Associate Professor Qian Bin from School of Maxism gave a lecture on “Classis and Cultural Inheritance” at National Library of China on Jan 18. With four Chinese Classics –Dream Pool Essays,The Exploitation of the Works of Nature,Journey to the WestandCollected Cases of Injustice Rectified– as examples, Professor Qian expounded on the origin of classic, the appreciation of classics and how to carry forward civilization.

Classics are always somewhat mysterious in people’s mind, said by Professor Qian. “The authors ofDream Pool Essays,The Exploitation of the Works of Natureare outstanding, versatile yet ill-fated. Legendary as they were in light of the works, they were still mundane.”

Professor Qian points out that, classics cannot be appreciated hastily. It takes time to really savor the quintessence. Take the Emperor in theJourney to the Westas an example. By wielding his tactics of friendship and trust, the Emperor successfully convinces Xuanzang to remain loyalty to him after traveling thousands of miles and enduring great hardship. The craft of emperor’s management is of great relevancy to us in modern times.

“The National Library, home to countless collections of classics, provides a shelter to the culture in material forms. But inheritance is our ultimate purpose.” said Professor Qian. “Collected Cases of Injustice Rectified, the building block of Chinese forensics, is a testimony of the utmost achievement in Chinese ancient forensics. But our forefathers never rested on the laurels. They many incessant progress and advanced their technologies to counter the crimes. That’s really inspirational.”

Professor’s lecture brought down the house, winning applauses and active feedbacks from the audience.