Upon approval by the Ministry of Education, the SCU Ancient Books Collation and Research Institute was established in 1983 ( hereinafter referred to as the Ancient Books Institute ), becoming an institute engaged in the collation and research of Chinese classical literature.
Over the past 35 years, the Ancient Books Institute has undergone three major stages of development with all the staff working hard under the leadership of well-known scholars such as Zhongshu Xu, Yue Miu, Zhenduo Zhao, Zhaoxi Hu, zhaozhuang Zeng, Lin Liu, etc. It has taken part in compiling the Great Chinese Dictionary, and presided over the compilation of classical documents such as Compendium of Literary Works of Song Dynasty (Quan Song Wen), Compendium of Confucian Woks (Rucang), and Anthology of Ancient Books of Sichuan and Chongqing (Bashu Quan Shu). In addition, the institute has successively undertaken over 80 major projects and general projects of the National Social Science Foundation, major projects and planning projects of the Ministry of Education, key disciplines construction projects of "211 Project" and "985 Project", ancient books collation project of the National College Ancient Books Committee and philosophy and social sciences of Sichuan Province. What is more, the institute has published more than 1,500 academic papers and over 150 monographs (in more than 1000 volumes). As a result, the institute has won more than 30 awards or honors at the provincial and ministerial levels. It has made great contributions to the research of Song Dynasty culture, Confucian culture and Bashu culture after the reform and opening-up. The stories of the writers and editors have reflected the ups and downs during the years of reform and opening up.
The Great Chinese Dictionary is the first outstanding achievement the Ancient Books Institute has made after its founding. After 15 years of painstaking work by more than 300 scholars, the Great Chinese Dictionary, which contains more than 56,000 words, has been published. This is the largest Chinese dictionary in the world, with the largest collection of Chinese characters and the most complete explanations. Almost all the Chinese characters appearing in ancient and modern documents and books can be found in it. The Great Chinese Dictionary has fulfilled the people’s need to learn Chinese characters and removed the gap between young people and ancient literature reading. It has also bridged the cultural chasm caused by the Cultural Revolution. Not only that, the Great Chinese Dictionary is of great significance to the international community. "A book in hand, all the meaning is complete." The Great Chinese Dictionary features a wide range of characters and full pronunciation, which is very helpful for foreign scholars to understand ancient Chinese books.
The Compendium of Literary Works of Song Dynasty is the second landmark achievement produced by the Ancient Books Institute collectively. With then deputy directors Zhaozhuang Zeng and Lin Liu in charge, a team of SCU’s most competent literature and history scholars worked hard under the guidance of senior experts Mingzhao Yang and Yue Miu and compiled the book. Consisting of 360 volumes, this book contains over 100,000 articles of different styles. 95% of the writers incorporated in this compendium have never been included in any monographs before. It is by far the largest collection of articles from a particular period of history. The Song Dynasty is the peak of the development of Chinese culture. Before the Compendium of Literary Works of Song Dynasty, there were only a variety of Song Dynasty literary anthologies in China, and there was no complete and integrated compilation. In 2009, Compendium of Literary Works of Song Dynasty won the first prize of the 13th Sichuan Philosophy and Social Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award.
The compilation work has never stopped for the past 35 years. After the Compendium of Literary Works of Song Dynasty, the Ancient Books Institute has published Rucang, which is a series made up of over 5,000 books (approximately 300 million characters). Being dubbed the complete library of Bashu literature, Bashu QuanShu contains important classics written by scholars of Bashu from the Pre-Qin Dynasty to the end of Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China. The content areas touch upon many aspects, such as philosophy, military affairs, culture, nationality and geography. Bashu Quanshu has been compiled since 2010 and is still in progress.
Discussions of Confucian Literature, a volume of Compendium of Confucian Woks (Rucang ), Song Huiyao Jigao ( "Song Government Manuscript Compendium" ), and History of the Chinese Taoist Thought (4 Volumes) have recently won an Outstanding Achievement Award respectively at the Third Global Chinese Classics Festival. Professor Xitai Qing and Professor Shichuang Zhan of Religion Research Institute are the editor-in-chief and the deputy editor-in-chief of History of the Chinese Taoist Thought.
In the future, the Ancient Books Institute will still focus on the development of "classical Confucianism", "popular Confucianism" and "Bashu Confucianism", conducting an in-depth study of China's classical quintessence. At the same time, the institute will continue to compile and publish "Shuxue Library", "Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism Library" as well as a series of Chinese classical readers.
