The first 86 publications on Jiangsu's cultural legacies are presented to eight libraries. [Photo/js.chinanews.com]

A total of 86 volumes on Jiangsu's cultural legacies were unveiled at the first Jiangnan Context cultural summit, which was held in Wuxi from Dec 3-4.

It includes five volumes of historical materials, 11 selected volumes on classics, 27 local chronicles, 38 books on literature, and in all covers 152 kinds of Jiangsu-centered historical documents, including not only precious historical documents, but high-level literature and academic research as well.

These publications are the initial achievements of the Jiangsu Context Project, which was officially launched in 2016.

According to the plan, hundreds of scholars and experts are being invited to join in the project. A total of 3,000 printed books will be compiled by 2025.

Over 10 years, the project aims to awaken people's memories of cultural legacies stretching back thousands of years.

It is comprehensive in content and larger than other similar works that have been compiled or are under compilation, hoping to present a vivid, rich and all-embracing monumental work on Jiangsu.

Fan Ping, vice president of Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences, said that the project provided people with an opportunity to preserve the unique collective cultural memory of Jiangsu.

Jiang Qingbo, a researcher at Nanjing Normal University, said that the staff involved had traveled through many libraries in the province and found new historical materials.

These documents, which are being explored, discovered and systematically sorted, are the spiritual wealth and cultural pulse of Jiangsu people's lives for thousands of years, he added.

Referring to the region on the southern bank of the lower Yangtze River, Jiangnan has long been one of China's most prosperous regions, with profound historical and cultural foundations.

Jiangsu is one of the important birthplaces of Chinese civilization, boasting a long tradition of cultural context and being abundant in classics.