Congshu jicheng 叢書集成

Congshu jicheng 叢書集成 "Complete Collection of Books from [Various] Collectanea" is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) compiled and published by the Commercial Press 商務印書館 in Shanghai between 1935 and 1937. It is one of the largest and most widespread series of traditional Chinese literature of all genres. The first series (Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編) includes 4,111 books. It was originally planned to create 4,000 volumes, yet because of the Sino-Japanese war this immense project could not be realized, and only 3,467 volumes were brought out.

It was especially titles already included in the imperial series Siku quanshu 四庫全書 from the 18th century that were not taken into consideration for the Congshu jicheng. The compilers focused on interesting books that were not so easily to obtain in other libraries or were rarely included in widely circulating series. It was decided that the books of the Congshu jicheng were not to be arranged according to the four traditional literary categories (sibu 四部) like in the collectanea Siku congkan 四部叢刊 or Sibu beiyao 四部備要, but according to a more modern concept of literary genres and themes, each theme with many sub-chapters, namely:

1. General themes (zonglei 總類)

2. Philosophy (zhexue lei 哲學類)

3. Religion (zongjiao lei 宗教類)

4. Social sciences (shehui kexue lei 社會科學類)

5. Linguistics (yuwenxue lei 語文學類)

6. Natural sciences (ziran kexue lei 自然科學類)

7. Practical sciences (yingyong kexue 應用科學, i. e. medicine, diet, writings, and crafts)

8. Arts (yishu lei 藝術類)

9. Belles-lettres (wenxue lei 文學類)

10. History and geography (shi-di lei 史地類)

Some of the books were reprinted as facsimiles, but most texts were newly composed in modern typesetting with punctuation. These texts include many typesetting errors.

After its publication the Congshu jicheng was immediately welcomed by the public and became one of the most popular "libraries" of Republican China. The series was accompanied by an index providing short bibliographic descriptions to all texts, the Congshu jicheng chubian mulu 叢書集成初編目錄. The whole series was reprinted as a facsimile in 1985 by the Zhonghua Shuju Press 中華書局 as a pocket library in 3,467 small-size volumes. This edition also includes the titles that could not be published in the pre-war edition. In 1991 by the Commercial Press in Beijing 商務印書館 produced a further edition.

In 1965 and 1966, Wang Yunwu 王雲五 (1888-1979) of the Taiwan Commercial Press 臺灣商務印書館 published a short version of the series, the Congshu jicheng jianbian 叢書集成簡編, in 861 volumes.

The Congshu jicheng was republished between 1965 and 1970 by the Yiwen Yinshuguan 藝文印書館 in a quite different form. Under the title of Baibu congshu jicheng 百部叢書集成, short Baibu congshu 百部叢書 "One hundred series of collectanea", the sources used for the compilation of the Congshu jicheng, namely one hundred different series, were printed as facsimiles. Titles included in more than one series were checked for the best quality and the best variant was chosen, so that each title only appears once in the whole collection. In theory, all titles found in the Congshu jicheng are also to be found in the Baibu congshu. The latter is in textual respect, more accurate, because it is a facsimile of original texts, while most texts in the Congshu jicheng have been transformed into modern moveable typesetting, a process leading to quite a few typographical errors. The Baibu congshu jicheng includes 4,144 titles in 7,950 traditional thread-bound booklets. The chief publisher was Yan Yiping 嚴一萍 (1912-1987).

In 1970 and 1971 the Yiwen Yinshuguan published a sequel to the Congshu jicheng chubian, the Congshu jicheng xubian 叢書集成續編, with 774 books in 1,557 volumes in 176 cases.