Jiaye Hall Library and Xiaolian Manor

　　Jiaye Hall Library is adjacent to Xiaolian Manor and is named after the "Qin Ruo Jiaye" nine-dragon golden plaque bestowed by the Qing Emperor Puyi. The building is grand in scale and houses a rich collection of books. Originally, the library and garden were integrated, renowned for its collection of ancient texts, making it one of China’s most famous private libraries of the modern era and a nationally protected cultural relic.

　　After the liberation, the original owner of the library donated it to the Zhejiang Library. Today, the library serves a dual role as a public library and tourist attraction, welcoming readers and visitors from all over the world.

　　Introduction

　　Jiaye Hall Library is located on the Partridge Creek in Nanxun, facing Xiaolian Manor across the creek, connected by a small bridge. The library is nestled within the garden, with the garden surrounding the building and featuring a pond.

　　Following the lotus-shaped pool, you’ll find rockeries built from Taihu stones, shaped like the twelve zodiac animals. On both sides of the pool are the “Huanbi” (Washing Jade) and “Zhanghong” (Blocking Red) pavilions, forming a triad with the “Mingse” (Clear and Graceful) pavilion on the solitary island in the center. To the southwest stands a “Xiao Shi” (Howling Stone”) over three meters high, with small holes in the rock that produce a tiger-like roar when blown into—it is one of Nanxun’s three most famous odd rocks.

　　When blown, it sounds like a tiger's roar, and it is one of the three famous odd rocks of Nanxun.

　　The founder of the library was Liu Chenggan, known as the “wealthy magnate of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.” Liu Chenggan, a late Qing scholar and grandson of Liu Yong, named the library “Jiaye” (Auspicious Enterprise) because, during the late Qing Dynasty, he donated a large sum to support the restoration of Emperor Guangxu’s mausoleum and was rewarded with a plaque inscribed “Qin Ruo Jiaye” by Emperor Xuantong. He took pride in this honor and thus named the library accordingly.

　　The library is a two-story corridor-style structure consisting of seven rooms in two sections, with wing rooms on both sides. It has a total of 52 book storerooms and a large central courtyard.

　　The library’s collection has two notable features: first, it focuses not only on Song and Yuan printed editions but also emphasizes Ming and Qing publications; second, it extensively collects over 1,200 types of local chronicles, including 62 rare editions considered “treasures of the nation.”

　　Liu Chenggan also gained fame for his woodblock-printed books, having printed over 200 titles with more than 30,000 printing blocks. He printed many works banned by the Qing court, such as *Annals of Anlong* and *Idle Fish Idle Record*. Lu Xun remarked in his essay *Casual Talks After Illness*: “Only a silly young master like him would have gone to such lengths in printing them, so he wasn’t entirely useless.”

　　Background Information:

　　Liu Chenggan (1881–1963), styled Zhenyi and also known as Han Yi, was a native of Nanxun and a late Qing scholar. His grandfather, Liu Yong (1825–1889), amassed a fortune through the silk trade. However, he valued literature over wealth and strongly encouraged his descendants to pursue scholarly and official careers. Liu Chenggan’s father, Liu Jinzao (1862–1934), was an expert in literature and history, became a Jinshi (advanced scholar) in the 20th year of the Guangxu reign (1894), and authored works such as *Continuation of the Imperial Dynastic Bibliographic Treatise*, *Nanxun Records*, and *Collected Poems and Essays of Jianpou An*.

　　A scholar himself, Liu Chenggan was immersed in poetry, literature, and art from a young age. As he grew older, he associated with renowned archaeologists such as Wang Guowei and Luo Zhenyu, bibliographers such as Ye Dehui and Miu Quansun, and developed a passion for collecting and appreciating ancient books. He also inherited his father’s historical scholarship and his stepfather Liu Anlan’s (Liu Jinzao’s elder brother) legacy of book collecting.

　　As early as before the Xinhai Revolution, Liu Chenggan began amassing books. Backed by his substantial wealth and fueled by an obsessive love for books, he was willing to pay top prices. “Whenever a bookseller came with books, I never wanted to disappoint them. Whatever books I didn’t already have—whether old or new—I bought them all.”

　　Hearing of his passion, booksellers traveled great distances to visit him. Within just a few years, he spent nearly 300,000 yuan—“amassing nearly ten thousand volumes”—and successively acquired collections from over ten families, including the “Baojinglou” of the Lu family in Yongdong, the “Yingshan Caotang” of the Mo family in Dushan, the “Jieyilu” of the Zhu family in Renhe, the “Chijingzhai” of the Ding family in Fengshun, and the “Dongcang Shuku” of the Miao family in Taicang. As a result, the Liu family collection gathered the essence of book collections from renowned bibliophiles in Beijing, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and other places, amassing 600,000 volumes totaling 160,000 books.