Tianyi Pavilion (Ningbo)

Major National Historical And Cultural Site; The Oldest Surviving Private Library In China, Founded By Fan Qin In The 1560s · Ningbo, Zhejiang

A retired Ming official named Fan Qin built this library in Ningbo in the 1560s and then spent the rest of his life making sure it would outlive him. The name comes from a line in the Book of Changes - heaven begets water - and the building is shaped to match it: one long undivided room upstairs, six below, with a pond dug in front, the whole thing a charm against the fire that destroyed every other great collection of the age. The rules he left were harsher than the architecture. The books were never to be divided among his heirs; the door had several locks and the keys were split between the family branches, so that no one branch could open it alone; and no woman was to go upstairs. A century later a young woman called Qian Xiuyun is said to have married into the Fan family for the sole purpose of reading the collection, and died without ever being allowed up the stairs. The library survived. It is the oldest in China.

5 Tianyi Street, Haishu District, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China

Generally open 8:30-17:00 with shorter winter hours and last entry before closing; CLOSED ON SOME MONDAYS, so confirm before a special trip. A modest ticket covers the library buildings, the Ming garden, the ancestral hall and the mahjong museum. THE HISTORIC BOOK STACKS THEMSELVES ARE NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC - you see the building and displayed items, not the shelves. Smoking is prohibited throughout, and flash photography is not allowed near the displayed manuscripts.

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