Brief information on Tianyi Pavilion  

Tianyi Pavilion lies on the west of the picturesque Moon Lake of Ningbo City in Zhejiang Province. It is the oldest surviving private library in China and Asia, and also one of the three oldest family libraries in the world. It was founded in the fortieth year of Jiajing’s reign of the Ming Dynasty (1561) by Fan Qin, a high-ranking official at the time. Thanks to his effort, the pavilion has collected over 70,000 volumes including woodblock and handwritten copies of the Confucian classics, rare local histories and lists of the candidates successful in imperial examinations, as well as other books given by Fan’s friends.

In order to protect those collections, Fan Qin was a strict disciplinarian. For example, no one in the family was allowed to take the books out of the pavilion, and no one was allowed to keep the books for his or her own. Due to it being a private library of the Fan family, others, including women of the Fan family, were prohibited from reading books in Tianyi Pavilion. However, after over 400 years of change, only 1591 volumes remained in 1940. After the foundation of the People’s Republic of China, the local government made great efforts to protect the pavilion, and the collection of Tianyi Pavilion now stands at over 80,000 volumes, since some books were found and some others were donated by local book collectors.

Covering an area of 16,000 square meters, Tianyi Pavilion can be divided into three functional areas of book-storing culture, exhibition and gardening leisure. Today you can visit this charming place in quiet and tasteful surroundings and explore the historical, educational and economic development and culture of Ningbo City.  

*You can download the bilingual note to show it to a taxi driver or someone else to find your way to Tianyi Pavilion if you plan to visit Tianyi Pavilion and have language problems.

Address: No.5 Tianyi Street
Transportation: Bus No.2, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 19, 821