Peking University, Beijing, April 28^th, 2009: Symposium on Ruzang Compilation Project was held at PKU’s Boya Hotel Meeting Center on April 25th. Scholars from Japan and Korea met with their Chinese counterparts to discuss issues concerning the compilation of the Ruzang Project. PKU’s Vice President Zhang GuoYou and section chief of the Department of Social Sciences from the Ministry of Education, Wei YiHeng both spoke at the symposium. Scholars from home and abroad shared their experience and research results at the meeting to work towards completing the compiling of the Ruzang Special Edition, “Overseas Literature”.

Symposium on Ruzang Compilation Project

The meeting began with Vice President Zhang GuoYou welcoming all the scholars. He noted that the main purpose of this symposium was to help unify the national and international scholars on their progress, experience and other strength on the compilation project. He emphasized quality, cooperation, funding and perseverance as vital factors to completing this project well.

 Vice President Zhang GuoYou speaking

Wei YiHeng, section chief of the Department of Social Sciences explained that the Ruzang Project is the most critical project in the field of social sciences since the year 2003, it is also the project the Ministry of Education has paid the most attention to in this field. Wei noted that the Ministry of Education will continue to support and fund this project in future.

During the symposium, the leading specialist of the Ruzang Project, Professor Tang YiJie introduced the latest progress on the project. He explained that the Ruzang project is divided into two main parts, the first being the classics section, and the latter a complete collection of the Ruzang literature. The classics already include 406 pieces of ancient literature, and more than 150 ancient literatures chosen by Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese scholars. The Ruzang Compiling Project not only has great academic value, but also fits into the “Harmonious Society” and “Harmonious World” theme which is under promotion in China today.

Ruzang Project leading specialist Professor Tang YiJie giving updates on the project

The scholars coming from abroad gave their brief reports on the progress of this project. It is known that for the completion of the compiling work, PKU has been in close contact with many academic research organizations in countries such as Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, collaboration has been ideal so far.