Jiaye Tang Library, Nanxun

Jiaye Tang Library, within the Nanxun Ancient Town Scenic Area in Huzhou's Nanxun District, was built between 1920 and 1924 by the bibliophile and silk merchant Liu Chenggan, whose family fortune came from Nanxun's 19th-century silk trade. Liu assembled one of the largest private rare-book collections in Republican-era China, reportedly holding over 200,000 volumes at its peak, including Song- and Yuan-dynasty printed editions considered nationally significant. The library building itself combines a two-storey Western-style brick facade with traditional Chinese courtyard interiors, a hybrid architectural approach common among Nanxun's merchant elite who had been exposed to Western goods and design through the silk export trade. Surrounding the main hall, a garden of rockeries and ponds provided a quiet reading environment separate from the family's residential quarters. After 1949, the bulk of Liu's rare-book collection was transferred to major state libraries, including the National Library of China and Zhejiang Library, meaning the shelves on display today hold reproductions and a small remaining collection rather than the original full holdings. The building's structure and garden layout, however, remain largely as built in the 1920s, offering insight into how a private Chinese collector built both a working research library and a status symbol during the final years of the silk-trade fortunes.