page_title: Tianyi Ge
hierarchical_section_title: Tianyi Ge
caption_attribution_description: English: Tian Yi Chamber inscription board on main library building 中文（简体）‎: 天一阁藏书楼匾额
context_page_description: The Tianyi Ge, translated as Tianyi Pavilion or Tianyi Chamber, is a library and garden located in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China. It is the oldest existing library in China. Founded in 1561 by Fan Qin during the Ming dynasty. In its heyday, it boasted a collection of 70,000 volume of antique books.
  The name Tian Yi refers to the concept of cosmic unity first described in a Han dynasty commentary to the Book of Changes. In Chinese alchemy Tianyi is linked to the element of water, thus it was believed by providing a watery name would protect the library against fire damage.
  The Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty visited Tianyi Ge, and ordered officials to draw schematics of Tianyi Ge's building plan and book cases as prototype to build several imperial libraries including Wenyuan Ge in the Forbidden City, and Wenjin Ge in the Chengde Mountain Resort to house the Siku Quanshu encyclopedia.
  After the Second Opium War, the British took many books from the libraries collection of geography and history texts. These losses were followed by further thefts by local thieves. By 1940, the collection dwindled to less than 20,000 volumes.
context_section_description: The Tianyi Ge (Chinese: 天一阁; pinyin: Tiān Yī Gé; lit.: 'One Sky Pavilion'), translated as Tianyi Pavilion or Tianyi Chamber, is a library and garden located in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China. It is the oldest existing library in  China. Founded in 1561 by Fan Qin during the Ming dynasty. In its heyday, it boasted a collection of 70,000 volume of antique books.
  The name Tian Yi refers to the concept of cosmic unity first described in a Han dynasty commentary to the Book of Changes. In Chinese alchemy Tianyi is linked to the element of water, thus it was believed by providing a watery name would protect the library against fire damage.
  The Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty visited Tianyi Ge, and ordered officials to draw schematics of Tianyi Ge's building plan and book cases as prototype to build several imperial libraries including Wenyuan Ge in the Forbidden City, and Wenjin Ge in the Chengde Mountain Resort to house the Siku Quanshu encyclopedia.
  After the Second Opium War, the British took many books from the libraries collection of geography and history texts. These losses were followed by further thefts by local thieves. By 1940, the collection dwindled to less than 20,000 volumes. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, due to governmental effort and donations by private collectors, the collection recovered somewhat to about 30,000 volumes, mostly rare antique Ming dynasty printed and hand copied volumes.
  In 1982, Tianyi Ge was established by the Chinese authorities as a National Heritage Site. The Qin Family Drama Stage is also located in the complex.
  The walls were specially constructed to prevent fire.
caption: Tianyi Ge
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FZ30", "Image Orientation": "0", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa 3.0", "Image DateTime": "2008:10:30 10:25:35", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "422", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "6824", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4280", "EXIF ExposureTime": "5/16", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:10:30 10:25:35", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:10:30 10:25:35", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "37/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1500", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1125", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "6700", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Custom", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "35", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "612beef15bb1a6bc9cdd6869dd7e7f44"}