Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 39. (1986)
Archive Buildings and the Conservation of Archival Material. An Expert Meeting, held in Vienna, Austria October 30 - November 1, 1985 - YU-CHENG, Yao: China's Archive Buildings: Past and Present
CHINA’S ARCHIVE BUILDINGS: PAST AND PRESENT By Yao Yu-Cheng China is a country with an ancient civilization. She has a long history of archives construction and some special experience in archival material safekeeping. China’s archival work can be traced back to the Hsia Dynasty, the first dynasty of class society established after the fall of primitive communes in China, more than 4000 years ago. From archaeology, we find that China’s earliest archives mediums were bones and tortoise shells. They were used to record events or prayers during the Shang Dynasty. The Shang Dynasty was another slave kingdom following the Hsia, it controlled the country from 1562 to 1066 B. C. From 772 to 221 B. C. China entered the period called Spring-Autumn and Warring States. During this period China was divided into many states. At that time, China’s archival material changed from bones and shells to bamboo slips and silk, and many of the states had their own special building for keeping archives. Besides, there were two other means for recording important events: one was to put the inscriptions on bronze objects and another on stone tablets. After 200 B. C., plant fibre paper was invented in China. This is a great contribution to human civilization. The archive buildings were built with a clear conception of fire-proofing. For example, an ancient archive building designed by a famous statesman of that time was located on a canal so as to get water easily and quickly in case of fire. From then on, each dynasty had its own archive building with a distinctive name and some interesting stories handed down. All I have said is based upon unearthed relics or historical records in ancient books. Most of the ancient archive buildings were destroyed. Very few of them have been well preserved up to the present day. The best-preserved and the oldest one among the existing archive buildings is called Huang Shi Chen, which means the building of royal archives, built in 1534 in Beijing, with a history of 450 years. Huang Shi Chen covers an area of over 8000 square metres: it is composed of a main hall, two side halls, and a pavillion. The outer appearance of the main hall looks very much like a magnificent building in the Forbidden city: golden glazed roofs, upturned eaves, painted beams and rafters and a high platform base with white marble balustrades. But its interior has an unusual design. It
