Guoyunlou

Guoyunlou

Guoyunlou is a cultural relic protection unit of Suzhou.

“Guoyunlou” is a renowned private library in the Jiangnan region, located on Ganjiang Road in Suzhou. It has long been celebrated with the saying, “Jiangnan excels in collections, and Guoyunlou excels in Jiangnan.” It is now a cultural relic protection unit of Suzhou. After being passed down through six generations over 150 years, its collection includes over 800 volumes of ancient Song and Yuan editions, fine handwritten manuscripts, exquisite Ming and Qing imprints, as well as stone rubbings and seal catalogs.

On the evening of June 4, 2012, Jiangsu Phoenix Publishing & Media Group won the bid for the Guoyunlou book collection at Beijing’s Kaiqi International Auction Co., Ltd. for 216 million yuan. On June 11, 2012, Peking University decided to exercise its right of first refusal and sought to acquire the collection through public donations. On June 20, 2012, the final decision by China's National Cultural Heritage Administration approved the return of the Guoyunlou collection to Jiangsu, where it reunited with the remaining three-quarters of the collection housed at the Nanjing Library.

The collection includes the “Brocade Splendor of the Myriad Flowers Valley,” which is currently the largest complete surviving Song Dynasty edition in the world. It preserves parts of many ancient texts that have been lost elsewhere. The eminent Qing scholar Ruan Yuan once praised it with the words, “The book is composed like the Brocade Splendor of the Myriad Flowers Valley; the paintings depict the Heavenly Dragon Eight Sections.” Its documentary and historical value is truly unique among existing Song Dynasty books.