We discussed the importance of articles written by Westerners about China in cultural exchange between the East and the West, especially the compilation of Chinese language books as a window to understand China. Point out the errors made by Westerners in compiling Chinese book catalogs due to insufficient understanding of Chinese culture, and consciously correct them. Taking Lei Musha's errata on the Fu Ermeng Catalog as an example, this article explores the role of Western compilation of Chinese book catalogs in the history of cultural exchange between the East and the West, and attempts to make this article a reference for research on the compilation of Chinese book catalogs.

1、 Fu's Catalogue Correction Space and Preparatory Study of Remusha

The "Catalogue of Chinese Books in the Royal Library Collection" was compiled by French sinologist Fourmont and published in 1742. Its blueprint was the "Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Royal Library". The difference between the two in terms of cataloging is that the former is distinguished by source, while the latter is classified by content. Fu Ermeng emphasized the importance of annotated Chinese characters in the Book Catalog, but due to limited academic proficiency in Chinese, there are many errors in the catalog. Lei Musha criticized Fu Ermeng's "Chinese Language Essays" for being obscure, difficult to understand, and full of errors in his 1822 "Enlightenment of Chinese Language". Remusha published his first academic paper on China in 1811, obtained his doctoral degree in 1813, and became the first professor of Sinology at the É cole de France in 1814. His Sinology research materials mainly come from the literature left by Western missionaries. Lei Musha expressed a sense of responsibility for compiling a new catalog in the "New Catalog Plan" and received support from the management of the Royal Library Manuscript Room, committed to compiling a new Chinese catalog for the Royal Library.

2、 A General Overview of the Collection of Chinese Books in the Royal Library

In the process of planning the new catalog, Remusha provided an overall overview of the Chinese collections in the Royal Library and showed particular interest in certain Chinese books. He appreciates the scientific and comprehensive nature of Chinese book classification, and agrees with the classification of works such as "Collection of Ancient and Modern Books". Lei Musha expressed interest in the various ways in which the text is presented in the "Imperial Control of Shengjing Fu", believing that it reflects the integration of Manchu and Han cultures. He pointed out that Westerners often use Manchu as a bridge to learn Chinese when studying Eastern culture. Lei Musha also paid attention to the role of Japan in Sinology research, believing that Japanese language versions of literature can help compare cultural differences between China and Japan. He proposed that the compilation of new catalogs should go beyond internal library services and benefit a wider range of people. Lei Musha emphasized the importance of literature classification and pointed out the influence of Chinese literary traditions on cultural development. He criticized the shortcomings of senior sinologists in translating Chinese books and proposed his own cataloging concept, requiring that the cataloging process reflect the writing time, literature sources, ideological roots, and influence of the books. Lei Musha demonstrated a pragmatic and innovative "scholar" style, opposing the indiscriminate search for books and expressing confidence in the size of the Chinese book collection in the Royal Library. He advocates for conditionally selecting books and focusing on embedding relevant information to meet the needs of specific audience groups.

3、 Correction of cataloging classification

Elaborated in detail on Lei Musha's correction of the Fu's catalog in cataloging and classification, as well as the formulation of a new catalog plan. Lei Musha proposed detailed cataloging standards, including key information such as author, living year, creation year, and version information, and emphasized the importance of accurately interpreting concepts in the book's content. He pointed out the unclear classification of Fu's catalog, such as classifying novels as dictionaries and legal codes as geography books, and made targeted corrections. Lei Musha also emphasized the importance of distinguishing literary genres and criticized Fu Ermeng's errors in literary genre classification. He separated "Chu Ci" from theological works based on traditional Chinese book classification conventions, affirming its position in the history of Chinese literature. In addition, Lei Musha also corrected the classification errors in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "The Book of the Fifth Talented Scholar", emphasizing the difference between the words "zhi" and "shu". The classification plan for the compilation of the new catalog has sparked a response in the compilation of future catalogs, such as the distinction between literary and imaginative works in the Kogoro catalog. Lei Musha's new catalog objectively corrected the early missionaries' bias towards Chinese literature, recognizing the developed state of Chinese folk popular literature and the emergence of literary diversity.

4、 Other types of errata

The "New Catalog Plan" has corrected the errors in Fu's catalog and explored the reasons for the errors, aiming to provide reference for future compilation work and avoid repeated errors. Lei Musha demonstrated his clever cataloging skills, profound understanding of Chinese culture, and diverse sources of academic knowledge in his errata work. He did not completely negate the work of his predecessors, but conducted an objective and fair evaluation, maintaining a moderate level of criticism even when pointing out errors.