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by Lars Laamann
Bibliophiles and researchers with a specific interest in the history of the Catholic missions to China have doubtlessly held a copy in their hands: the
Catalogue
de la Bibliotheque du Pe-
Tang
by H. Verhaeren, completed in 1949 -
only months
before events on the Chinese mainland forced all remaining missionaries to
leave.
The origins and development of the Collection illustrate the history of the
missionary presence in China. Let us recall that the Catholic mission in
Beijing had -
with minor and major periods of stagnation and repression -
for a period surpassing
three hundred years been accommodated in four churches. These missionary
centres
had been accommodated to the geographical (and geomantic) conditions of the
capital
and positioned according to the four directions of the compass1. The
Northern
Cathedral ¥_°ó (Beitang, in older versions seen as
Pei-
t'ang
or Pe-
Tang)
was founded
in the year 1693, when the Chinese imperial government still regarded
Christianity
favourably. It is dedicated to Jesus the Saviour, its library hence bears the
official title
Bibliotheca Sancti Salvatoris. The missionaries stationed at the
Beitang were directly
subject to the changes in official attitude towards Christianity,
missionaries and
foreigners in general, in particular after the edict of 1724 issued by the
Yongzheng
emperor, banning all missionary activities outside the capital area. The
tragic
consequences of the Rites Controversy exacerbated the fate of the Mission,
transferred
into the hands of the Lazarist order after the Society of Jesus had been
disbanded. In
order to prevent an irreversible dispersion of Western printed materials in
Beijing, it
was decided to concentrate the holdings all missionary libraries in the
Library of the
Sacred Saviour. The newly stocked library included the holdings of the four
capital
cathedrals, of several private book collections extracted from the
possessions of
former missionaries in the capital area, of around one dozen libraries
belonging to
missionary outposts in the provinces, in addition to a considerable number of
titles of
unclear origin. Western monographs in the Beitang collection comprise
titles
composed in the following European languages: French, Latin, Italian,
Spanish,
Portuguese, German, Greek, Dutch, English, Hebrew, Polish and "Slavonic"
(organized in this order in Verhaeren's catalogue). Of the once considerable
Chinese
collection only handlists of the titles have survived, which can be consulted
as
manuscripts in the collections of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.2 The
book
collection survived all the disturbances of the following two centuries
without major damage, though not without some arduous journeys: the latter
inclnded a temporary retuge in a Christian cemetery in Beijing, a sojourn to a
small Lazarist parish in Inner Mongolia, followed by years of administration by
the Russian Orthodox mission. Only after the militarily enforced treaty of 1860
(one of the infamous Unequal Treaties of the nineteenth century) could a
transfer back into the original setting to the north of the Forbidden City be
attempted. The Beitang Library was to remain in this location until the decades
of warfare came to a close, and the Communist forces under Mao Zedong declared
the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949. In accordance with the new
government's policy of secularisation and renationalisation of foreign
property, most of the contents3 of the Beitang library were integrated
into the holdings of the National Library of China (¥_¨Ê¹Ï®ÑÀ]). After its
transfer into the new library building in the western districts of Beijing, the
collections became part of the Department of Rare Books. Readers interested in
the Beitang collection be warned that the books are not considered "safe" for
public viewing, i.e. require a special permission by the library management.4
1 Christian churches are known in Chinese as "Halls of Teaching"
±Ð°ó jiaotang, hence the Catholic
cathedrals in Beijing all add the character °ó after each
character representing the four directions. Apart from the Northern Beitang
cathedral, which played host to the missionaries from the French province
of the Society of Jesus, the following three "Halls" were of significance: the
cathedrals of the South and East («n°ó Nantang
and ªF°ó Dongtang, founded in
1605 and in 1655, respectively) accommodating the Portuguese Jesuits and the
Western cathedral ¦è°ó Xitang, consecrated in
1701),
where the missionaries of the Vatican were located.
2 Regretfully, even less can be said for the manuscriyt collection, which fell
victim to a fire in 1864.
Rumours concerning the existence of a recently discovered cache of archival
materials were ill
founded, as I could see with my own eyes. The papers were indubitably not
examples of the expected missionary correspondence, diaries, or similar items
but simply the hand-
written
filing cards for a catalogue (probably Verhaeren's, compiled between 1940 and
1943).
3 One of the (rather accidental) results of my journey was the discovery of an
unquantifiable portion of
the collection in the buildings of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Knowing the inclination of
Chinese institutions to resist compromise, I consider a return of these books
to their original collection
as rather unlikely.
4 I would be more than happy to help anybody interested in me collection with
attempts to gain access
to the ¥_°ó®Ñ®w. You can
contact me either in writing (British Library (OIOC), Chinese Acquisitions,
197 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8NG, England) or by e-
mail
lars.laamann@bl.uk
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