Yuan Dongjue, the provincial representative inheritor of "Sichuan Painting and Calligraphy Mounting and Restoration Technique - Shu Mount", has restored 355 kinds of precious ancient books, calligraphy, paintings, and picture files, with a total of 4,088 volumes, with a total more than 110,000 pages. Among them, 25 kinds, 190 volumes and 14,700 pages were selected into the "National Precious Ancient Books List".

A Restorer of Ancient Books is a Doctor of "Book Disease"

Ancient books mainly refer to books written or printed before 1912 in the form of Classical Chinese binding (ancient books of the national minorities before 1949). With the passage of time, due to the environment, improper preservation and other reasons, the book will appear flocculation, rodents, damage, stains, insect infestation and other "disease". If there is a disease, it needs to be treated, and the restorer is the doctor of "book disease". The restoration of antique books is not an easy task. All processes must master a "degree", so it is a test of the restorer’s "craft".

The Ming engraved edition of the "Tu Zhu 81 Nan Jing Bian Zhen" is an important ancient book restored by the Sichuan Provincial Library in recent years. It is a medical scripture work annotated by Zhang Shixian in the Ming Dynasty, published in 1510, in eight volumes. Yuan Dongjue recalls that the book's papers were so aged and brittle that many pages had crumbled into slag. The smallest fragment was only one centimeter long, making restoration very difficult. Each time she restored it, she held her breath for fear of blowing the fragments away. However, after putting the pieces together, she also felt a sense of accomplishment, "the same as young people playing with puzzles, torturous but interesting."

A Training Made Her Willing to Be with Ancient Books for Life

In 1983, when the Ministry of Culture held training courses in Hangzhou and Shanghai, Yuan Dongjue was recommended to attend the training. It was so eye-opening and beneficial for her. The instructors are professional and powerful. One of the instructors, Qian Tsuangying, taught them that restoring ancient books requires patience and meticulousness.

In 1984, Yuan Dongjue returned to Sichuan after finished the training. With the support of her leaders, the Sichuan Provincial Library set aside two abandoned rooms and handed them over to the newly established Ancient Books Restoration Department. Despite the rough conditions, Yuan was determined to "get it to the end". Without a repair table, she asked her classmates to draw drawings and asked a carpenter to make tables. Without a hammer table and a book press, she asked Zhao Jiafu, one of her teachers, to help and buy them from Nanjing. She lacked repair tools, so she did it by herself, such as screwdrivers, needle pokes, and brushes…Under her skillful hands, each tool was made one by one.

A humble room, one person, and several volumes of ancient books to be repaired… Since 1984, she has devoted herself to the restoration of ancient books. She devoted herself to the restoration of ancient books and was tireless. She took every step by herself and insisted on it alone for 18 years. Until 2002, there are new people in succession.

Personal File

Yuan Dongjue, the academic leader of ancient book restoration in Sichuan Province, the assistant instructor of the national ancient book restoration technique training center, the Sichuan Ancient Book Restoration Center Training Institute, and the expert of the Ancient Book Restoration. She has been engaged in the restoration of ancient books and teaching ancient book restoration in Sichuan Provincial Library for a long time and has devoted herself to the restoration of ancient books for 40 years.