Airi Jinglu

Airi Jinglu

Airi Jinglu is a cultural relic protection unit of Suzhou.

Airi Jinglu

The original site was at No. 187, Ximen Street, in the urban area, but it has now been relocated to the east side of Jusha Park in Meili Town. It was the residence and private library of Zhang Jinwu, a book collector during the Jiaqing and Daoguang reigns of the Qing Dynasty. The structure features a hip-and-gable roof, is built with brick and wood, has a total width of nine bays spanning 34.2 meters, and a depth of 11 bays measuring 11.8 meters, with a front porch added. Zhang Jinwu (1787–1829), styled Shenzhan and also known as Yuexiao, was a native of Changshu. In his youth, he studied classical poetry and prose, and as he grew older, he read extensively in the book collection of his grandfather Zhang Renji’s “Zhaokuang Pavilion.” He proofread various texts including the Taiping Yulan. In the 14th year of the Jiaqing reign (1809), he was appointed as a doctoral degree candidate, but soon gave up the position. He then devoted himself to the study of Confucian classics, bibliography, philology, and epigraphy. Committed to building a personal library, over ten years he gathered inherited ancient books along with new acquisitions, amassing a collection of over 80,000 volumes (some sources say more than 104,000 volumes), all housed in “Airi Jinglu.” It was designated as a cultural relic protection unit of Changshu City in November 1982.