On August 13, the Ming-Dynasty version of The History of the Three Kingdoms was donated to the National Library of China by a group of scholars, six Japanese and one Chinese, who jointly bought the ancient book for 50,000 yuan after it failed to sell at the Guardian 2005 Autumn Auctions.

The 7 donors are: Kin Bunkyo, director of the Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University; Satoshi Nakayama, associate professor of Literature at Daito Bunka University; Nozomu Ueda, associate professor of Letters at Kanazawa University; Taizan Inoue, professor of Letters at Kansai University; Yoshihiro Nikaido, professor of Letters at Kansai University; Masahiko Takeuchi, associate professor of Economics at Ryukoku University; and Zhou Wenye, a Chinese academic with Capital Normal University

Zhou Wenye said the book was proofread by Tang Binyin, a famous scholar in the Ming Dynasty, and published by Jianyang Publishing House. This version was priceless for those engaged in studying The History of the Three Kingdoms.

With a total of 65 volumes, it was written by Chen Shou focuses on the history of the Wei, Shu and Wu kingdoms (184 to 280 AD).

The National Library of China has another version of the book, but according to the Chinese and Japanese researchers, some of its details are slightly different from the donated one. Additionally, since the first volume of the book at the library was broken, the scholars decided to contribute the version they collected to the library as a supplement.

Zhan Furui, president of the National Library of China, said the library had always wanted to buy the books, but simply didn't have enough money to do so.

It is the first time for the library to receive a donation jointly made by Chinese and Japanese scholars, which will earn a special place in the library's annals.

(China.org.cn August 15, 2007)