Ancient books from the Song (960 — 1279) and Yuan (1271 — 1368) dynasties are now show at a new exhibition at the Shanghai Museum and about half of the exhibits (list) as "treasured ancient books" in China.
Pages Through the Ages: A Selection of the Song and Yuan Rare Books of the Shanghai Museum is set to run through Aug 13, (feature) 66 precious books from the 10th to the 14th centuries. It is the first large showcase of ancient books from the (collect) of the museum.
There is a saying among the archaeological circles in China goes, "A page from a book of the Song Dynasty is worth a tael of gold", which refers to the importance high value of these ancient books.
The Song and Yuan dynasties saw peak in the development of Chinese culture, and this coincided with the (gold) age of ancient books in China, says Chu Xiaobo, director of the Shanghai Museum.
This period also saw vast improvements (make) to paper-making, ink manufacturing and block printing techniques, and their rapid development (lead) to the creation of diversified binding formats that ranged from scrolls to butterfly to concertina and wrapped-back bindings.
