The Greatest Collection of Edited and Revised Books

The Qianlong Emperor, aka Hongli, 1736.

The Siku Quanshu, aka Imperial Collection of Four, Emperor's Four Treasuries, Complete Library in Four Branches of Literature, or Complete Library of Four Treasuries, is a catalog of 3,461 titles from the imperial collection and libraries of Qing China.  They were bound in 36,381 volumes of more than 79,000 chapters.  It took 9 years to complete.

Front page of the Siku Quanshu.

When it was commissioned, the Yongle Encyclopedia was the world's largest encyclopedia, made in 1403 during the Ming dynasty.  The Qianlong Emperor wanted to demonstration the superiority of the Qing dynasty, so he initiated it in 1773.

Việt Sử Lược, a Vietnamese Chronicle.

The chief editors were Ji Yun and Lu Xixiong, who had an editorial board of 361 scholars to work with.  They initially collected over 10,000 manuscripts.  15,000 copyists work on the project.  Over 3,000 of the works were destroyed, as they were considered to be anti-Manchu (the Manchus led the Qing dynasty).

A copy of a book written by a Jesuit missionary to introduce western knowledge
to the Ming empire, written circa 1623, and included in the collection.

There are four parts to the collection, named for the imperial library divisions:  "Classics"; "Histories", histories and geographies; "Masters", philosophy, arts, and sciences from Chinese philosophy; and "Collections", anthologies from Chinese literature.  The books were further divided into 44 categories, and include major texts from the Zhou Dynasty on, covering all fields of learning.

Page one of the Sea Island Mathematical Manual.

Four copies were made for the Emperor and stored in specially constructed libraries in the Forbidden City, Old Summer Palace, Shenyang, and Chengde. Three other copies were placed in libraries in Hangzhou, Zhenjiang, and Yangzhou for the public.  There are four copies extant today at in Beijing, Taipe, Lanzhou, and Hangzhou.

Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, originally written in 646 CE.

The Emperor initially had a tough time getting citizens to lend the project their books, for fear of persecution and the loss of their books.  So small a number turned in books that the Emperor issued a decree stating the books would be returned when the project was finished, and that the owners would not be persecuted.  This resulted in more books being loaned.  The Emperor also made promises and offered rewards to the owners, saying he would add his own personal calligraphy to the books.  The amount of books turned in doubled.

A Ming dynasty text.

While it preserved many works, the destruction and suppression of opposing political views is a loss.  These unfit works were considered rebellious, anti-Qing, insulted previous (albeit "barbarian") dynasties, or dealt with the problems of defending the empire and its borders.  Some works were merely modified to make them more politically correct.  Most of the works destroyed were from the Ming dynasty.  The Siku Jinshu is the catalog of all the books that were banned, containing 2,855 titles which were burned.

An example of the Emperor's calligraphy.

Aside from editing, revising, and destroying texts, the authoritative body examined new writings.  If any word or sentence was deemed derogatory, the author(s) would be persecuted.  In the Qianlong Emperor's time there were 53 cases of literary inquisition.  The punishments were beheading, corpse mutilation, or being sliced into pieces until dead.

The Emperor doing calligraphy, mid-18th century.

The Qianlong Emperor was a major patron of the arts, and saw his efforts to preserve and restore Chinese culture as very important.  He acquired rare paintings and antiquities by any means necessary.  He often added poetic inscriptions to paintings, which were considered a mark of distinction.  Unique to him was the habit of using his reflections on paintings to mark them, almost like a diary.

Example of the Emperor's calligraphy, mid-18th century.

He, himself, was a prolific writer, publishing over 40,000 poems and 1,300 prose texts in a series of his collected writings done between 1749 and 1800.  He eventually became bored and disillusioned with being an emperor, and left the governing of the empire to his officials, who were corrupt.  Between the monies spent collecting art and literature and living a very luxurious life, and the embezzlement and corrupt actions of his officials, his dynasty and empire gradually declined.

A work on Tibetan Buddhism by the Emperor, 1792.

Today, while this is looked upon as an achievement, it is more of an example of censorship, book banning, and historical deletion.  The Qianlong Emperor would probably be very dismayed, as he thought of himself as the ultimate scholar.  We think that the internet is merciless in tracking our sins, but the centuries have not been kind to the Emperor.  He receives his just but rather evil reputation, and we mourn the loss of not him, but the books he destroyed.

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Images courtesy of Wikipedia.

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Those Dirty, Evil, Rotten Books!

Image courtesy of the ABAA (Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America).

Saturday, September 24, was the beginning of Banned Books Week for 2011. Sponsored by the American Booksellers Association, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, American Library Association, American Society of Journalists and Authors, Association of American Publishers, National Association of College Stores, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, National Coalition Against Censorship, National Council of Teachers of English, and the PEN American Center, this event has been held yearly during the last week of September since 1982.  It has also been endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.  Since 1982, over 11,000 books have been challenged.

Image courtesy of the Lake City Public Library.

The purpose is not only to encourage readers to examine works that have been challenged, but to also promote intellectual freedom in libraries, schools, and wherever books are read or sold.  Many groups celebrate banned and challenged books during this week and hold awareness campaigns.  The difference between a book that has been challenged and one that has been banned is that a challenged book is an attempt to remove it from a library or curriculum, while a banned one has been removed.

Amnesty International also observes this event by drawing attention to individuals who are persecuted because of what they write, circulate, or read.  Here is a link to featured individuals who have or are being oppressed, tortured, or imprisoned.

Lydia Cacho Ribeiro had to leave her home in
Mexico because of recent death threats for her
books exposing a child pornography ring and
the trafficking of women and girls.  Image from
 Amnesty International (see link above).

Banned Books Week is the only national observance of the freedom to read.  Last year there were 348 titles reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom that were challenged, and many more go unreported each year.  The Office of Intellectual Freedom collects their information from newspapers and reports submitted by individuals, all of which go into a database.  The Banned Books Week Resource Guide is updated every three years, and is available at your local library or can be purchased.  Click here for a PDF file on books challenged or banned in 2010-2011, and the reason(s) why.

Image courtesy ALA

The very popular Twilight series, by Stephanie Meyer, was challenged as being sexually explicit, violent, unsuited for its age group, and having a religious viewpoint.  Fortunately, it more than survived.  Currently irritating many a parent and parent group is the book And Tango Makes Three, which is about same-sex penguin parents, seen as promoting homosexuality to young children "against their will".  In fact, some may argue that being challenged is a good marketing ploy for a book.

This book is based on a true story of two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo
in New York who were given an egg to raise.  Co-author Justin Richardson was
quoted in an article in the NY Times:  "We wrote the book to help parents teach
children about same-sex parent families.  It's no more an argument in favor of
human gay relationships than it is a call for children to swallow their fish whole
or sleep on rocks."  Homophobic parents will be pleased to learn the pair has
since split up, and one of the males has paired with a female.

There is an argument whether there is indeed any censorship occurring, but former ALA (American Library Association) president Camila Alire has stated that there are hundreds of documented attempts to suppress access to written materials each year, and when a library is asked to restrict access, that is an attempt at censorship. Opponents argue that parents have the right to object to their children being exposed to certain literature, but since parents will differ as to what literature they object to, it seems that they need to take it upon themselves to limit exposure, and not try to force their decisions on everyone.

Image courtesy of Lee's Summit High School, Mo.

It is indeed fortunate that a majority of the books targeted during Banned Books Week were not banned or restricted, but that is because of the efforts of the cadre of librarians, teachers, booksellers, readers, and others in communities.  This celebration of the freedom provided by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution deserves the respect and thanks of free people who like to read freely. This reader thanks everyone who takes part - I am personally grateful to everyone who fights for accessibility to all books, whether I read them or not.

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The Longest Banned Book?

Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid.  Image courtesy of www.thefamouspeople.com.

The Roman poet Ovid not only had his book, Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) banned, but he himself was banished from Rome for writing it in the year 8 CE. All of his works were burned by Savonarola in his infamous bonfire of the vanities in 1497.  Christopher Marlowe translated it in 1599, and his translation was banned.  U.S. Customs banned it in 1930 - nearly two thousand years later. This makes it a candidate, if not the winner, of the dubious distinction of being the longest (in time) banned book.

"Study for Ovid's 'Ars Amatoria'" by Federico Righi, circa 20th century.
Image courtesy Utah Museum of Fine Arts.

Publius Ovidius Naso (43-17 BCE) was a poet who is considered a master of the elegiac couplet, a poetic form first used by Greek lyric poets with alternating lines of dactylic hexameter and pentameter.  This form is considered the oldest Greek form of epodic poetry (think "call and response") first used for funeral songs, then adapted to erotic poetry.  The Romans took it to its zenith in the time of Augustus. Ovid is traditionally ranked with Virgil and Horace as the triumvirate of canonical Latin love elegists.  His poetry was much imitated in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced European art and literature.

Image courtesy of this site.

Ovid was born to an important equestrian family in Sulmona and educated in Rome,  His father wanted him to study rhetoric with an eye to practicing law, but Ovid was drawn to poetry.  He was very popular when he wrote his early works. His Ars Amatoria was published in 2 CE.  But his most famous work was the Metamorphoses, an epic poem of 15 books in hexameter, published in 8 CE.  This opus covers the history of the world (through mythology) up to the deification of Julius Caesar, and it is considered a masterpiece of Latin literature from its Golden Age.

Statue of Ovid in Sulmona, town of his birthplace,
southeast of Rome.  Image courtesy of Idéfix/Wikipedia.

In 8 CE, Ovid was banished to Tomis, now in Romania, on the Black Sea. Augustus banished him alone, without the Senate or a Roman judge.  There are no definitive writings on why, but Ovid himself wrote it was by reason of carmen et error - a song and a mistake.  He claimed his actions were worse than murder. The Julian Marriage Laws of 18 BCE were enacted to promote monogamy in the interest of increasing the birth rate and strengthening families.  Since Ovid's Ars Amatoria included adultery, it may have seemed in opposition to Augustus' legislation.

Ovid Banished from Rome by J. M. W. Turner, 1838.
Image courtesy of The Athenaeum.

But since there were six years between the publication and the banishment, Augustus may have used the poem as justification for something else, some sort of political secret.  What that would be is anyone's guess, but Augustus had also banished his grandchildren, Agrippa Postumus and Julia the Younger, about the same time, and Julia's husband, Lucius Aemilius Paullus, was put to death for a conspiracy against Augustus.  Ovid may have known about this conspiracy. Unless some new documents come to light, we may never know.

A 1644 edition from Kempffer in Frankfurt.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

Then there's another theory that has bounced around scholars for the last century or so:  Ovid never was exiled.  The main reason for this theory is that the only record of it is Ovid's, except for "dubious" mentions by Pliny the Elder and Statius, but no one else until the 4th century CE.  He did apparently die in Tomis in 17 CE, however, and has been adopted by Romanian nationalists as "The First Romanian Poet".

A page from the book, 1484 edition, with footnotes in German.
Image courtesy University of Texas.

Ars Amatoria is a didactic poem in three books that teaches the arts of seduction and love.  It serves in part as a satire on didactic poetry.  The first book is for men and covers the seduction of women.  Ovid establishes himself as a teacher of love, and tells of the places one can scout for lovers, such as a theater, a triumph, or an arena.  He then goes into ways of seducing a woman at a banquet, the right time to seduce her, and care of the body.

Another page akin to the top image.

The second book is also for men, and tells them how to keep a lover.  He advises men to keep up their appearance, hide affairs, don't give too many gifts, don't forget her birthday, and don't ask her age.  The end of this book promotes the joy of simultaneous orgasms.

Bacchus Returns From India, mosaic from Tunisia said to be inspired by
the poem which states that tigers drew Bacchus' chariot.  Image courtesy this site.

The third is addressed to women and teaches seduction techniques.  He is resolved to arm women against the measures the first two books advise.  He tells women not to wear too many adornments, to read elegiac poetry, learn to play games, flirt, and take on lovers of different ages.  He also advises that women should make their lovers jealous so they don't become complacent.  He also discusses sexual positions, with advice on choosing an appropriate one for their own bodies.

Papyrus scroll courtesy of above scroll site.

Despite the real or imagined banishment and the subsequent bannings through the centuries, Ars Amatoria is still part of the curriculum of both high schools and colleges, as it was in medieval times.  If all this fuss was created by Ovid, then kudos to him for his marketing genius.

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