Personal Introduction
Shuge is a site for downloading ancient book materials, with regular updates and maintenance producing many high-quality ancient books that you can download directly here.
The Global Chinese Classics Image Integration Open System is a collection of various sites (official/civilian). You can come here to search for the materials you want to download, then jump to the website that hosts those materials.
For example, like this
Official Introduction of Shuge
Shuge (Shuge.org) is a freely open online ancient book library. It is dedicated to open sharing, introducing, and recommending valuable ancient rare books, and encourages digitizing and archiving cultural and artistic works. The shared content is limited to books in the public domain (referencing the Berne Convention [2]); we restore as faithfully as possible the appearance and content of the books; through this project, everyone can freely and freely enjoy those books difficult to access in the present world. So that everyone can feel the process of human civilization.
The books published by Shuge are mainly in high-definition color image PDF formats, with most books having single-page widths over 1400 pixels, and double-page widths over 2400 pixels. The publication dates of the books range from Song and Yuan dynasty precious editions, Ming and Qing dynasty rare editions, to modern editions.
Where possible, for the same book, we try to prioritize publication quality and time, selecting the best resources among similar editions for sharing and introduction. Some books list excellent resources of different versions for comparison. In terms of content, we try to select rare editions with high appreciation and reading value, so we prefer: art, image, rarity categories, as well as some books with relatively high printing quality.
Shuge’s Eleventh Anniversary Report, and Introduction to the Global Chinese Classics Image Integration Open System
Here we are! Hello everyone, today is the eleventh anniversary of our website. This year we have felt the chill of the overall environment, making progress increasingly difficult. We have also felt the impact brought by artificial intelligence, with both surprises and concerns. No matter how the environment changes, we firmly continue advancing. As usual, we continue reporting and summarizing Shuge’s related status. Our main title this year is: Eleventh Anniversary, With Perseverance and a Heavy Burden on the Long Road.
With Perseverance, A Heavy Burden on the Long Road
Main title: With Perseverance taken from the Analects, Chapter Taibo
Zengzi said: “A scholar must have perseverance; the burden is heavy and the road is long. To take benevolence as one’s responsibility, isn’t that a heavy burden? To work until death, isn’t that a long road?”
Rough translation
Zengzi said: “A person with aspiration cannot but cultivate strong will, for the responsibility is heavy and the road is long. Taking benevolence as one’s own responsibility, isn’t such a responsibility very heavy? Striving for the ideal for a lifetime, isn’t such a road very long?"
In recent years, the number of digital documents released by related institutions at home and abroad has increased. With the help of Professor Tang Chen and his team’s development of the Global Chinese Classics Image Open Integration System, we can easily understand the situation of Chinese classics published online worldwide. Through these data, the contrast is obvious:
Currently published ancient book digital files in quantity, quality, and ease of open access are mostly overseas. Domestic institutions (including Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan) mostly publish digital files seeming like last century’s products, with low page resolution and large watermarks. There is hardly any mention of open access. The National Library of China has made some improvements in recent years, canceling login requirements and publishing some high-definition original color resources. On the contrary, some institutions in Taiwan and Hong Kong have started to regress. For so-called “copyright” protection, defensive technologies keep renewing: if one watermark is insufficient, add two; if one access restriction is insufficient, add another…
Professor Du Zexiong said: Many libraries are unwilling to put their ancient book digital resources online, not embodying “benevolence” nor “righteousness.”
…
Many many libraries still don’t want to put their ancient book digital resources online, while the units and individuals who do not externally mount ancient book resources and their staff use online information every day, using hundreds of thousands or millions of ancient book image resources put online by others, but they themselves are unwilling to put what they have online; this does not embody either “benevolence” or “righteousness,” definitely not. …
(Excerpted from Du Zexiong: Outstanding Traditional Chinese Culture and “Loyalty, Filial Piety, Integrity, and Righteousness”)
Outstanding traditional culture is an inexhaustible resource for national development. By opening and spreading outstanding traditional culture, the flower of civilization can bear new fruits, allowing us to have more cultural confidence. Although the road is still long, as long as we move forward, we are connected to “benevolence and righteousness.”
Official Introduction of the Global Chinese Classics Image Integration Open System
Website Positioning
- Scale: self-built search engine, integrated cataloging of all global publicly published ancient book images.
- Continuity: phased construction, with at least one routine data update each year.
- Public Welfare: as a core infrastructure of “digital bibliography,” insist on free provision for scholars (especially students) and public enthusiasts.
Update News
- 20231003: Added more than ten search engine interfaces (thanks to Shuge webmaster Weiceng for providing information). — Tang Chen
- 20231004: Added data from some Japanese universities (thanks to student Dai Xinmeng for assistance). — Tang Chen
- 20231007: Fixed front-end filter code bug (thanks to Souyun webmaster Chen Yiyun for information). — Tang Chen
- 20231125: Corrected erroneous labeling of Vietnamese literature sources (thanks to Professor Liu Yujun of Southwest Jiaotong University for information). — Tang Chen
- 20240129: Routine data update. Deleted 3,967 volumes from the Taiwan Normal University Library with image resolution too low to utilize. — Tang Chen
- 20240201: Second phase concentrated update, data volume increased from 170,000 entries to 307,000 entries, actual cataloging 500,000 entries (210,000 ancient books and 280,000 volumes). — Tang Chen
- 20240205: Data error fixes. — Tang Chen
- 20240207: Optimized front-end structured data presentation to further protect the intellectual property of the holding institutions. — Tang Chen
- 20240220: Fixed code bugs. — Tang Chen
- 20240320: Set up CDN cloud acceleration to improve user access speed. — Tang Chen
- 20240408: Third phase concentrated update, data volume increased to 260,000 books and 280,000 volumes. — Tang Chen
Future Work
- Website Functions
- Automatic associative and cross-search of Simplified/Traditional characters, variant characters, and personal name fonts.
- Inclusion of Heike editions and Korean editions into the search system.
- Deep integration/merging with the previously developed Global Chinese Classics GIS system.
- Data Publication
- Continue to connect with more global databases.