Good books to read | One of the greatest commemorations in the history of Chinese woodcuts, the epilogue of Lu Xun to Zheng Zhenduo's Letter

In 2012, the Lu Xun Museum in Beijing undertook the major project of the National Social Science Foundation "Lu Xun Manuscript Collation and Research", and I served as the chief expert to conduct a comprehensive review and preliminary study of Lu Xun's manuscript together with colleagues and peers.

The epistles in Lu Xun's manuscripts are more than 1,400 and more than 2,100 pages extant. In addition to the chronological editing of letters, the project team also adopted the method of arranging letters in units with recipients. In this way, Lu Xun's general situation of communication and the degree of closeness with the travel object are roughly revealed. The so-called closeness is manifested in communication, that is, it is not only frequent, but also the content is intimate and considerate, and more importantly, the recipient should be carefully preserved. Among the friends, those who received more than 30 or 40 letters from Lu Xun and kept them were Cao Jinghua, Tai Jingnong, Zheng Zhenduo, Li Bingzhong, Li Jiye, Xu Maoyong, Yao Ke, Xiao Jun, Xiao Hong, Zhao Jiabi, Meng Shihuan, Yang Jiyun, and Cao Juren. On the basis of sorting out the manuscripts of Lu Xun's letters, my colleagues edited books such as "Under the Knees of The Mother", "Lu Xun's Letters Treasures", and "We Must See You Again", which showed a more vivid and three-dimensional image of Lu Xun from correspondence with relatives and friends, which was well received by readers.

Now, "Lu Xun's Letter to Zheng Zhenduo" is presented to the vast number of readers. This book contains more than 50 letters written by Lu Xun to Zheng Zhenduo, and records the process of two sages in the 1930s in order to preserve and carry forward the ancient Chinese woodcut watermarking technique, collecting and printing the "Beiping Notes" and reprinting the "Ten Bamboo Zhai Notes". The collation, interpretation and publication of this set of letters, so that readers can feel the arduous process of compiling and printing the notes, is a good commemoration of their compilation and printing of the "Beiping Notes".

The compilation and publication of this book has another cultural significance. Today, woodcut watermarking techniques have been protected and passed on as a national intangible cultural heritage. The Guangling Engraving and Printing Society in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, is one of these intangible cultural heritage protection bases, where the masters have reproduced the Beiping Notes. In 2016, when I visited the Engraving and Printing Agency, I talked about the correspondence between Lu Xun and Zheng Zhenduo on the work of editing notes, which aroused everyone's interest, and I also had the idea of collecting and printing these letters. In this way, with the line-bound rice paper "Lu Xun to Zheng Zhenduo's Letter" (published by the Cultural Relics Publishing House), the Replica of the "Beiping Notes" of the Guangling Engraving and Printing Society has also been published. These letters, together with exquisite notes, highlight the extensive knowledge and pioneering spirit of Lu Xun and Zheng Zhenduo. Readers can also perceive from the words of the letters the similar interests of the two sages, the common hearts, the firm belief in inheriting culture and the down-to-earth innovative spirit.

Liaoning Fine Arts Publishing House plans to publish the "Lu Xun Xinzha Series" in batches, and Lu Xun to Zheng Zhenduo's Letter Series is listed as one of them, which will help the wide dissemination of cultural heritage knowledge. In this publication, there are two additions, one is to add the preface made by Lu Xun and Zheng Zhenduo for the "Beiping Notes", the preface was transcribed by Wei Jiangong and Guo Shaoyu respectively, and the calligraphy is exquisite; the other is to add Zheng Zhenduo's "Miscellaneous Notes on Visits", which describes the process of collecting notes in Beiping, which is rich in detail and vivid in text, and can be read with reference with Lu Xun's letters.

Article author: Huang Qiaosheng, executive deputy director and research librarian of Beijing Lu Xun Museum

Editor's review: Liaoning Publishing Group Publicity Department