From 2005 to 2014, with a break in 2012, judging panels selected 99 books and recommended some 421 others from a pool of 6,000 titles.

This year, more than 1,400 titles were submitted to the panel, which was made of experts from 60 top libraries.

Critics praised the winning books, especially Zhongguo Gudai Wuzhi Wenhua, or Tangible Culture in Ancient China, published by the Zhonghua Book Company in July 2014.

The writer Sun Ji, 86, a retired scholar with the National Museum of China, is one of the most respected archaeologists and culture experts in China.

Based on a series of his lectures on Chinese culture, the book has 10 chapters that attempt to answer people's questions about various aspects of ancient Chinese people's lives. Some such questions were: When did Chinese men start to wear Western trousers? What were the differences between ancient Chinese carriages and those from the West? Did Chinese enjoy tea in ancient times?

Chen Li, a writer and one of the judges on this year's panel, says that the book has the "newest, most comprehensive and systematic accounts" on tangible Chinese culture.