The Chinese nation has a long history and splendid culture, with numerous ancient texts requiring extensive proofreading and publishing efforts. However, for ancient books that have never been published and handed down, once they are proofread, collated and published or publicly reproduced, the issue of version protection will become prominent. This paper takes the first edition neighboring rights system established in the copyright laws of European countries such as Germany as the research object. Through comparative law analysis and case analysis, it systematically demonstrates the necessity and feasibility of introducing this system in China, and puts forward specific legislative suggestions, in order to provide theoretical support for the protection of ancient books and the improvement of copyright rule of law in my country. The analysis results show that for public domain ancient books that have never been published or publicly reproduced, the first publisher and the first public reproducer can enjoy a statutory term exclusive right equivalent to the copyright property rights of comparable works. Given China's extensive collection of ancient books and unearthed classics, many of which remain unpublished or publicly unreproduced in history, it is essential to introduce the first edition neighboring rights in legislation. While these rights primarily target traditional ancient books, they can extend to all qualified public works in legal theory. Adopting this system arrangement is conducive to "strengthening the protection of legitimate rights and interests in the field of ancient books", and is also conducive to China's improvement of copyright rule of law and in-depth participation in the international copyright governance. Consequently, rather than adopting "neighboring rights of ancient books" in China's legislative texts, "neighboring rights of public domain works" should serve as a more appropriate normative expression, encompassing protection for all unpublished and publicly unreproduced works in the public domain. As a property right, the neighboring rights of public domain works should mirror the property rights inherent in copyright for similar works, subject to protection period restrictions. At the same time, this article refines the rights requirements of the first copyright and clarifies the conditions for the generation of rights, including: ①The work must be in the public domain; ②It has not been published and has not been publicly reproduced; ③The publication or reproduction behavior must be legally authorized by the owner of the carrier. In the case of ancient books collected by the state, it is recommended to include the approval of the cultural relics authorities in the "legal license" requirement to balance the relationship between protection and utilization.