Ying Jing restores a piece of ancient text page. Photo: Courtesy of Ying Jing

China's first dedicated legislation on ancient book protection was submitted for deliberation recently in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, local media Sichuan Daily reported. The protection of ancient books can been clothed in the specific regulation.

The proposed legislation, totaling 33 articles, addresses issues from facility infrastructure to and technological innovation. Notably, it defines that ancient books refer to documents and texts produced before 1912, as well as those from 1912 to 1949 with classical binding styles, including ancient books in Chinese and minority languages.

"If passed, Sichuan's pioneering legislation would not only boost local preservation efforts but also serve as a model, reference and example for ancient book protection laws across the country," Liu Zheng, a member of the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics, told the Global Times. 

Ancient books, as textual records of knowledge and history, are "vital carriers of Chinese culture," especially rare minority-language texts, Liu said. Mostly paper-based, they are highly vulnerable to damage from water, fire, pests and disasters. 

"Unlike other relics, ancient books require an understanding of content to appreciate their value. This makes them harder to protect and easier to overlook," added Liu.

But preservation of ancient books isn't just about storage - it's about people. China now has around 1,000 restoration specialists, up from fewer than 100 a decade ago. Still, that number falls short of the growing demand. More talent is being cultivated, and technology is playing an increasingly vital role in helping these ancient books survive and thrive.

Talent at the core

A key feature of the draft legislation is its emphasis on cultivating a robust workforce dedicated to ancient book conservation. It calls for a comprehensive talent development system - from training and deployment to evaluation and incentives. The draft also encourages universities and vocational schools to develop programs focused on ancient books and supports collaborations between institutions and schools to jointly train specialized preservation talent.

That pipeline has begun to take shape. There are more than 40 colleges and vocational schools in China offering specialized training in ancient book conservation. Universities such as Fudan University and Tianjin Normal University have established dedicated research institutes. 

More than 500 training sessions about the ancient book preservation have been held, cultivating over 20,000 individuals from some 2,000 preservation units nationwide, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

One of these professionals is Ying Jing, 32, who began studying ancient book restoration at Fudan University in 2017. She has been working at the Zhejiang University Library since 2017, restoring ancient texts page by page.

"The philosophy behind restoration is more important than the process itself," Ying told the Global Times on Tuesday. "We follow principles such as 'restoring the old as old,' with minimal intervention and reversibility."

Ancient book restoration is a painstaking process that could involve over a dozen steps - from initial analysis and disassembly to cleaning, edge repair, flattening, resewing and rebinding, according to Ying. "Creating a right restoration plan is the challenging part," Ying said. "Especially when dealing with special cases like water-smudged ink."

Although talent pool is growing, challenges remain. Ying said China's ancient book restoration efforts currently face some challenges, including a shortage of skilled professionals, uneven expertise levels and slow restoration progress.

Addressing the shortage of book restoration talent, she expressed optimism, noting that more graduate students are entering the field and the staffing situation is expected to improve over time.

Tech meets tradition

Government documents, including the 2022 guidelines on advancing ancient books work and the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), underscore China's commitment to merging tradition with modernity in the preservation, research and utilization of ancient texts.

Another major component of the legislation is the integration of modern technology into ancient book protection, promoting the use of modern technologies to enhance preservation, restoration and broader utilization efforts.

The digitization of ancient books offers a key solution to balancing the preservation and use of them while physical handling risks damage, digital versions allow wider access without harming the originals, helping unlock books' historical value for future development, Liu noted.

On May 29, East China's Shandong Province launched its own digital initiative - the Shandong ancient book digital resource platform, featuring over 4,903 volumes and 408 rare titles across a wide range of categories, including woodblock prints, handwritten manuscripts and engraved texts.

According to a document sent by the Peking University Press to the Global Times, the press has completed the digitization of the Essence of Confucian Canon, which includes 670 key Confucian texts. 

"The digital platform replicates the print edition and enhances research with tools for word counts, punctuation analyses, keyword search and categorized results, allowing readers to generate and download visual data charts," Sun Xian, a deputy director of the Digital Publishing Center of Peking University Press, told the Global Times.

Nationwide, 130,000 digitized ancient works, approximately 80 percent hosted by the National Library's Chinese Ancient Books Resource Database, are now freely accessible, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

According to the Xinhua report, the next frontier lies in artificial intelligence (AI). The newly launched smart ancient books platform by the National Library uses AI to auto-punctuate, translate and annotate classical Chinese, highlighting figures, dates and locations in color.

"Technology has injected vitality into conservation, while public engagement ensures these treasures endure," said Zhang Zhiqing, a former executive deputy director of the National Library.