Under the direction of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China, China-CEEC Libraries Union was established in October 2018 in Hangzhou, China, with its secretariat permanently set in Hangzhou Public Library. More than 60 libraries from China and CEEC, on a voluntary basis, seek common progress made on the principle of "equality, mutual benefit, inclusiveness and openness".

The Very Collection in My Library aims to introduce treasures kept in each member library to audience in China and Central and Eastern European countries and bring ancient books into the limelight, through of which people could enhance their understanding of cultures and histories of other countries.

The first episode here is presented by Liu Dong, the director of Hangzhou Public Library, introducing you the rare ancient book Records of Wulin Customs.

The author of Record of Wulin Customs is Wang Tong (1839-1903 CE), who was born in Renhe (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang) and was a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations) in the 3^rd year of the Emperor Guangxun reign period of Qing Dynasty (1877 CE). Despite being successful in the examination, Wang Tong was not interested in pursuing an official career but showed much enthusiasm for teaching and educating people and gave lectures in many academies. He had a wide range of knowledge and was good at calligraphy and seal printing. He had many works, and Record of Wulin Customs is one of them.

photo: Record of Wulin Customs cover page

According to the title page, the manuscript had been kept in Wang's house until 1920 (17 years after Wang's death). It didn't get a chance to be published due to finance or wars in the following years and in 1958 when Hangzhou Public Library was built, Record of Wulin Customs was allocated there together with a group of rare ancient collections.

"Wulin" is what Hangzhou was called in ancient times. In Wang's book, he originated local customs in each month since the Song Dynasty (960-1279  CE), and analyze their changes over time. From his record, we could see how Hangzhou residents lived hundreds or even a thousand years ago and how the customs relate our lives today.

photo: Record of Wulin Customs inside pages

Records of Wulin Customs, with origins of local customs in Hangzhou examined and previous classics quoted, contains precious materials for studying Hangzhou culture and customs. Wang's manuscript has been preserved in the Ancient Book Department of Hangzhou Public Library since 1958 and was selected into the first group of "List of State-level Rare Ancient Books".