Scholars from China and Japan have jointly donated two ancient books to National Library of China (NLC).

Two texts of The History of the Three Kingdoms, block-printed during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) were donated by one Chinese and six Japanese scholars to NCL at a seminar on digitalization of ancient books held in Beijing.

The books were first seen by the Chinese donator Zhou Wenye at an auction in 2005. But the auctioneer failed to get the suitable buyers for the books and postponed their sale.

Zhou told his friend, a Japanese scholar Moon Kyong Kim about the books after the auction and both think the books should be preserved properly.

Zhou Wenye, Professor of Capital Normal University, said, "The books are precious cultural heritage and we persuaded the auctioneer to sell the books to us for 50,000 yuan (US$6,578) instead of auctioning them again."

Moon Kyong Kim, one of the Japanese donators said, "We hope the books can be preserved properly and we decide to donate."

"It's also easier for scholars from various countries to carry out comparative studies with other collections after they were kept in the library," Kim added.

According to Zhou, the six Japanese scholars had sent the money around 48,000 yuan to his account and Zhou, himself contributed 2,000 yuan. On behalf of the other six Japanese scholars, Zhou bought the books in 2005 and kept them in his place.

"We decided to donate the books when all of the Japanese scholars have the opportunity to come to China," Zhou said.

The seminar on Aug. 13 gave them the opportunity. All the Japanese scholars attended the seminar in Beijing on Aug. 13, including Moon Kyong Kim, professor of Kyoto University; Yoshihiro Nikaibou, professor of Kansai University; Taizan Inoue, professor of Kansai University; Nozomu Ueda, associate professor of Kanazawa University; Masahiko Takeuchi, associate professor of Ryukoku University; Satoshi Nakagawa, associate professor of Daito Bunka University.

With a total of 65 volumes, The History of the Three Kingdoms written by Chen Shou focuses on the history of the Wei, Shu and Wu kingdoms (184 to 280 AD).

NLC President Zhan Furui said "it's the first time that someone bought ancient books for donation since I came here in 1993."

Zhan said, "The NLC has 30 volumes of the books stored in library, but parts of the first volume were torn and the donated books complete the collection as they include the complete first and second volumes.

"The library will scan the books and enable more readers have access to the books through internet," Zhan said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2007)