The Lu Xun Library of the Oriental Institute

During the 1930s Professor Pruşek spent several years in China where he became engaged in research on contemporary literature, making personal contacts with many important personalities in Chinese cultural life, such as Lu Xun, Mao Dun and Guo Moruo.
In 1950 a draft agreement on a future Chinese library in Prague was discussed with the Chinese minister of Culture and representatives of various Chinese universities and libraries. Subsequently about 27,000 volumes were selected by Professor Pruşek and other sinologists. Added to the 2000 Chinese books assembled by the Oriental Institute before World War II, they formed the core of the new library which was named in honour of Lu Xun, the founder of modern Chinese literature, and a personal acquaintance of Professor Pruşek.
The library thus created contains mainly works on Chinese written and oral literature, literary criticism, histories of Chinese literature written in the 1920s and 1930s, drama, art, ancient history and so forth.
The library grew significantly in the 1950s, and by the early 1960s held about 55,000 volumes and over 300 serial titles. The library had close links with the Peking National Library, the Academia Sinica Library and other important institutions. At that time the Prague library was the sixth largest of its kind in Europe and its holdings of contemporary Chinese literature were among the finest in Europe.
During the 1960s, due to strained political relations between China and the USSR, contacts between the Lu Xun Library and its Chinese counterparts practically ceased. However, exchanges with institutions in other countries continued to develop during this period, and the library grew by 5000 volumes in the years 1967-1975.
Present holdings are approximately 66,000 volumes, and the library's task for the future is to re-establish effective contacts with Chinese partners and to begin regular contacts with other Chinese libraries in Europe.
The library contains an excellent range of congshu (including dynastic histories and Chinese drama), mainly reprints published in the first half of the twentieth century, but including some dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Another part of the library includes interesting titles dealing with classical Chinese civilization -- Taoist canon Dao zang, Chinese Buddhist canon San zang jing (Pinjia edition), a collection of local gazetteers Difang zhi. A unique feature of the Lu Xun library is its collection of modern Chinese literature, which provides an almost complete record of literary production for the period 1919-1949. Some interesting serial titles from the first half of the twentieth century are held, including complete runs of Xiaoshuo yuebao (1910-1930) and Xin qingnian (1915-1926). Up to the beginning of the 1960s the library obtained about 300 titles of periodicals. The only valuable accession in the 1960s was a collection of Red Guard publications. At present the library receives only fourteen titles of journals and the supply of books is also very low. In 1991 a gift was received from the Embassy of the People's Republic of China, and this enriched the library by some 300 titles of books published in China in the 1980s.
The main purpose of the Lu Xun Library is to provide a service to researchers. The library is able to supply microfilm or xerographic copies of materials acquired before the 'cultural revolution'. Interlibrary loans are possible, though books published before 1949 are not permitted to leave the Czech Republic. Researchers are welcome to make use of the collections in person.

The Lu Xun Library
Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Pod voddárenskou vezí 4
182 08 Praha 8 - Liben
Czech Republic
Tel: +42-2-6605 2514
Fax: +42-2-7987260