The Han, Wei, Liu Chao Stone Inscriptions Database includes 2488 rubbings made from 2466 stone inscriptions. It is based on the 2008 published 《漢魏六朝碑刻校注》by the late historian Mao Yuanming. Additional material from archeological reports ranging up to 2015 has been added. Where available high quality images of the rubbings have been added to the database and can be viewed side by side with the text. The database is full-text searchable, but operates copy protection. Copying of text is only possible via a pop-up that will show when a section of text is marked.
To use the database you have to sign in with a user account. You have the following two choices:
1) You can use one of four generic Princeton accounts with the following details
Username:
plsdguji4@163.com
plsdguji3@163.com
plsd2@163.com
plsd1@163.com
Password (for all of the 4 accounts above): 123123
2) You can register a personal account
To sign in for both options please choose 登录 on the upper left and then switch to 邮箱登录 on the following page (right under the large 登录 button).
Please also note: The copy protection of this database has issues with some browsers! At the moment Chrome and Edge work fine, while Firefox sometimes does not display the rightly encoded content!
The National Library of China (NLC) has opened 21 databases on its 中国古籍保护网 to the public.
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
徽州善本家谱 Collection of Huizhou Jiapu
中华医药典籍资源库（测试版）Classical works of Chinese Medicine (Beta)
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
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
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 Guji 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 Guji Faxian have not yet been update to the free version of the NLC databases.
The Song Tomb Inscriptions Database is the first section of Zhonghua Shuju’s Chinese Stone Inscriptions Database 《中華石刻數據庫》. It includes 8,800 items in its first part 初编 and 1,940 items in its second part 续编. The database has been constructed under the direction of the Song Historian Li Weiguo. The texts have been collated from various sources like the 《全宋文》, archeological reports and from private collections of rubbings. The sources of each epitaph are given on the respective page. Where available high quality images of the rubbings have been added to the database and can be viewed side by side with the text. The database is full-text searchable, but operates copy protection. Copying of text is only possible via a pop-up that will show when a section of text is marked.
Please note: While searching will bring up results from both the 初编 and the 续编, if you want to browse the included items of each part you have to switch manually to the other part of the database. You can do this by selecting the 中华石刻数据库 logo on the top left and then select the respective part from the menu of the individual sub-databases.
To make use of all the database features you have to sign in with a user account. You have the following two choices:
1) You can use one of four generic Princeton accounts with the following details
Username:
plsdguji4@163.com
plsdguji3@163.com
plsd2@163.com
plsd1@163.com
Password (for all of the 4 accounts above): 123123
2) You can register a personal account
To sign in for both options please choose 登录 on the upper left and then switch to 邮箱登录 on the following page (right under the large 登录 button).
Please also note: The copy protection of this database has issues with some browsers! At the moment Chrome and Edge work fine, while Firefox sometimes does not display the rightly encoded content!
The Tang Tomb Inscriptions Database is a sub-section of Zhonghua Shuju’s Chinese Stone Inscriptions Database 《中華石刻數據庫》. It currently includes about 10,000 items, but will eventually include 12,500 items. It has been constructed under the direction of the art historian Peng Xinglin who has privately collected more than 8,000 rubbings and has opened a private gallery the 千唐志金石馆 for his collection in Weifang in 2017. The texts have been collated from Peng Xinglin's private collection and various other sources, like published works and archeological reports. Where available high quality images of the rubbings have been added to the database and can be viewed side by side with the text. The database is full-text searchable, but operates copy protection. Copying of text is only possible via a pop-up that will show when a section of text is marked.
To use the database you have to sign in with a user account. You have the following two choices:
1) You can use one of four generic Princeton accounts with the following details
Username:
plsdguji4@163.com
plsdguji3@163.com
plsd2@163.com
plsd1@163.com
Password (for all of the 4 accounts above): 123123
2) You can register a personal account
To sign in for both options please choose 登录 on the upper left and then switch to 邮箱登录 on the following page (right under the large 登录 button).
Please note: The copy protection of this database has issues with some browsers! At the moment Chrome and Edge work fine, while Firefox sometimes does not display the rightly encoded content!
A Chinese database for epigraphical material. Click on the blue button 进入产品主页 to open the database.
