Tianyi Ge

The Tianyi Ge (Chinese: 天一閣; pinyin: Tiān Yī Gé; lit. 'One Sky Pavilion'), translated as Tianyi Pavilion or Tianyi Chamber, is a library and garden located in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China.^[1] Founded in 1561 by Fan Qin during the Ming dynasty, it is the oldest existing private library in China. At its peak, it boasted a collection of 70,000 volume of antique books.

The name Tian Yi refers to the concept of cosmic unity first described in a Han dynasty commentary to the Book of Changes. In Chinese alchemy Tianyi is linked to the element of water, thus it was believed by providing a watery name would protect the library against fire damage.

The Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty visited Tianyi Ge, and ordered officials to draw schematics of Tianyi Ge's building plan and book cases as prototype to build several imperial libraries including Wenyuan Ge in the Forbidden City, and Wenjin Ge in the Chengde Mountain Resort to house the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries encyclopedia.

After the Second Opium War, the British took many books from the libraries collection of geography and history texts^{[citation needed]}. These losses were followed by further thefts by local thieves. By 1940, the collection dwindled to less than 20,000 volumes. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, due to governmental effort and donations by private collectors, the collection recovered somewhat to about 30,000 volumes, mostly rare antique Ming dynasty printed and hand copied volumes.

In 1982, Tianyi Ge was established by the Chinese authorities as a National Heritage Site. The Qin Family Drama Stage is also located in the complex.

The walls were specially constructed to prevent fire.