National storehouse of textual treasures

The book will also be extremely helpful for the research and rewriting of Chinese art history, says Fan Di'an, president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

For example, it collects nearly 5,000 paintings related to Buddhism from different historical periods, so it opens a new vision for the study of Buddhism in China, says He Huanhuan, professor of philosophy from Zhejiang University.

A Complete Collection of Paintings of the Song Dynasty is just one of the examples housed in the China National Archives of Publications and Culture that display the importance of the institution, which is built to preserve and carry forward the edition resources of China as a gene bank for the seeds of Chinese civilization.

Apart from books, the collections of the China National Archives of Publications and Culture also include a large range of vehicles for recording the historical progress of a culture — all called as editions — such as inscribed bronzeware, newspapers, tapes, food vouchers, manuscripts, genealogies, chronologies, online fiction, online games, digital music and even the first line of the code created to check people's COVID-19 test results.

Inaugurated in July 2022, the China National Archives of Publications and Culture is made up of the headquarters Wenhan Ge (pavilion) in Beijing and three branches — Wenji Ge in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, Wenrun Ge in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, and Wenqin Ge in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province.