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.

This episode here is presented by Ma Yunchuan, the director of Yunnan Provincial Library, introducing you the rare ancient book A Brief Summary of Qian’s Family Genealogy.

Qian Feng, who styled himself as “NanYuan” was from Kunming, Yunnan. He had a strong and upright character and impeached illegal dignitaries such as He Shen and Guo Tai as an imperial officer. The late Qianlong Period of the Qing Dynasty had high levels of corruption. Qian Feng had no fear of fighting corruption. The Governor of Shanxi and Gansu, and the Inspector-general of Shangdong, were impeached and prosecuted in succession by him, which shocked the officialdom. Despite this, Qian Feng collected evidence from very senior officials, Heshen. More than twenties problems had been written in the memorial to the throne (an official communication to the Emperor of China). However, it was a failure of the submission process due to Qian Feng's sudden death.

Qian Feng was good at Yan-style calligraphy and skilled in drawing horses, which was emulatively preserved by the world. A Brief Summary of Qian's Family Genealogy was the manuscript he wrote, writing in regular script in small characters. It records the words and deeds of Qian's ancestors, morality, etc. This book was in danger of being smuggled out of Yunnan, and tang Jiyao, the Governor of Yunnan Province at that time paid a large sum of money for it in 1923. Since then, it has been preserved in Yunnan Provincial Library. 

Yuan Jiagu, the Number One Scholar (Guangxu Reign 29th Year of the Qing Dynasty,1903), commented “Mr.Qian Nanyuan's manuscripts are priceless and highly respected by the world. I have seen quite a few of Qian Nanyuan's works, but none of them contains thousands of perfect calligraphic characters like this volume. It is really a good thing that Yunnan Provincial Library has collected it and made it become a shared treasure of Yunnan people.”In addition, new prologues and epilogues were written by Yunnan cultural celebrities, like Zhao Fan, Chen Rongchang, and Zhou Zhongyue.