Chinese Rare Books

The Xu Dishan [许地山 (1893-1941)] collection, located in the Menzies Library, rare book room, consists of approximately 469 titles in 1,224 volumes and comprises many rare editions and suspected orphaned sacred books on Buddhism, Taoism and other Missionary publications of the time.

The collection was purchased by the eminent Chinese historian and later Professor of Far Eastern History at ANU, C.P. FitzGerald, in Hong Kong in 1950 from the family of the late prominent Chinese scholar, Xu Dishan. The collection form the original core of the ANU Asia-Pacific collection. The collection includes titles published as early as 1411.

The Xu Dishan collection is held in the Menzies Library Rare Books Room. Items can be requested from the Rare Book collection and a full list of items can be found in the Library Catalogue.