Origins of Some Early Donations

Throughout its history, the success of the Chinese studies program and the China Collection at UHM is largely due to the invaluable support of many people near and far. But there was a lack of detailed information about how some of older items made their way into the collection in the early days. By revealing the history how we obtained several library items, this section intends to showcase the collective effort in supporting the Chinese studies at UH. 

The Collectanea is considered an essential library of traditional literary works, dating from ancient China to the early 20th century. In 1919, a new edition of the library was compiled by Zhang Yuanji 張元濟 (1867—1959), a well-regarded scholar and publisher who relied on the most authoritative editions of each text to create his new compilation. At the time of the founding of the UH Chinese Department in 1922, there were not many Chinese language materials for teaching and learning available in Hawai'i. This set was given to UH in 1927, and is among the earliest Chinese language materials items in the collection. Running to over 2,000 titles, this set of books made it possible for the UH scholarly community to access many of the most important literary, historical, philosophical, and political texts in the Chinese scholarly tradition. 

Gift of Mei Lan-Fang, 1930

Another early years donation is titled Mei Lanfang gequ pu 梅蘭芳歌曲譜 (Selections from the repertoire of operatic songs and terpsichorean melodies of Mei Lanfang)

A selection of the songs in his repertoire, Mei Lanfang ge qu pu 梅蘭芳歌曲譜, was given to the Library soon after his performance.

Gift of Sun Fo and Wang Yunwu, 1930's

There are 7 volumes in total, donated by J. F. Rock Estate in 1964.  The photo above is the first page of Volume 1, From Yünnanfu to Chengtufu, December 1924 to March 1925.  If you’re interested in viewing this set, please contact the Library's University Archives and Manuscripts Collection (archives@hawaii.edu ) to make an appointment.  Most photos taken by Rock during his explorations in China are kept in the Arnold Arboretum Horticultural Library and Harvard-Yenching Library and can be viewed online.

One of Rock’s main academic contributions, was the study of the Naxi people during his stay in Yunnan Province from 1920s to 1940s, and collected thousands of Naxi manuscripts .

Naxi Dongba Literature Manuscripts

The Naxi 納西 are an ethnic minority group in China who speak a Sino-Tibetan language written in its own unique script. Called Naxi Dongba 納西东巴, this is a pictographic writing system that was typically mastered by priests. Their scriptures required intensive training to be read or interpreted, and were largely comprehensible only to the priests themselves. 

Joseph Rock worked with a number of Dongba priests to produce transcriptions and detailed readings of the most important ceremonial texts, as well as a dictionary-encyclopedia. Rock kindly donated his work on Naxi literature, titled Studies in Na-khi Literature, to the Oriental Institute Library, which was reprinted in the Journal of the Oriental Institute, July 1938. 

Original Naxi Manuscripts

Joseph Rock also collected numerous manuscripts and is responsible for the large majority (over 7,000) of the Naxi works that exist outside of China. The Library of Congress's Naxi manuscript collection is considered the largest and the finest outside China. 

Currently, Hamilton Library owns two Naxi manuscripts that Rock brought back from China. But they were not donated by Rock himself, but by different persons at different times. One is in black and white; the other is colored. Both were written in Naxi pictographs; each page divided into 3 rows of cells, with each cell containing multiple pictographs; ruled in ink; sewn at left edge.