Page 86 - JCAU-4-1

Zhao Liewen’s Gardening Practices and Activities in His Diary Li & Yin

became important for him. Thereafter, he bride’s family, Zhao Kuan inherited Tianfang
spent several decades building his private Lou’s collected books. In addition, he built
Tranquil Garden (Jing Pu) and constructing another library, called “Small Moth Pavilion”
two libraries: the old and the new “Heavenly (Xiaomaiwangguan), and after the death of
Release Buildings” (“Tianfang Lou”) in the his father, he copied and corrected his diaries
Tranquil Garden. The existing Tiangfang Lou [2] . Xiaomaiwangguan Booklist is still extant,
Book Catalog is an important historic and there are 22,958 books in total. The
material for studying Changshu book books were later achieved in the Nanjing
collection culture and literati groups. Library [11] .
Since childhood, Zhao Liewen had liked
reading, especially collecting books. Every
time he went out, he very much liked strolling
around book shops, and bought rare and good
books and stored them in the old and new
Heavenly Release Buildings (Tianfang Lou).
Zhang Yu marveled at Zhao Liewen’s vast
collection of books: “The rich collection of
bronze and stone inscriptions, paintings, and
books in Tianfang Lou has made it standout
in the south” [10] . Zhao Liewen had a passion
for inscriptions in his later life and whenever
he heard others had inscriptions on ancient
bronze and stone tablets, he asked for
rubbings and modifying and correcting the
errors of predecessors, and he compiled years

of research into such works as “The Figure 5. Compilation and explanation of Stone Drum
Compilation of Stone Drum Texts” Inscriptions (Shiguwenzuanshi) printed by Zhao
(Shiguwen zuanshi), “Bronze and Stone Liewen (left). Source: Guo Liang,Zhao Liewen and
Inscriptions near the Capital City” (Jifu jinshi book collection in Tiangfanlou

lüe), and “Bronze and Stone Signatures at the
End of the Texts in the Heavenly Release
Buildings” (Tianfang Lou jinshi bawei). Gu
Wenbin praised him an expert in poems,
ancient-style proses, and lyrics, especially in
inscriptions, “He produced more than 10
rubbings of inscriptions, mostly with textual
research, which offer a glimpse” [5]538-539 . His
collected books bore the names of “Kind
Father’s Home Catalog” (“ 惠 父 寓 目 ”
Huifuyumu), “Tranquility Books” (“能静图
书” Nengjingtushu), “Liewen’s Private Seal”
(“ 烈 文 私 印 ” Liewensiyin), “Heavenly
Release Buildings” (“天放楼” Tianfang Lou),
and so on (Figures 5 and 6).
Zhao Liewen’s second son Zhao Kuan Figure 6. Zhao Liewen’s couplet in regular script
also liked collecting ancient books. As his (right). Source: Guo Liang,Zhao Liewen and book
eldest son Zhao Shi was married into the collection in Tiangfanlou

AccScience Publishing 9