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Tiān Yī Gé 天一阁

Ningbo is the city where the Tianyi Ge -- the Chinese oldest library -- was founded.
The Tianyi Ge library lies in proximity to Moon Lake and was built over 450 years ago, thereby making it the oldest existing library in Asia, and one of the three oldest private libraries in the world.

The name Tian Yi pertains to the concept of cosmic unity first described in a Han dynasty commentary to the Book of Changes. In Chinese alchemy, Tianyi is linked to the element of water, thus it was believed that giving a watery name would protect the library from fire damage.

Built between 1561 and 1566 AD, Tianyi Ge was once the residence of Fan Qin, a high-ranking military official from the Ming Dynasty. Fan Qin, who is the founder of the oldest library, had been appointed as an official in several cities around China.

Tianyi Ge initially housed the personal book collection of Fan Qin. Fan Qin’s adoration for books prompted him to store his book collection in a special library.

Fan Qin collected local records on Jinshi -- the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China -- of various dynasties and contemporary anthologies.

Books given by Fan's friends and handwritten copies of books were a crucial part of the collection. Owing to his efforts, the library already had 70 thousand volumes at the time of his death.

Unfortunately, after the Second Opium War, the British took several books from the libraries’ collection of geography and history texts. Adding to such losses were further thefts by local thieves. By 1940, the collection dipped to below 20 thousand volumes.

Only 13 thousand volumes remained at the time of the foundation of the People's Republic of China, as a great many of them were either expropriated by the bureaucracies, stolen, or fell into decay.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, owing to governmental efforts and donations by private collectors, the collection recovered somewhat to some 30 thousand volumes, mostly rare antique Ming Dynasty-printed and hand-copied volumes