A Yuan Dynasty book collector and poetic hermit

Sun Daoming (1296-1376), a Sijing Town native in Songjiang, was a famous book collector in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

Sun originally resided in the east of Huating County, and later moved north to Sijing where he built a cottage to live in. He had no interest in the imperial examinations or officialdom, but was passionate about book collection and archeology.

He collected a huge amount of books, and whenever he encountered a rare book, he would copy it by hand.

He had a special room for Sun also searched for the essence of divination, medicine recipes and calligraphy works by ancient and contemporary famous scholars.

He categorized his books and even established a special room called "Ying Xue Zhai" (映雪斋, Snow Reflection Hall) just for storing thousands of volumes of scriptures, chronicles, biographies and historical records.

This poetic name was chosen because it gave people a feeling as if they were in a snow-covered room full of books.

Sun had close friendships with famous literati in Huating. To expand his social circle, he specially built a small boat named "Shui Guang Shan Se" (水光山色, Water, Light and Mountain Scenery) to go boating and enjoy the scenery with his friends in the southern part of Sijing.

His friend Tao Zongyi wrote the lyrics, Sun composed the music, and they played the flute and sang together, creating a dreamy and poetic atmosphere on the water.

In his Ying Xue Zhai, Sun would invite friends and scholars to drink tea and treat them with fine dining. The teapot in his room was engraved with the words "Qie Chi Cha Qing Yin" (且吃茶清隐), which means "Let's just sip tea and become hermits."

Despite frequent visits from officials and politicians, he remained indifferent to worldly gains

In his old age, Sun moved back to the east of Huating and rented a hut.

He copied and collected rare and valuable books, when he was already 80 years old. Today, some of Sun's collection is housed in the Beijing Library.