If not for him, volumes of precious, ancient Chinese books might have been destroyed during World War II.

When he passed away earlier this month, scholars across the Pacific Ocean gathered to pay homage to this witness to history.

The National Library of China in Beijing hosted a commemorative event for Tsien Tsuen-hsuin (better known as Qian Cunxun on the Chinese mainland), who is considered to be one of the greatest scholars of Chinese paleography and bibliography in the last century.

Tsien, 105, passed away on April 9 in Chicago.

"He always called himself a common librarian," says Tsien's student James Cheng, curator of Harvard-Yenching Library, one of the most renowned institutions housing Chinese written classics in the United States, at the commemorative event in NLC. "However, he felt neither humble as a librarian nor arrogant as a widely respected scholar."

When British Sinologist Joseph Needham compiled his masterpiece Science and Civilization in China, he invited Tsien to write a volume on paper and printing.

NLC opened an exhibition last week displaying Tsien's publications, pictures, letters, and manuscripts to reveal his great contribution which is little known by the Chinese public. The 100-odd exhibits give a panoramic review of Tsien's life and highlight his endeavor to protect precious ancient Chinese books during the war.

After Japan occupied Northeast China in 1931, the National Peking Library (predecessor of NLC) decided to transport some key collections of rare classic books to Shanghai in case they fell into occupiers' hands.

However, when Shanghai also got involved in the war in 1937, the library reached an agreement with the Library of Congress to secretly ship the books to the US for preservation.

Tsien was the person in charge of this duty. He disguised himself as a bookseller and used false labels, risking his life to cheat Japan's watchful eye. All 102 wooden crates, containing more than 2,700 kinds of books, safely reached the US in 1941. The last crate left Shanghai only two days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, which is when Shanghai fully fell under Japanese occupation.

In 1947, Tsien was sent to the US to retrieve the books and bring them back to Beijing. However, the social upheaval of the Chinese Civil War turned his temporary trip into a long stay. He attended the University of Chicago, where he earned a PhD and became the first full-time curator of the university's East Asian Library, making its collection of East Asian books among the best in the US.

All the saved books were transferred to Taiwan in the mid-1960s and are now housed at the National Palace Museum in Taipei. Tsien continued to appeal for the books' return to NLC, but this was not realized because of political tension between the mainland and Taiwan.

"Mr Tsien always told me his greatest regret was being unable to take the collection to its home in Beijing," Cheng recalls. In his heart, no matter where he was, he always belonged to National Peking Library, Cheng says.

As it's the 70th anniversary honoring victory in World War II, this year will also witness NLC's more exhibitions reflecting Chinese scholars' wartime struggles, according to Lin Shitian, who is in charge of the library's exhibition office.

"Librarians like Tsien also collected abundant historical files during the World War II," he says. "One important duty for a library is to preserve history. Scholars' efforts to protect our written national treasures and fight against invasions in their own ways should not be forgotten."

If You Go

9 am-5 pm, through May 4. First floor of National Library of China (north area), 33 Zhongguancun Nandajie, Haidian district, Beijing.

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