History of the East Asian Library and the Gest Collection普林斯頓大學葛思德東亞圖書館(葛思德東方書庫)"記美國普林斯頓大學葛思德東方書庫藏的碛砂藏經原本"

  題名. 記美國普林斯敦大學的葛思德東方書庫藏的《磧砂藏經》 原本. 作者. 胡適.
出處題名. 現代佛教學術叢刊. 卷期. n.10. 日期. 1980.10.01. 頁次. 281-290. 叢書名. 叢書號. 出版者.
大乘文化. 出版地. 台北市, 臺灣[Taipei shih, Taiwan].




張充和題字集 頁117

序號	250322
題名	記美國普林斯敦大學的葛思德東方書庫藏的《磧砂藏經》 原本
作者	胡適
出處題名	現代佛教學術叢刊
卷期	n.10
日期	1980.10.01
頁次	281-290
叢書名
叢書號
出版者	大乘文化
出版地	台北市, 臺灣 [Taipei shih, Taiwan]
資料類型	研究報告(專題研究論文)=Research Paper
使用語文	中文=Chinese
館藏地	查詢 臺灣大學圖書館 / Met@Cat 是否有館藏。
編修日期	1998.07.22
附註項	本冊題名為：大藏經研究彙編 (上)
關鍵詞	藏經;磧砂藏
提要
ISBN/ISSN

The Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies ( Wesleyan 大學) 有胡適書法



----

胡適1950-52擔任兩年的葛思德東方書庫(Gest Oriental Library)的庫長
他的主要任務是調查該書庫究竟有什麼寶藏

當時他有一報告 登
The Gest Oriental Library at Princeton Univerity, Princeton University Library Chronicle, Vol. XV, No. 3, Spring, 1954 此文有陳紀瑩先生譯本
1959年11月16日夜他還撰寫"記美國普林斯頓大學葛思德東方書庫藏的碛砂藏經原本" (大陸雜誌 19卷10期)
結論之一是它比"大正藏"還好

the Gest collection (Hu Shih) 1952

書法與古籍 Calligraohey And The East Asian Book

普林斯頓大學圖書館的一展覽
數十年之後復活了
胡適在索引中 小配角我們讀讀1952年5月12日 Time 的這篇

2014.11.5

History of the East Asian Library and the Gest Collection, Princeton University

The East Asian Library of Princeton University has been built around the original Gest Oriental Library Collection.

Guion Moore Gest (1864-1948), founder of the Gest Chinese Research Library

The "Gest" of this "Gest Oriental Library" (note its exceptional pronunciation: "Guest" instead of "Jest") refers to Guion Moore Gest (1864-1948), the founder of the Gest Engineering Company, which in the 1910s and '20s did much business in both the Americas and Asia. As part of his work Gest made frequent visits to Peking, where he met the then Naval Attaché, Commander I.V. Gillis (1875-1948), who would later become the adviser to and purchasing agent for the Gest Library. Gest and Gillis, together with Nancy Lee Swann (1881-1966), would form during the 1930s and '40s the three people most responsible for what is now the world famous Gest Rare Book Collection. The name Gest Oriental Library officially only refers to the original collection brought together by these three people, although often the name is used also for all the East Asian collections developed later at Princeton University.

I.V. Gillis (1875-1948), Gest's purchasing agent in Peking, China, packing rare Buddhist sutras for shipment in 1930.

Even from before the turn of the century Gest had developed an interest in Asia, especially Buddhism. However, his interest in Chinese books started from medicine. Gest had long suffered from glaucoma, and had sought the assistance of many leading American and European ophtalmologists, to no avail. Once when in Peking Gillis, who knew China and Chinese well, suggested he try an eye medicine of the Ma Yinglong family of Dingzhou, which had a shop in Peking solely devoted to selling this famous item. Gest did so, and while it did not really cure him, it gave him some temporary relief. In response Gest left an amount of money to Gillis to buy Chinese works on the treatment of eye diseases, and medical books in general. It was this collection which formed the beginning of the Gest Library.

Nancy Lee Swann (1881-1966), Curator of the Gest Library, 1931-1948

Owing to the larger interests of Gillis the scope of the collection expanded into including many other kinds of books, so that the Gest collection is rich in many fields beyond medicine, including classics, wenji, congshuand also an unusual number of books on scientific subjects, such as mathematics and astronomy. Gillis, who was married to a Manchu princess, had access to many high-class Chinese and Manchu families in the 1920s and was therefore well placed to collect many interesting works from them. The core of the original collection was purchased from Chen Baochen, tutor to the Xuantong emperor. Other famous Chinese families he bought works from include those of Zhang Zhidong, Li Hongzhang, Cai Yuanpei and Yuan Tongli. In fact, Gillis' success in collecting actually impoverished Gest, who had not been very rich to begin with; and since, moreover, Gest had no space to store the works, it was arranged that the collection became an official "Library" in 1926, as part of the McGill University in Montréal, Canada. At that time the collection counted 232 titles, and 8,000 ce. Soon Nancy Lee Swann, perhaps the first female scholar of Chinese studies in the West (her study on Ban Zhao is still widely used) became its curator until 1948, to be replaced by Hu Shi in 1950.

Hu Shi (1891-1962), Curator of the Gest Library 1950-1952, with James Tung (Tong Shigang, 1911-1982), Curator 1952-1977

The 1929 economic crash was disastrous for many; Gest lost most of his money, Swann was paid no salary for two years, Gillis received no money even for books already approved. And McGill University could not afford even the few expenses it had connected with the Library. However, since Swann continued to work unpaid and Gillis used his own money buying new rare books, the collection continued to grow. It also took much time and numerous bureaucratic hurdles before the books bought in Peking could be shipped to outside China, and it required the help of Zhang Xueliang's office to finally ship the last 27,000 ce out of China. Because of all the financial troubles, Gest tried to move the library to a more hospitable university, but most universities in Canada and the US declined to take over the collection. Some help was forthcoming from the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, for which Gest had previously organized a project to learn about the use of acupuncture to stimulate the nervous system. With this help, in 1936-7 finally the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton acquired the collection, then having grown to some 100,000 ce, with the understanding that it was to be administered as part of the Princeton University Library. However it must be said that only after Princeton inaugurated an East Asian department in the late 1950s around the Gest Library it became an integrated part of the University as a whole, and received monies to keep up with current publishing. This came to include since the 1950s Japanese, and to a smaller extent, Korean books, including small numbers of rare items. Much of the expansion took place under James Tung (Tong Shigang), who had been hired by Hu Shi and later took over the latter's curatorship.

The Gest Research Collection while at Montréal

Gillis realized that he could not compete with Asian collectors in acquiring Song and Yuan editions of rare books, and therefore he concentrated upon works from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644); Princeton University has been a center of Ming books and scholarship ever since. This is also true for its books on Chinese medicine: many of its Ming, and even some of its Qing works are rare or even unique.

The original Gest Collection has been collectively cataloged in three different publications. First, for most Ming works, there is the Qu Wanli catalog Pulinsidun daxue Geside Dongfang Tushuguan Zhongwen shanben shuzhi, originally published in 1974, and now available as vol. 13 of the Qu Wanli quanji published by Lianjing. It was compiled in 1965-1966 on the basis of an unpublished draft of Wang Zhongmin. Most Qing works are listed in the 1990 Pulinsidun daxue Geside Dongfang Tushuguan Zhongwen jiuji shumu compiled by Chang Bide and Wu Zhefu. In addition, there is the International Union Catalogue of Chinese Rare Books, which under leadership of Sören Edgren, began as a special project of the Research Libraries Group, a consortium of many of the most important North American research libraries. Its head office is currently an independent organization under the auspices of the Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton University, and physically located within the East Asian Library and is now continued. This electronic catalog gives superior access to detailed records of the pre-1796 Chinese rare book holdings of most North American and several important Mainland Chinese and European libraries. The records follow detailed uniform guidelines which were created after multiple discussions by specialists from the United States and abroad, including Taiwan and China.

Gest's intent was to establish a collection that could be used by North American scholars of sinology and Chinese alike as a means to further understanding between East and West, a desire the East Asian Library continues to advance today. Its rare book collection is one of the outstanding ones in the world; and now, in its location adjacent to the Department of East Asian Studies where it has been housed since 1972, the East Asian Library continues to grow to meet scholars' needs as part of the Princeton University Library system.