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Chinese Studies Resources - by type

Detailed directory of resources in Chinese Studies listed by type of resource

Diaolong database collection = 雕龙中日古籍全文检索数据库

This database of Classical Chinese Texts gives access to various sub-databases including the Zhengtong daozang 正统道藏, the Daozang jiyao 道藏輯要, a collection of Dunhuang Manuscripts from English, Russian and Peking collections 敦煌史料-英法俄、北大等馆藏, the Imperial encyclopedia (Yongle dadian 永乐大典), the Imperial Library (Gujin tushu jicheng 古今图书集成), Collected historical material on the Qing Dynasty 清代史料 (in particular 五朝会典, 清实录, 缙绅全书系列), a collection of old Japanese books 日本古典书籍, two Congshu collections (Sibu congkan 四部丛刊 and Sibu beiyao 四部备要 (here called 续四部丛刊)) as well as the Siku quanshu 四库全书, the Xuxiu siku quanshu 续修四库全书 and includes the Siku catalog 四库存目书, Banned books from the Siku 四库禁毁书, and Supplemental texts to the Siku  四库未收书.

Dunhuang Academy’s Digital Library Cave = 数字藏经洞

Dunhuang wenxian ku = 敦煌文獻庫

There are six databases available to Princeton users from the Chinese company Erudition (Airusheng); note that the other databases listed on the Erudition overview page, hatched out, are not available currently. To arrive at the overview page, please select Ancient Classics on the left and then choose login. Once on the specific database's home page, click on jinru (enter).

We have only one concurrent user for each database, and often demand is high; so please logout of the database when finished, in order to open that slot for the next person as soon as possible.

When finished, this database will give access to 30,000 titles and documents. Currently, some 3,000 texts are available, both in searchable and original format. The database is unique in how it also makes available interlinear notes, corrections, overlapping and upside-down characters etc., as well as images. A list of texts available in the first release is available.

Intenational Dunhuang Programme (British Library)

Intenrational Dunguang Programme (National Library of China)

Princeton Dunhuang and Turfan Manuscripts

National Library of China e-resources - 中国国家图书馆数字资源

The National Library of China (NLC) has opened 31 databases on its 中国古籍保护网 to the public. Additionally several databases on Republican materials and materials on national minorities have been added recently.

Included are the following database covering only the collection of NLC (if not otherwise noted):

数字古籍 Digital Rare books

数字方志 Digital Gazetteers (Some of the items are offered with side-by side reading of the transcribed text. The text however is not full text searchable. Most of the gazetteers included here are already available at Princeton in a full-text searchable database China Comprehensive Gazetteers).

中华寻根网 China genealogical database (The database offers a sophisticated search system. It includes bibliographic information on almost 30,000 家谱, and gives reading access to more than 2,000 (probably mostly from the collections of Shanghai Library). It also provides an overview of family lineages for each family name and has biographical entries for 14,000 individuals. Over 6,000 gazetteers are also linked into this system which makes it quite a powerful tool for genealogical research).

赵城金藏 Zhaocheng Jin Tripitaka (This Buddhist canon was printed between about the ninth year of the Huangtong era of Xizong of the Jin dynasty and is therefore referred to as Jin Tripitaka. The Jin Tripitaka was based on the tenth-century Kaibao Tripitaka. It has great documentary value because many of the sutras in this edition of the canon are missing from other editions. The database only gives access to the scans. Princeton has access to a full-text searchable version of both the Qisha Song Tripitaka and the Zhaocheng Jin Tripitaka via the Fojiao Jingdian ku).

年画撷英 Chinese New Year prints

碑帖精华 Rubbings database (Particularly strong for the Tang and the Qing. Where available the date of the making of the rubbing is included in the database. The database allows full-text searching of the transcribed text!)

宋人文集 Collected works of the Song (focuses on first editions).

甲骨世界 Oracle Bones (Two sub-databases containing images of original oracle bones and rubbings of oracle bones).

西夏文献 Tangut texts (Mostly of Buddhist nature. The texts are cataloged by Chinese titles).

西夏论著 Tangut Studies Bibliography

前尘旧影 Historic photographs

年画撷英 New year prints

名家手稿 Manuscripts of famous authors currently featuring notebooks by 阮章竞 Ruan Zhangjing (1914-2000)

徽州善本家谱 Collection of Huizhou Jiapu

中华医药典籍资源库 Classical works of Chinese Medicine

法藏敦煌遗书 Dunhuang collections of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF)

云南图书馆古籍 Yunnan Library Rare Books

天津图书馆古籍 Tianjin Library Rare Books

扬州市图书馆古籍 Yangzhou Library Rare Books

上海图书馆家谱 Shanghai Library Jiapu Collection

东文研汉籍影像库 Rare Books from the Toyo Bunko

哈佛大学善本特藏 Shan ben from Harvard Yenching Library

山东大学图书馆古籍 Shangdong University Library Rare Books

澳门大学图书馆古籍 Xiamen University Library Rare Books

日本永青文库捐赠汉籍 2018 Eisei Bunko Donation of Rare Books

民国时期文献 About 100,000 titles of Republican e-books

民国法律 Republican laws and regulations

民国期刊 Scanned image database for some 8,000 Republican journal titles

民国报纸 Scanned image database for the newspapers 益世报 (1917-1930), 华北日报 (1929),  新华日报 (1938-1945), and 大刚报 (1945-1951)

电子图书 Modern E-books (about 70,000 titles will full-text access)

博士论文 Index database (no full-text) for doctoral theses including abstracts and table of contents information

民族文字古籍特藏库 Rare books and manuscripts in the scripts and languages of the national minorities

广西民族文字古籍特藏库 Collection of national minorities documents from Guangxi

云南民族文字古籍特藏库 Collection of national minorities documents from Yunnan

西藏民族文字古籍特藏 Collection of national minorities documents from Tibet

日本细菌战资源库 Database on Japanese Bacteriological Warfare

东京审判资源库 Database on the Tokyo Trials (please note that this database is different than the one that Princeton users have access to that was developed by Shanghai Jiaotong University)

中华古籍善本联合书目 Chinese Shanben Catalog (图录 of 3,481 editions of 善本 in Chinese and international collections. In most cases only the first page of the first juan is available for viewing. The information provided about the holding institutions is rather cryptic.)

Regrettably, NLC does not currently provide a central search index to all of the databases above. Most of the collections however are actually listed in the Zhongguo Yanjiu Faxian system. An empty search in this system will bring up a complete list of purely bibliographic entries and entries for scanned rare books from many libraries from China and beyond. Selecting the 开源 option allows browsing the free online collections of all libraries by subject (an extended 四库 classification). This function might in many cases provide better discovery options for the material in the free NLC collections that the actual databases above, but many of the links in Zhongguo Yanjiu Faxian have not yet been update to the free version of the NLC databases.

Zhongguo xieben wenxian shuzi ziyuan ku = 中國寫本文獻數字資源庫

Operated by the China Academic Digital Associative Library (CADAL) this database includes Dunhuang manuscripts (images included are mostly from China and the UK, but are supposed to increase over the next years) as well as collections of other local manuscripts (currently mostly contracts). The database is freely available. Please note that the image viewer of the database works best with the Edge and Chrome browsers, but seems to have problems with Firefox.