The publication forum of two books Continuation Collection of the Works of Literary Families of the Qing Dynasty and Descriptions of Collection of the Works of Literary Families of Qing Dynasty (PHOTO: CSSN)

On Nov. 26, the publication forum of two books Continuation Collection of the Works of Literary Families of the Qing Dynasty and Descriptions of Collection of the Works of Literary Families of Qing Dynasty was held at Nanjing University. Scholars discussed the research significance and future development of the collection of works of literary families.

Works of literary families can be a collection of works of one generation in the family, or two or three or even dozens of generations. Scholars at the forum said these collections are valuable in terms of learning and reflecting family virtues, inspiring later generations, passing on family affections, strengthening family inertia, seeking the characteristics, and development clues of family literature and revealing the literary activities of family members. 

Reflections of civic life

Xu Yanping, a professor from the College of Arts at Nanjing University, said family collections are material carriers for preserving the family’s cultural memory. They contain relatively rich family stories and literature. Many works of the Qing Dynasty family collections have not been circulated in a separate edition and have limited scope for dissemination. The systematic compilation of the family collections from the Qing Dynasty can provide first-hand information for the study of family literature and culture.

Zhu Wanshu, a professor from the School of Arts at Renmin University of China, said in terms of social impact, society is composed of families. In each family, family writings recorded and passed down family virtues and knowledge. Their compilation and publication are of great importance to the formation of the present scholarly society. 

Family collections are closely tied to county or town collection. Fan Jinmin, a professor of history from Nanjing University, said regional culture is mainly composed of various family cultures. Family traditions, virtues and knowledge can be found in family collections as well as genealogies and epitaphs. In addition, from a historical perspective, Fan said family works embody not only literary and cultural values, but also knowledge about the history of family, culture and society, as well as significance of social management. A large number of home correspondence and memorials to the emperor reflected the national economy and the people’s livelihoods at that time.

Chen Guanghong, a professor from the Institute of Ancient Books Collection at Fudan University, said the collection and study of family writings facilitate research on ancient history and sociology. First, these writings can further influence the approaches to researching ancient literature. In the past, literature paid more attention to the relationship between individuals and the times and between individuals and traditions. Now the collection brings a spatial turn to the study of ancient literature. Second, the collation and research of family works can help scholars today to understand literary development and literature’s position and function in the life of ancient people in a concrete social context. 

Concrete social context

In addition to showing the ties between generations of family members, family collections also reveal social networks based on geographical and professional similarities, in order to demonstrate the concrete historical background of Chinese literary development, said Zhang Jian, a research fellow from the Institute of Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He pointed out that the ultimate goal of conducting research on family works should not be confined to explaining the literary phenomenon of one clan and one place, but making the family collection into a window to show the overall style of Chinese literature and culture.

Jiang Qingbo, a professor from the School of Liberal Arts at Nanjing Normal University, suggested that we should make appropriate use of family collections to conduct a comparative study of different literary works, such as the study of the relationship between family works and local poetry collections, the study of differences between family collections and an anthology of an author’s works, to expand the space for literary research. 

Huang Xiangong, director of the Historical Documentation Center of Shanghai Library, said the compilation, publication and study of family collections have greatly promoted the study of literature and literary development. Family collections provide a good perspective for understanding literary history. In terms of the social development in the Qing Dynasty, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces used to be the cultural center, with the largest number of family-based publications. Scholars in the region can use the family works to build a new literary history, such as the history of Jiangnan (regions south of the Yangtze River) literature, thus presenting a new approach for Chinese literary history.