Author: Liu Bo (Research Librarian, National Library of China)

　　雷强所撰《袁同礼年谱长编》，日前由中华书局出版。全书五册，320多万字，耗费作者十年之功，可谓近代文化史研究的一份收获。

Yuan Tongli (1965-0) is a figure who has made great contributions to the modernization of China's libraries, not only presiding over the work of relevant institutions all year round, but also devoting himself to the recovery of overseas Chinese rare books and cultural relics. Flipping through the "Yuan Tongli Annals Long Edition", the author has gained a lot of new knowledge and feels that this book has multiple values.

First, the book is a personal life history of Yuan Tongli. As a traditional genre of biographies, it is the proper meaning of the title to describe the life history of the biographer. This book excavates and sorts out a lot of Yuan Tongli's life materials that are rarely understood in the academic circles, such as when he presided over the Tsinghua Library, he assisted the Tsinghua Vernacular Literature Research Association in carrying out activities, sold "New Tide" on consignment at Tsinghua University, and had many contacts with Li Dazhao and other New Culture Movement athletes.

Second, it is a history of modern librarianship. From the mid-1940s to the end of the 0s, Yuan Tongli was in charge of the librarianship of the National Beiping Library for a long time. The business structure he presided over and established is still visible in the business system of the National Library. Half of the book describes Yuan Tongli's career and life during his tenure at the National Peking Library, and to a certain extent, it can be regarded as a work on the history of the National Peking Library. In addition, Yuan Tongli also presided over the Tsinghua University Library, Guangdong University Library, Peking University Library for a short time, and served as the director of the Palace Museum Library for a long time. He was one of the founders and the first president of the Beijing Library Association, which has presided over the affairs of the two associations for a long time since its establishment. The book presents Yuan Tongli's work in a number of libraries with rich historical materials, which largely reflects the modernization of China's librarianship.

Third, it is also a history of modern culture from a personal perspective. Yuan Tongli's career is not only in the library industry, but also involves the museum and education circles: he studied at Peking University, worked at Tsinghua School after graduation, and later served as a professor at Peking University, Beijing Normal University and other universities; He worked at the Palace Museum and served as the vice chairman of the Chinese Museums Association. He has participated in many academic groups, such as the Antiquities Preservation Committee, the China Construction Society, etc.; He has had extensive contacts with Chinese and foreign cultural figures, which can be seen from the nearly 2000 entries in the index of names in this book.

"Yuan Tongli's Long Chronicle", written by Lei Qiang, Zhonghua Book Company

This book also touches on some important events in the book industry, such as the investigation of overseas Dunhuang documents, the investigation and collation of the Diaspora Yongle Canon, and the photocopying of the Siku Quanshu, etc., providing more and more specific historical materials from the perspective of Yuan Tongli's experience.

Flipping through the "Yuan Tongli Annals Long Edition", the author feels that the biggest advantage of the book is that it is rich in information and well-organized.

Let's start with the information. The book contains a large number of first-hand historical materials such as archives, letters, and diaries, as well as materials from newspapers and periodicals, and other research works, covering almost all possible sources of literature. The abundance of its income can be intuitively felt from the length of as many as 3182 pages. Most commendable is the collection of archives and correspondence deposited by many overseas institutions, as well as many privately collected materials, which the author painstakingly and painstakingly obtained through various contacts, and which is also the place where this book surpasses previous collections and works of the same kind.

Let's talk about the finishing aspect. The author does the work of organizing the text, and his style is rigorous and meticulous. A lot of effort has been put into the bibliographic text of the book, providing a standardized collation of historical materials. For the letters, the original format is retained, and some of them also retain the original old-style punctuation, so that the reader can feel the style of the original work as much as possible. The words under the entry not only explain many people and events, but also point out typographical errors in the materials one by one, giving readers accurate information.

　　文本整理之外，本书还在按语、脚注中做了大量的史料辨析、史事考证工作。比如全书第一条，便根据袁同礼自己填写的申请表，更正了其出生日期，澄清了长期的误传。又如，纠正了《北京图书馆馆史资料汇编（1909—1949）》将1945年11月21日袁同礼致钱存训函系于1942年的错误。此类例子甚多，兹不赘举。

As a genre of writing, the strength of the chronicle is to compare the data by day and show the context and appearance of people and events. On the basis of the abundant materials carefully organized, it is possible to conduct more in-depth comprehensive research and special research. For example, the book comprehensively collects and introduces Yuan Tongli's treatises and articles, and if the articles are not included in the "Yuan Tongli Collected Works", they are explained in the following language.

It is foreseeable that this "Long Compilation of Yuan Tongli's Annals" will provide more clues for the in-depth study of Yuan Tongli himself and the development of modern Chinese culture.

　　《光明日报》（2025年04月14日 10版）

Source: Guangming Network - "Guangming Daily"