In 1937, my father, who was almost 20 years old, started a long journey. He traveled a thousand miles across China with his university, Zhejiang University, during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression(抗日战争). The Chinese government wanted to keep the university students safe because they were important for the country's future. As the university planned for the journey, the Head Librarian of Zhejiang Library, asked the university to take a valuable collection of books with them.
The books were called" Siku Quanshu". Created in the 18th century, this was a huge encyclopedia(百科全书) with 2.3 million pages and about 997 million words. It was so important that plans were made to protect it at any cost, even though it added another 230 boxes to the students' cargo.
The journey was not easy. Students and teachers were facing the dangers from air attacks.(空袭). They were always tired and hungry. They had to sleep on the ground in old temples(寺庙) but they continued their classes whenever they could. To protect the books, they tried to move by boat or truck whenever possible; at other times, they would put the boxes into carts(手推车). Sometimes the students had to carry some of the books in their backpacks. One scary moment was when a box of the Siku Quanshu books fell into a river. They quickly saved the books and dried them in a local temple.
After 1,400 miles and 28 months on the road, the university group finally reached a small town called Zunyi in Guizhou province. They stayed there in simple classrooms and dorms, until the war moved deeper into China. To further protect the Siku Quanshu, the books were hidden in a nearby cave, guarded by university staff. The books made it through the war in surprisingly good condition and were sent back to Zhejiang Library.
This amazing story shows how a group of young students and their teachers did everything they could to protect their culture's treasures. They faced many dangers and hardships, but they never gave up. They worked together to keep their knowledge safe.
