Hanfenlou miji 涵芬樓秘笈

Hanfenlou miji 涵芬樓秘笈 "Secret satchels of the Hanfen Studio" is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) compiled by the Republican-period (1912-1949) scholar Sun Yuxiu 孫毓修 (1871-1922) from the Translation Department of the Commercial Press (Shangwu yinshuguan bianyisuo 商務印書館編譯所) in Shanghai. It includes 52 titles in 10 series (ji 集). Most of these titles were written during the Ming 明 (1368-1644) and Qing 清 (1644-1911) periods, and are rarely to be found elsewhere.

The library of the Translation Department was called Hanfenlou Studio (Hanfenlou 涵芬樓) and was founded in 1909. It was famous for its collection of excellent and rare prints, and especially for the local gazetteers (difangzhi 地方志) in the collection. In 1924 the collection was brought to the Eastern Library (Dongfang tushuguan 東方圖書館). The Hanfen Studio acquired books from many private libraries that had been dissolved, like the Rongjingzhushizhai 熔經鑄史齋, Qin-Hanshiqinzhai 秦漢十印齋, Souwenzhai 謏聞齋, Chijingzhai 持靜齋, Yiyuantang 意園堂, Yifengtang 藝風堂, Miyunlou 密韻樓 and the famous Tianyi Library 天一閣. In 1931, the amount of books owned by the Hanfen Studio accrued to 3,745 titles in about 35,000 booklets. This number does still not include the books of the library of the family He 何 from Yangzhou 揚州, Jiangsu, that was bought later.

The collection of the Hanfen Library included two volumes of the Ming-period encyclopaedia Yongle dadian 永樂大典, a Song-period 宋 (960-1279) print of the commentary Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhengyi 春秋左傳正義 (on the Confucian Classic Chunqiu-Zhuozhuan 春秋左傳), a print of the Shiji jijie suoyin zhengyi 史記集解索隱正義 (the history Shiji 史記 and its three commentaries) produced by Huang Shanfu 黄善夫 during the Song period, a fragment of a Yuan-period 元 (1279-1368) revision of a Song-period edition of the history Zizhi tongjian 資治通鑒, and a Yuan- or Ming-period revision of a Song print of the Liuchen zhu Wenxuan 六臣注文選 (the literary collection Wenxuan 文選 with commentaries).

In 1931, there were 2,641 titles in the possession of the Hanfen Studio. An amount of 600 of these have survived – which counts for a small number of the whole collection – and are owned by the National Library 國家圖書館 in Beijing. Zhang Yuanji 張元濟 (1867-1959) has compiled a catalogue of lost books once owned by the Hanfenlou Studio, the Hanfenlou jinyu shulu 涵芬樓燼餘書錄. The rest, about 1,700 books in 460,000 booklets, were destroyed during the Sino-Japanese war.

Between 1916 and 1921, the owners compiled a series that was modeled after the Zhibuzuzhai congshu 知不足齋叢書. The original texts, both prints and manuscripts, were reprinted as facsimile editions, a technique that was very new in China at that time.

The Hanfen Studio also published the series Xu guyu congshu 續古逸叢書, Sibu congkan 四部叢刊 and the famous Bona edition (Bona ben 百衲本) of the Twenty-four official dynastic histories (ershisi shi 二十四史).