Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Collection

The rich collection has over 240,000 titles of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean materials, of which about 221,000 in Chinese, 19,500 in Japanese, and 340 in Korean. The CJK materials also include 7100 titles of periodicals, 38 newspapers, 8,500 reels of microfilm, and 32,000 pieces of microfiche. The collection has comprehensive coverage and provides an extensive sources of materials for study, teaching, and research.

Complete set of some well-known Chinese series can be found, such as Ssu ku chuan shu (四庫全書), Wan yu wen ku (萬有文庫 ), Ssu pu tsung kan (四部叢刊), Ssu pu pei yao (四部備要), Chung-kuo fang chih tsung shu (中國方志叢書 ), Chung-kuo hsi pei wen hsien tsung (中國西北文獻叢書), Ching Che wang fu tsang chu pen tsui pien (清車王府藏曲本粹編). Each of these series vary from 1,000 volumes to 5,000 volumes a set.

The CJK records are catalogued using Library of Congress Classification Scheme, or National Library of Medicine Classification Scheme for medical titles, and followed the American Library Association standard romanization system for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Retrospective conversion was started in 1992 and completed in September 1997. Almost all of the records are in machine-readable form with CJK vernacular data for display and searching.

The CJK collection is kept in the University Library and five branch libraries according to the subject oriented of the materials.

Manuscript Collection

The manuscripts are works range from 16th century to recent decades. They are carefully treated in good condition for display or for collection. Chu tsu hsin hsueh an 《朱子新學案》 is one of these precious manuscript written and donated by Professor Chien Mu (錢穆), founder of the New Asia College. This title has a total of 4,813 pages in 12 cases kept in a camphor wooden box. Other manuscript titles such as Tai i ching 《太乙經》, Hsiao ching shuo 《孝經說》 by Chen Po-tao (陳伯陶), Lao-tzu chu 《老子注》 by Chen Li (陳澧), and Ch'ing Dynasty Imperial Examination script by famous scholar Chu Chiu-chiang (朱九江) are also of particular value.

Rare Book Collection

The Chinese Rare Book Collection consists of over 850 classical titles in more than 14,000 volumes in traditional silk-stitched fascicles. The eitions range from the Yuan Dynasty (1260-1368) to the end of the Qianlong (1795) of the Qing Dynasty. The cream of the collection includes the world's only copies of Synthesis of Primary Learning《小學書集成》of the Yuan Dynasty, Collected Works of Mr. Qinghu《青湖先生文集》and Sound of Chicks《鷇音集》 of the Ming Dynasty. Two authentic and valuable titles of the Wenlang edition《文瀾閣》of Complete Library of Four Branches of Books 《四庫全書》 are Zhong Cheng Ji《中丞集》 and Shu Ying《書影》. (CD-ROM version of the Wenyuange edition 《文淵閣》 of Complete Library of Four Branches of Books《四庫全書》is available in the University Library System). A complete list of tiltes can be found in the Library Catalogue and a published guide to the collection entitled Annotated Bibliography of Chinese Rare Books in the CUHK Libraries《香港中文大學圖書館古籍善本書錄》.

Complementing the Chinese rare books are the Western language books published before 1900. Both Chinese and Western rare books are kept in the Rare Book Room on the 3/F of the Library at TKP Building.