Over and over again, the question has been raised as to whether it is worth while studying Manchu. It can no longer be considered a short cut to mastering the difficulties of Chinese, and so the only Tungus written language seems to have been left entirely to the attention of linguists and, maybe, anthropologists. On the other hand, the growing interest of Chinese and Japanese scholars in the Manchu archives proves that there is much valuable information for the historian. A large number of Manchu books are buried in libraries and are hardly known and available even to Manchu specialists who deal with a limited number of well-known texts, classics, dictionaries, grammars, the Chin-p'ing-mei, and the Liao-chai chih-i. It is not that these materials do not offer interesting problems, but it is often overlooked that they only constitute a part of Manchu literature the scope of which is much wider, as systematic research in libraries all over the world has proved. Therefore the most pressing problem in Manchu studies is to gain bibliographical control over the existing texts and make them available to the researcher.