung (1127-1279) My Dads Defining Work by Dan Winkelman
My Dad’s PhD thesis was called “Imperial Library of Southern Sung” it was published in 1974 by the American Philosophical Society which is located at 104 South Street / 5th Street in Philadelphia, near Independence Square (behind Old City Hall and next to Independence Hall). The publication is called “Transactions” which is the oldest scholarly journal in America and was started in 1769 by Benjamin Franklin.
The initial research was done while Dad was a PhD student at University of Chicago. He was able to conduct this research with a wife and four children because he received a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies. Our family lived in the poor section of Chicago (South Side), their small apartment was located next to a “chop shop” where they took apart stolen cars. In addition to the grant money they were supported by our Mom grading papers. She ran the whole house, took care of the kids and helped Dad with his research (typing / editing his papers), they were generally happy with this relationship. Mom tells a story about my Dad taking us all out to Howard Johnsons for a “blue plate dinner” but she knew they did not have enough money for all six family members to eat; he ordered 3 blue plate specials which was just enough food and we likely enjoyed the special treat of eating out.
The whole family went to Asia (Kyoto Japan / Taipei Taiwan) for two years because he received the prestigious Ford scholarship to complete the research. This was in 1969, I was two, Jacqueline was four, Heidi was six and John was eight. Instead of flying we took an ocean liner both ways, the grant money was allocated for 9 months but my parents stretched it out for 18 months (9 months in each country). To get to Asia, we took a train from Chicago to California, then we took a Japanese government ship which purpose was to promote trade between the two countries. To get back to the states we took a Chinese ocean liner to San Francisco then flew a new type of plane, it was a 747 Jumbo Jet to New York City.
My Uncle Sal picked us at the airport, my parents were broke with $11 to their name but happy. My father traveled to upstate NY where he landed a job teaching library science at Geneseo State University. My mother recalls him calling her with a description of Geneseo, “small village with dogs sleeping on the porches”. It was a great place to raise a family, and my father fell into the lazy academic life with ease, walking 30 minutes to teach class, he was often home reading a book in the yard with our golden retriever Ichiban (means #1 in Japanese) when I came home from school.
In many ways this research defined by father’s career, growing up with my parents there was lots of Asian themed dinner parties (dumplings were often served) where both my parents enjoyed sharing stories from Asia with their academic peers and other bibliophiles. My parents stayed in Geneseo until all the children finished high school, then they relocated to New Haven CT because Dad lost his tenured position, having to reinvent himself as an accountant / controller. I remember him telling me he was done with academia instead he was going to focus on business, but when he started accounting classes (he was always in school and we always had to move his books around!), he purchased a book on the history of accounting with an Egyptian on the cover, try as he may he was a life-long academic with a curious mind who loved learning new things.
Dad’s Research
I took the time to read the publication while on vacation in France and found it to be very readable, as it’s a solid piece of work. If you don’t have time to read this paper here are the things that I found interesting.
The library studied was in the historic city of Hang-chou located on a river in a tropical climate from 1127 to 1279. The publication goes into detail about how the publications had to be aired out once a year to stop mildew, how the books which were often copies were written on yellow paper (Imperial paper), had tags and silk covers.
These libraries where often destroyed in rebellions and had to be rebuilt when the rebellions were suppressed or when the new dynasty came to power. When things stabilized the libraries were rebuilt often using books from private collections that were copied or purchased. Even when there was a new dynasty they seemed to take care to collect the writings of the previous dynasty as opposed to other historic cultures (Pharaohs of Egypt) that often tried to erase previous rulers.
I was surprised by the level of organization for a society that operated 900 years ago, for example Dad describes the different Imperial organizations that the emperor utilized, one was called the “Bureau of Bells & Drums”.
The imperial library collection was heavily influenced by Confucianism. Key books included in the library collection were recommended by Confucius and his followers. The people who ran the library and worked in it had to pass the civil service exams, the leaders often had high scores on this test. This structure is very different from other historic societies that often-had positions passed through family members or guilds.
The recruitment examinee had to read and write 300 characters from the “Book of Poetry” with less than 10 errors. In this way the Chinese system was able to identify the best talent for government jobs. In the appendix of the research publication it lists the annual number of people who passed this test (ranges from 380 – 537 per year) with the highest scorer’s name being documented for the ages, highlighted as the “laureate”.
The research also goes into detail about how the collection was maintained with books copied from private collections which were borrowed by the public. The books usually stayed in the library, although they were not supposed to take out the books from the library there was evidence that it did happen. The layout of the library was illustrated by my Mom, in the enclosed hand drawn map this is very impressive given this was done in the age before computer illustration; I think you will agree that it’s an impressive level of detail. The main point highlighted in this thesis was that this allowed for an exchange of thought between the government and the public sector which was unique in historical societies.
Overall the conclusion of this research was that the library was a “worthy symbol of a great era”. The history of this library intertwined with the family trip to Asia in a time when East and West were not as connected is worth remembering.
Dan Winkelman
Downingtown PA
Dec./22/2018
Revised on 2/23/19 after Mom found 7 typos + one content suggestion, she still graded me an A+
The initial research was done while Dad was a PhD student at University of Chicago. He was able to conduct this research with a wife and four children because he received a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies. Our family lived in the poor section of Chicago (South Side), their small apartment was located next to a “chop shop” where they took apart stolen cars. In addition to the grant money they were supported by our Mom grading papers. She ran the whole house, took care of the kids and helped Dad with his research (typing / editing his papers), they were generally happy with this relationship. Mom tells a story about my Dad taking us all out to Howard Johnsons for a “blue plate dinner” but she knew they did not have enough money for all six family members to eat; he ordered 3 blue plate specials which was just enough food and we likely enjoyed the special treat of eating out.
The whole family went to Asia (Kyoto Japan / Taipei Taiwan) for two years because he received the prestigious Ford scholarship to complete the research. This was in 1969, I was two, Jacqueline was four, Heidi was six and John was eight. Instead of flying we took an ocean liner both ways, the grant money was allocated for 9 months but my parents stretched it out for 18 months (9 months in each country). To get to Asia, we took a train from Chicago to California, then we took a Japanese government ship which purpose was to promote trade between the two countries. To get back to the states we took a Chinese ocean liner to San Francisco then flew a new type of plane, it was a 747 Jumbo Jet to New York City.
My Uncle Sal picked us at the airport, my parents were broke with $11 to their name but happy. My father traveled to upstate NY where he landed a job teaching library science at Geneseo State University. My mother recalls him calling her with a description of Geneseo, “small village with dogs sleeping on the porches”. It was a great place to raise a family, and my father fell into the lazy academic life with ease, walking 30 minutes to teach class, he was often home reading a book in the yard with our golden retriever Ichiban (means #1 in Japanese) when I came home from school.
In many ways this research defined by father’s career, growing up with my parents there was lots of Asian themed dinner parties (dumplings were often served) where both my parents enjoyed sharing stories from Asia with their academic peers and other bibliophiles. My parents stayed in Geneseo until all the children finished high school, then they relocated to New Haven CT because Dad lost his tenured position, having to reinvent himself as an accountant / controller. I remember him telling me he was done with academia instead he was going to focus on business, but when he started accounting classes (he was always in school and we always had to move his books around!), he purchased a book on the history of accounting with an Egyptian on the cover, try as he may he was a life-long academic with a curious mind who loved learning new things.
Dad’s Research
I took the time to read the publication while on vacation in France and found it to be very readable, as it’s a solid piece of work. If you don’t have time to read this paper here are the things that I found interesting.
The library studied was in the historic city of Hang-chou located on a river in a tropical climate from 1127 to 1279. The publication goes into detail about how the publications had to be aired out once a year to stop mildew, how the books which were often copies were written on yellow paper (Imperial paper), had tags and silk covers.
These libraries where often destroyed in rebellions and had to be rebuilt when the rebellions were suppressed or when the new dynasty came to power. When things stabilized the libraries were rebuilt often using books from private collections that were copied or purchased. Even when there was a new dynasty they seemed to take care to collect the writings of the previous dynasty as opposed to other historic cultures (Pharaohs of Egypt) that often tried to erase previous rulers.
I was surprised by the level of organization for a society that operated 900 years ago, for example Dad describes the different Imperial organizations that the emperor utilized, one was called the “Bureau of Bells & Drums”.
The imperial library collection was heavily influenced by Confucianism. Key books included in the library collection were recommended by Confucius and his followers. The people who ran the library and worked in it had to pass the civil service exams, the leaders often had high scores on this test. This structure is very different from other historic societies that often-had positions passed through family members or guilds.
The recruitment examinee had to read and write 300 characters from the “Book of Poetry” with less than 10 errors. In this way the Chinese system was able to identify the best talent for government jobs. In the appendix of the research publication it lists the annual number of people who passed this test (ranges from 380 – 537 per year) with the highest scorer’s name being documented for the ages, highlighted as the “laureate”.
The research also goes into detail about how the collection was maintained with books copied from private collections which were borrowed by the public. The books usually stayed in the library, although they were not supposed to take out the books from the library there was evidence that it did happen. The layout of the library was illustrated by my Mom, in the enclosed hand drawn map this is very impressive given this was done in the age before computer illustration; I think you will agree that it’s an impressive level of detail. The main point highlighted in this thesis was that this allowed for an exchange of thought between the government and the public sector which was unique in historical societies.
Overall the conclusion of this research was that the library was a “worthy symbol of a great era”. The history of this library intertwined with the family trip to Asia in a time when East and West were not as connected is worth remembering.
Dan Winkelman
Downingtown PA
Dec./22/2018
Revised on 2/23/19 after Mom found 7 typos + one content suggestion, she still graded me an A+
