CATEGORY
Classical Texts
INSTITUTION
Harvard University
ACCESS
open access
URL
https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/chinese-rare-books
DESCRIPTION
Harvard-Yenching Library's Chinese Rare Books collection (13th-19th centuries) includes Chinese books from the 13th to 19th centuries covering classics & history, philosophy, collectanea, and unique manuscripts. The collection comprises: 1,500 Song, Yuan, and Ming block-print books (with 188 titles not found in any major libraries in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, or Japan - representing unique surviving editions), approximately 1,500 manuscripts including holographs (original manuscripts in authors' own handwriting), Song, Yuan, and Ming encyclopedias (leishu 類書), nearly 2,600 gazetteers (including 720 rare editions from Ming through Qianlong period), banned books (禁書 / jinshu) censored during imperial periods, and women's writing - a rare category systematically excluded from traditional canons. Materials are accessible through digital catalog.
SOURCE LIST
ACLS Open Database Resource Guide
TAGS
LAST MODIFIED
2026-01-16