Ten Thousand Books, But Only One You

13 Shibao Pavilion

Chapter 13: Shibao Pavilion

Shibao Ge, also known as the famous Shibao Pavilion located in the southwest of the capital city, was not just another a tourist attraction of ancient architecture, history and gardens.

Founded in the early years of the Qing dynasty, it was one of the oldest existing libraries in the country. The library was initially a private collection of prized rare books belonging to Shi Minzhong, an imperial historian. Over the centuries, the private collection was inherited and carefully maintained by the descendants of this official. Unfortunately, during the Opium Wars and after the fall of the Qing dynasty, the precious collection of antique books were taken and stolen by invading foreign forces and local thieves. It was only in the last few decades that many antique books were recovered from the black market, private auctions and donations from private collectors. Currently, it housed a collection of about 40,000 antique books and had been established by the local government as a national heritage site. The private library was also transformed into a museum and research library in collaboration with multiple universities. It was a widely known fact that the Shibao Pavilion also housed the ancestral home of the Shi family, which boasted a long line of ancestors who were historians of the imperial court. Nothing much was known about the family members of the present generations except that they were the owners, curators and caretakers of the Shibao Pavilion that we were familiar with today. While most people were only familiar with the building and names of people who had long turned into dust, they did not know that the Shi family had been hiding a secret for more than a century. They were the leader of a secret and mysterious organisation known as the Association of Private Libraries.

The Association of Private Libraries, simply known as "the Library Association" or "the Association" by its scattered members today, was founded in the 1700s as a society of bibliophiles who shared a hobby of collecting books. It adopted a new identity and agenda in the days of the dwindling influence of the Qing dynasty in order to combat the rising occurrences of antique books theft and to recover lost books circulating around foreign hands. As it was established by the Shi family—who had relations with the imperial family—the position of the leader was naturally inherited by the family's descendants. Today, the person at the helm of the Association was none other than Shi Ruijie, the only male direct descendant of Shi Minzhong among the younger generation of the Shi clan.

As an association, it was a given that there were members. However, membership was exclusive. There were only seven other private libraries that were a part of this organisation, and they were all at least a century old. I was not told the names of the member libraries, but Li Qin said that they had all been transformed into museums, companies or other forms of entities in different parts of the country today. For example, Ji Kai's family had incorporated their family's private library into the publishing company that they operated today. Similarly, Li Qin's family had a portfolio of numerous businesses, one of which was a franchise of bookstores with both physical and online presence. With a large extended family all over the country, they had their private library collection divided and stored in different bookstores. After all, who in the right mind would rob an ordinary bookstore?

However, despite being an association, the skill of traversing the millions of universes in books was a secret shared only by the Ji, Shi and Li clan. During the lunch meeting last week, I learnt that Ji Kai's ancestors had defied the law of physics and discovered a way to bend space and time hundreds of years ago and it was only in the last century that the skill was taught to the elite members of the Shi and Li families as disciples of Wanshu Lou.

Due to the pandemic, there were few visitors at Shibao Pavilion this year even though it was Golden Week. The management of the museum had launched free virtual tours on social media, revealing some of the secluded buildings and tranquil gardens that had never been accessible by tourists before. Bibliophiles and the general public alike had tuned into the live streams but a virtual tour could only satisfy one's eyes but not one's heart.