| Taking historical research method as the main way, combining with the research methods of library and archival science, surveying and analyzing the historical facts and reasons of books’and archival damage from Qin Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, to modern times, and to contemporary society recording in the volume of history. Meanwhile, systematically carding the academic thoughts from ancient times to contemporary world, remedying the blanks in these two fields.Firstly, surveying and analyzing the historical facts of books’damage. The survey of historical facts of books’damage in ancient times is restricted to the volume of history in sutra and history books. It includes twelve kinds of historical books totally:official history, privately compiled history, chronological history, unofficial history, records of minority, extracts from history, historical criticism, biography, political books, geography, catalogue, and inscriptions. There are no direct records of books’damage in extracts from history, historical criticism, and inscriptions, so only damage facts from other nine historical books are recorded in this chapter. In the nine historical books,248items of books’damage are recorded. In all these records,40items are of political reasons, occupying16%;37items are of warfare, occupying15%;17items are of natural causes, occupying7%;32items are of man-made destroy, occupying13%;122items are of lost in circulation, occupying49%. The percentage of "lost in circulation" ranks first, the percentage of "political reasons" ranks second, the percentage of "warfare" ranks third, the percentage of "man-made destroy" ranks fourth, and the rate of "natural causes" is the lowest one. Except that,61theses related to books’damage in modern times are gotten. This article state the historical facts of them and summarize them in four parts:books’damage caused by political reasons, books’damage caused by warfare, books’damage caused by man-made destroy, and books’damage caused by natural causes.23theses related to books’damage in contemporary society are gotten. This article state the historical facts of them and summarize them in four parts:books’damage caused by the Cultural Revolution, books’damage caused by fire, books’damage caused by natural causes, and books’damage caused by man-made destroy.Secondly, surveying and analyzing the historical facts of archival damage. The survey of historical facts of archival damage in ancient times is restricted to the volume of history in sutra and history books. It includes twelve kinds of historical books totally:official history, privately compiled history, chronological history, unofficial history, records of minority, extracts from history, historical criticism, biography, political books, geography, catalogue, and inscriptions. There is no direct records of archival damage in extracts from history, historical criticism, and inscriptions, so only damage facts from other nine historical books are recorded in this chapter. In the nine historical books,102items of archival damage are recorded. In all these records,35items are of political reasons, occupying34%;40items are of warfare, occupying39%;10items are of natural causes, occupying10%;11items are of man-made destroy, occupying11%;6items are of lost in circulation, occupying6%. The percentage of "warfare" ranks first, the percentage of "political reasons" ranks second, the percentage of "man-made destroy" ranks third, the percentage of "natural causes" ranks fourth, and the rate of "lost in circulation" is the lowest one. Except that,31theses,1web page, and2books related to archival damage in modern times are gotten. This article state the historical facts of them and summarize them in four parts:archival damage caused by political reasons, archival damage caused by warfare, archival damage caused by man-made destroy, and archival damage caused by natural causes.3theses and1book related to archival damage caused by political reasons in contemporary society are gotten;47theses related to archival damage caused by mismanagement in contemporary society are gotten;28theses and3web pages related to archival damage caused by natural calamities in contemporary society are gotten. This article state the historical facts of them and summarize them in three parts:archival damage caused by political reasons, archival damage caused by mismanagement, and archival damage caused by natural calamities.Thirdly, summarizing the view of books’disaster in China. On the one hand, giving an overview of "the view of books’disaster". Outline the academic thought of books’and archival damage in ancient times, modern times, and times after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. On the other hand, discussing and stating different thoughts of the view of books’disaster, including historical development of the view of books’disaster in ancient times, studies and characteristics of reasons of books’disaster in ancient times, achievements of academic thoughts of books’disasters in modern times, and the influences of cultural development caused by books’and archival damage in China.Fourthly, drawing a conclusion. To my point of view, warfare is the first and most direct reason of books’and archival damage, but its root is the interests conflict and social instability caused by political corruption, economic depression, and hard life in the end of each dynasty. However, each war perishes the old political power and brings out a new political power, according to this, books and archives also scattered and gathered once as the dynasty changes. So books’and archival damage has the same periodicity as the imperial courts’. From Qin Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, in order to strengthen political control and realize the unification of ideology, rulers eliminated opponents’books and archives continuously. The most severe era was the period of Literary Inquisition and redacting the Si Ku Quan Shu in Qing Dynasty. Meanwhile, the ancients were lack of protecting consciousness. When compiling and revising the national history, they firstly compiled and revised the Rules and Regulations of the Past and Daily Life Note, then the Memoir, and on the basis of all these records they compiled and revised the national history. The original archives were seldom used, and they were randomly lost or damaged or eliminated initiatively. Even if each dynasty used the archives of the former dynasty to compile and revise the national history, they would still destroy the archives of former dynasty after using them. So we have the statement:"historical books done, historical facts lost". After compiling and revising records, local governments also abandoned the archives as the central government did. Before Ming Dynasty(including Ming Dynasty) few archives were handed down, and this phenomenon was caused by both warfare and rulers’ destructions. That is to say, the main reasons of books’and archival damage are both warfare and rulers’destructions. Other factors of destructions, for instance:lost in circulation, man-made destroy, natural reasons, did not cause great destructions to books and archives. In these factors we had problems of time and society’s selection, problems of irresistible natural force, problems of avoiding witch-hunting, and problems of ill-disciplined action.In modern times, China was weak and had internal and external problems. Each old political power and its ruler was lack of cognition of cultural heritage, such as outflows of Dunhuang scripts, Oracle-bones, Manchu archives;"Eight Thousand Sacks Event". All these events involved not only in impoverished, but also in rulers’ lack of protecting consciousness of cultural heritage. The books’and archival losses caused by this internal factor were no less than the losses caused by other factors. The external losses of books and archives were caused by Imperialism aggressors, especially Japanese invaders. Books’and archival damages caused by Japanese invaders were also the most severe books’and archival damage in all the damages caused by foreign invasion. Practices show that in the impoverished and backward country, rulers’scrambling for power and wealth, people’s ignorant, and aggressors’ destructive are all roots of destructions of books and archives.In contemporary society, books’and archival damage mainly occurred in Cultural Revolution. It reflected in two aspects. One was "Four Olds", in which books were burned massively, especially personal rare books. It made immeasurable losses to both society and individuals. The other was in the late1960s, the requirements of "war preparedness" led to large destructions of archives in many northern border areas. Meanwhile, national archives bureau and local archives bureaux were revoked. Archivists were sent to work in the fields or to work in other units. The working systems of the whole nation were lax, and the normal archiving works were stopped. It directly led to archives incomplete in many units during Cultural Revolution. In the struggle with Red Guards, many units’archives were destroyed or lost greatly. All these situations interfered the history compiling and revising, and interfered overturning unjust verdicts. History once again proved books’and archival damage result from benighted and historical nihilism accompanied with our country and nation all the time in the past. National, especially human’s modernization was the basis of other modernization. To enhance the governance capability of authorities, to enhance the scientific and cultural level of the people, to avoid social instability, and to realize the balanced development of all the national undertakings are the basis of protecting books and archives from being destroyed.Last but not least, appendix:historical facts and provenance of books’and archival damage recording in the volume of history. |
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