Abstract: The later professor of University of Hong Kong Ma Jian’s personal book collection was established during his more than 30 years long scholarly career. The more than 18000 volumes collection covers traditional four categories of Chinese scholarship, reflected his teaching and research interests as well as a traditional Chinese scholar’s test. It was started when he first taught at Yanching University in 1925, then in 1936 moved to University of Hong Kong where he taught Chinese literature and history. After his retirement at 1950, he sold about 8000 volumes to University of Malaya in Singapore. In 1960, the rest of the collection was sold to University of Virginia in the United States. This article rediscovers this famous collection’s content and the past and current situation, thus provides a typical case for further study on fate of a Chinese scholar’s library in the 20 century of China.

Key words: Ma Jian, Laoxue Zhai(Ma Kiam Library), The Ellen Bayard Weedon Chinese Collection, The University of Virginia