I started collecting books around the early 1980s. At that time, as a high school student, I used my accumulated savings to buy the first batch of books in my life. From then on, I became acquainted with ancient books. My initial book collection was based on my own knowledge spectrum and reading interests, and I decided which books to purchase. Since middle school, I have enjoyed reading classical poetry and novels. At the beginning of the book collection, there were quite a few books of this type. On my bookshelf, there is a collection of "Yuefu Poetry Collection" from the Qinglu Confucian edition of the Yuan Dynasty to the Zhengyuan era. I collected it because I recited "Yuefu Shuangbi", "Peacock Flies Southeast" and "Mulan Poetry" in high school, and wanted to see what form they took in ancient books. The Yuefu Poetry Collection "is a collection of Yuefu poems from the Han, Wei, Tang, and Five Dynasties dynasties, as well as pre Qin and late Tang ballads, compiled by Guo Maoqian of the Song Dynasty. The earliest version of it was the Zhejiang edition at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Southern Song Dynasty. From the Yuan Dynasty to the Zhengyuan year, the Jiqing Road Confucian edition was continuously revised and printed until the Ming Dynasty. In the late Ming Dynasty, there was a Mao Jin Jigu Ge edition carved from the Yuan edition. By the Qing Dynasty, there were only reprinted Jigu Ge editions available. The vast majority of the Song Dynasty engraved version of the "Yuefu Poetry Collection" is housed in the National Library; The 84 volumes of the Yuanzhi Zhengyuan edition are stored in the Shanghai Library; The Peking University Library holds a supplementary edition of the Ming Jiajing edition of the Jinan Peng's school magazine from the sixth year of the Yuan Dynasty. The "Yuefu Poetry Collection" I have in hand are all Yuan Dynasty editions, some of which were purchased from Baoyi Zhai in Hangzhou in 1997 and the other from Bogu Zhai in Shanghai in 1999. They are not a set. Due to the rarity of Song and Yuan editions, I did not hesitate too much when purchasing these ancient books. So far, I have not collected all my original editions of the Yuefu Poetry Collection, but I still have a complete set of 'greedy' dreams. The ancient saying goes, 'Gathering good books and goods will ultimately lead to greed.'. I think my greed for books is like a stubborn illness, which may be difficult to cure for a lifetime. After reading some classical literary works, I began to read academic works, especially "Confucian classics". Poetry and novels can cultivate one's temperament, while academic works are more rigorous and condensed ideological systems, which have influenced the way of thinking of our nation throughout history. Now my book collection system is mainly focused on Confucianism, which is probably a shift from personal interests to systematic collection. In my collection of books, there is a copy of the "Book of Rites" by the Xu family in Wu County (now Suzhou) during the Ming Dynasty Jiajing period, which was engraved in the Song Dynasty. The Book of Rites "is a book that records the ancient laws and regulations of China, and is one of the" Six Arts ". Its author is unknown, but it was probably written by multiple people. After being edited and edited by the Han Dynasty scholars Dai De and Dai Sheng, it was compiled into the" Da Dai Li "and" Xiao Dai Li ". There have been many annotations and commentaries since the Northern Zhou Dynasty. The Tibetan edition I have in hand was purchased during my visit to Yangzhou in 1995 and is a Ming Jiajing edition. Although it is a Ming edition, it can be seen that the base edition is a Song edition because there are many taboo characters from the Song Dynasty. This set of books is original in letter and packaging, with excellent appearance, and because it is based on the Song edition, it has been regarded as a good edition since the mid to late Qing Dynasty. The ancients divided books into four major categories: classics, history, literature, and collections. Pursuing the completeness of the four books is the goal of many book collectors. After reaching a certain number of books, I started writing books about the stories of ancient books preserved and passed down. An ancient book, from its birth to the present day, has a history of over a thousand years or even hundreds of years. It contains many touching stories about loving and protecting culture. I hope more people know the stories of ancient book collections. If I just hide without mentioning, I'm worried that I'll become a mere 'warehouse manager'. After years of collecting books, people often ask me these questions: why do we need to collect books, and what is the significance of collecting books? What are the requirements for a book collection? Is the older the book, the more valuable it is? Why do we need to collect books? For those who have little preference for books, they may just be a pile of dusty and tattered paper, but for those who like them, they are priceless treasures for transmitting and inheriting culture. Since modern times, our book forms and media have undergone significant changes. Those ancient books with exquisite paper and ink, high-quality content, carefully printed, and beautifully bound are becoming increasingly valuable as cultural dissemination becomes more convenient, book content becomes more popular, and book costs become lower. This is the value of books themselves. When discussing the value of books, I also want to explore the value of life. In the public opinion of Tai Shi, "death is inherent in human beings. It may be heavier than Mount Tai, or lighter than a feather. It may be used differently.". In life, when one is young, they may be reckless and do nothing, but when they are old, they may suffer from many illnesses. Everyone can only truly grasp the fleeting decades of their life, and there are still many moments of love, hate, and separation. There is not much time for true happiness. In my opinion, since collecting books can bring me great joy, I should strive to bring this joy to the extreme and make it "come more fiercely". There is no consensus on what conditions are required for a book collection. If you are interested in collecting rare books, you need to meet three conditions: having funds, leisure time, and knowledge. If you like regular books, you also need to be restrained - of course, those who are bone ash level book lovers may not know what "restraint" is - when there are more and more books piled up in the house, at the beginning, you need a bookshelf to store your beloved things; With the increase of bookshelves, a separate room needs to be vacated; Later on, every corner of the home was filled with books, and if economic strength allowed, only one library or bookstore could be built. This is particularly difficult for a city that is not easy to live in. If you don't pursue good books, just buy some books you like and find happiness from reading, it's not impossible. Starting from collecting books that one likes and forming a certain type of collection is the beginning of systematic book collection. Are ancient books more valuable the older they are? Generally speaking, this is the case. Because the longer ancient books have been passed down in the world, the greater the probability of them becoming rare versions or even isolated items. According to statistics, less than 10% of the books recorded in various ancient Chinese bibliographic records have been passed down to today, indicating how easily ancient books can be damaged. So, it is reasonable for early versions to receive attention. But there are exceptions to everything, for example, during the Qing Dynasty, the cultural and artistic value of some famous manuscripts far exceeded that of some manuscripts from the Ming Dynasty. In addition, due to some wars occurring in cultural centers such as Jiangnan, many book editions were intentionally damaged, resulting in rare circulation of printed copies. Although these books were published during the Daoxian period, their market value far exceeded that of some Ming Dynasty books. So, the older the book, the more valuable it is. This is just a general rule, and collecting books also requires mastering various historical knowledge and understanding various special situations. (New Society)