Chen Kang recalled teacher Rong Geng: We went to Mr. Rong's house to borrow books, and we always responded to every request

■ Luan Shu Jian inscription interpretation

■ Collector's Weekly reporter Pan Weiqian

I seemed to be in the small two-story building in the southwest corner of Sun Yat-sen University's KangYuan Park in Guangzhou, in a north-facing graduate student dormitory on the first floor. Mr. Yung sat down in a folding chair, lit a cigarette, and began a conversation with us in the wisps of smoke. He asked us about our studies, checked our reading notes, and told us about his tortuous experiences and paths. His Mandarin, mixed with a thick Cantonese accent, seems to still ring in his ears today. Every time the gentleman came to the dormitory, we would draw a line on the wall, and in less than a semester, we had left several "positive" words. The gentleman came most likely in the afternoon, and came more often, and as soon as the slow and slightly rubbing footsteps in the corridor appeared, we guessed that the gentleman was coming. The door opened to greet each other, and as expected.

Mr. Yung once said to us with a witty smile, "I am a middle school student, and now I am going to teach you graduate students." Mr. Yung did not continue his studies after graduating from secondary school. But his study of ancient Chinese characters began as early as middle school. When He was fifteen years old, that is, "from the fourth uncle Deng Erzhi's "Shuowen", every day in his spare time, he followed Mr. Deng Erzhi "or xi seal, or engraving, gold stone books on all sides, and the heart is happy" ("Jin Wen Compiled from the Preface"). Sir once said to us: "Wu Dayi compiled a book "Saying That Wen Gu Zhen Supplement", and someone also compiled "Saying Wen Gu Zhen Supplement", supplementing, and supplementing, why do you always go to make up for others?" He is determined to get rid of the shackles of his predecessors and carry out original research work. He collected materials everywhere and studied it intensively, and finally compiled China's first bronze inscription dictionary - "Jin Wen Compilation", which was appreciated by Luo Zhenyu and was admitted to Peking University as a graduate student. After graduating in 1926, he taught at Peking University, Yenching University, Lingnan University and Sun Yat-sen University, becoming a famous paleographer in China.

Mr. Yung has a straightforward disposition and never hides his views. When people one-sidedly understood the principle of "less but fine" in teaching, Mr. Rong frankly said: "Only by Bo can we return to the appointment!"

……

After 1978, Mr. Rong happily undertook the task of training graduate students, and in cooperation with Shang Xiyongshi, he recruited six students by exception, close to two-thirds of the total number of graduate students recruited in the seventeen years since liberation. Mr. Li cares about our growth and hopes that we will seize the time to learn and produce results as soon as possible. Every time the gentleman came out of our bedroom and we wanted to take him home, he always waved his hand to let us go back. Once we insisted on sending, the gentleman was anxious and said, "I have been walking here for decades, and it is not that I do not recognize the road." With all this time, you might as well read more books!"

The rich collection of the Paleography Research Office of Sun Yat-sen University has long been evaluated in the field of paleography in China. Many of these rare books are the private collections of Rong and Shang Erlao, and now they are made public, providing good learning conditions for future learning. Books such as "Three Generations of Jijin Wencun", "Shang Zhou Jin Wen Records", "Oracle Bone Script Collection Interpretation", a full set of "Chinese Characters", and a full set of Original Japanese "Jin Wen Tong Interpretation" (signed by the author Shirakawa Jing to Mr. Rong) and other books are not often borrowed even in large libraries, but are open shelves in the research room for people to consult. There are generally no copies of the books in the research room, and when we first entered the school, we could only read them indoors. The research room is far away from the dormitory, which is inconvenient. After we reflected to Mr. Yung, he personally contacted the relevant personnel, and finally enabled us to borrow a copy of it locally and read it, and since then the holiday time has been fully utilized. Mr. Yung asks you to read more, and he also tries to make you read more. When we went to Mr. Yung's house to borrow books, we always had everything we needed. Graduate students who have graduated said that Mr. Yung also rode a bicycle to personally deliver the books they needed to the dormitory. I remember that as soon as we entered the school, Mr. Yung came to the dormitory for the first time, took out a copy of the "Catalogue of the Golden Stone Books" from his bag, and asked, "Have you read it?" We shook our heads. He said, "Then take it and everybody look at it." Bibliography is the foundation of research. Mr. Yung recommended a book, but what we learned was the way to govern. The Shang Zhou Yi Instrument Examination is a must-read for ancient philology and cannot be borrowed in the school library. Mr. Yung lent us the one for his own use. This book is Mr. Yung's masterpiece forty years ago, and has long been respected by scholars at home and abroad. In the book, we see a lot of Mr. Rong's revised and supplemented handwriting, and also sandwiched a piece of the homework that Mr. Lin Tao did when he was studying at Yenching University, which is about the development of paleography, and the score is more than ninety points. Probably Mr. Rong forgot to send back Mr. Lin Tao after the correction was completed.

A native of Dongguan, Guangdong Province, Mr. Yung spent an important period of his academic career in Beijing. The "BaoyunLou Yi Instrument Catalogue", "Wuyingdian Yi Instrument Catalogue", "Qin Han Jin Wenlu", "Song Zhai Ji Jin Catalogue", "Overseas Ji Jin Catalogue", "Shanzhai Yi Instrument Catalogue", "Jin Wen Compilation " (Second Edition) " Shang Zhou Yi Instrument Tongkao" and so on were all written in Beijing. At that time, a university in the south hired him as a full professor, and he politely declined. Beijing is a place where scholars gather, and the Forbidden City and Liulichang concentrate a large number of Shang and Zhou bronze Yi ware and inscription rubbings, which provide superior conditions for the study of ancient characters. Because of this, the title of professor is not very attractive to Mr. Yung. "Hey hey, I'd rather be a xiang professor in Beijing than a full professor!" ——Mr. Yung has said this many times on different occasions. That look of happiness still clearly comes to my mind. This was an important choice about provenance in his life, probably a proud step for Mr. Wang. And this choice of provenance is also where we are often prone to mistakes in later learning, Mr. Rong often mentions it, I think it is not without the meaning of sounding an alarm bell to us!

Mr. Yung's study style is very rigorous. His famous work", "Jin Wen Bian", has been published in three editions, each of which has a gain modification. After the publication of the third edition of the Jin Wen Compilation, a large number of shang and Zhou bronzes with inscriptions were unearthed and found in the heirlooms. In order to collect new information, he personally went out to investigate in his ancient years. Every gain is written down in a book. When we open the "Golden Text Compilation" at hand, we can see many additional glyphs and instrument names, written with brushes, written in blue pen, densely packed, and covered with rows, according to statistics, the fourth edition of the "Golden Text Compilation" will add about 800 new items, about 800 new words, and about 3,500 new heterogeneous heavy texts, and the total length will be increased by half. The fourth edition of the Jin Wen Bian has been listed as a key research project in the discipline of chinese Chinese during the Sixth Five-Year Plan and will be published by the Zhonghua Book Company (Editor's Note, Fourth Edition, 1985). It is a monument to the study of paleography in China, inscribed with Mr. Rong's major achievements in paleography for more than 50 years, and will always be admired by future generations.

Mr. Yung is our instructor and has always been very kind and easy-going to us. Every time we came to his house, he always had to pour tea and send cigarettes, and the conversation took place in a very cheerful atmosphere. When we bid farewell, he always had to accompany us downstairs, send us outside the door, stand on the side of the road, watch us go away, Yangcheng Dori Day, the sun sprinkled all over the old man's body, Pang Mei hao hair, red light, smiling and waving to us - this is my heart Mr. Rong, an image that will never fade.

(This article was provided to reporters by Zhonghua Bookstore and originated from Reading, No. 9, 1983.) The original title was "Remembering Mr. Rong Geng". There are abridgements. )

Biography

Chen Kang was an editor at Zhonghua Bookstore.