Prescript: On January 10, 2021, Mr. Shen Changwen passed away, and soon Sanlian Bookstore began to publish commemorative articles for the elderly. In May, the editorial board met to study the articles included in the article, and said that Shen Gong had more contact with Yu Xiaoqun, Zhu Lili and others in his later years. Yu Xiaoqun's article "The Day Without Shen Gong" has been included in it, and in the daily life of Shen Gong in his later years, Zhu Lili has done a lot of things, do you ask him to write a commemorative article as well? Yu Zhu and zhu discussed: Ten years before Shen Gong's death, that is, from 2009 to 2020, a lot of things happened, some related to work, more trivial things in life, bits and pieces, and it was difficult to write articles in a serious way, which was difficult to include. Then take the form of conjecture, each person recalling a period of time in the old days and stringing these stories together. There are many details of Shen Gong's life there, which are worth remembering, and some things that readers want to know.
Yu Xiaoqun: Speaking of Shen Gong's old age, how should we define the time limit for "old age"? In my opinion, it was around 2009. In July of that year, I came to work at Beijing Dolphin Publishing House. At noon the next day after work, I asked Shen Gong to have a small gathering, and at that time he was still helping Mr. Hao Mingyi to do things. July in Beijing was hot, Shen Gong found a tavern, and we sat face to face and drank cold beer. He said to me, "Now that I'm nearly eighty years old, I can't do anything, and at most I can only help." Besides, Dolphin Press is a children's publishing house, what else can we do? I said, "You're not old, I need your leadership to do things." Now that I live in Beijing, it is convenient to meet you, and I will often come to visit you. The work of the Dolphin Society allows me to arrange it slowly. At the end of the year, one day at noon with Shen Gongxiao, I said that I would continue the "New Century Universal Library" and publish a new set of libraries in dolphin publishing houses, which was later the "Dolphin Library". Shen Gong said, "Yes, but I will go to Shanghai and invite Lu Hao out." But I'm older, and now I need Dr. Bai's approval to go out. I talked to Dr. Bai on the phone, and Dr. Bai said: "Old Shen can go to Shanghai, but there are three chapters of the offer law: one is to stay in the hotel to be warmer, the second is that Old Shen drinks a maximum bottle of beer, and the third is that after Old Shen goes out, except for Shanghai, don't go anywhere else." I agreed to Dr. Bai's instructions one by one, and then Dr. Bai called again and said, "You are the leader, the work is too busy, and in the future, let your assistant contact me." "Speaking of my assistant, it was originally Li Zhongxiao, who was originally the director of the editor-in-chief office of Liaoning Education Publishing House, came to Dolphin Publishing House as the director of the editor-in-chief office, and often followed me around. Every time he traveled on business, he had to call Dr. Bai in advance for instructions and arrange the itinerary after approval. Later, Li Zhongxiao served as the assistant president of the Dolphin Society, there were too many things, his health was not very good, and his home was still in the field, so Zhu Lili, director of the administrative office, participated in our work and managed some things of Shen Gong. From about 2013 until Shen Gong's death, the Shen family's major affairs and small affairs often looked for Zhu Lili to do.
Yu Xiaoqun and Shen Gong took a group photo
Zhu Lili: I used to work in Shougang. At the end of 2009, he came to the Dolphin Publishing House of CIPG as the director of the administrative office. I have known Shen Gong for a long time, but the real contact was around 2010. At that time, Shen Gong would come to Dolphin Publishing House almost every day, he came out of his home in the morning, first walked to the Sanlian Bookstore to get a letter and read a book, and then took the No. 1 bus to get off at the Foreign Language Bureau Station on Million Zhuang Avenue, which was very convenient. At first, he often went to the editor-in-chief's office to find Li Zhongxiao, and sometimes Li Zhongxiao was too busy to come or not, he would come to the administrative office, and I specially set up a sofa for the old man and accompanied him to drink tea and chat. Later, Li Zhongxiao became the assistant to the president and no longer worked in the editor-in-chief's office, and my office became shen gong's first foothold. Sometimes he came to rest, sometimes to fetch letters. When I was not in the office, I was afraid that Shen Gong would have nowhere to stay when he came, so I kept the office door open. Shen Gong often walked in by himself, and the staff in the outside room made him tea, where he looked through the sample books on my shelves, and when he saw the one that needed it, he would put it in his bag, leaving a note, writing: "Old Zhu, I took the book!" "Old Zhu, you're not here, take a few sample books." We haven't been together in a long time! "Over the years, I've kept these notes, about fifteen or sixteen.
Every day, I also help Shen Gong arrange some specific things, such as talking to the editor about the manuscript, signing the new book, finding the books he needs, and arranging various activities. I remember once, I accompanied Shen Gong to the editing room to sign a new book. After signing the book, the editors all stood up to send Off Shen Gong, and Shen Gong smiled and said, "Thank you, I gave each of you a book, and you are welcome to attend my memorial service in the future." The editors were there, and they didn't know how to answer, only standing and smirking.
Yu Xiaoqun: During my nine years at Dolphin Publishing House, Shen Gong focused on two things: First, he organized and planned book manuscripts, including book manuscripts from publishing houses, such as "Dolphin Bookstore", "Jimmy Picture Books", "Cai Zhizhong Comic Series", etc.; as well as his own works, we determined that every year, we publish a book for his elderly, including "Eighty Traces", "No Wind and Rain and No Sunshine", "Shi Chengji", "Shi Chengji Continuation", "Attic People's Language" and so on. The first is to participate in various cultural activities, ask his old man to stand on the platform to cheer, every August Shanghai Book Fair, he is very willing to go. He went there to participate in his own book launch, and also participated in the "Two Seas Meeting", that is, the friendship meeting between Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House and Dolphin Publishing House, introducing the "Maritime Library" and "Dolphin Bookstore". For example, dolphin publishing houses a weekly book launch in Beijing, he usually comes to the guest seat, says some words of encouragement, and expresses support for us. I also met some well-known authors, such as Mr. Cai Zhizhong, who published Mr. Cai's works through a large publishing company in Taiwan, but I have never met. At that time, Mr. Cai lived in Hangzhou for a long time, and Shen Gong was an old acquaintance of Mr. Cai, and he personally took us to Hangzhou to meet Mr. Cai.
Zhu Lili: Shen Gong travels on business and takes care of him all the way, which is generally the responsibility of Li Zhongxiao or me. Shen Gong liked to go to Shanghai the most, or he only went to Shanghai in his later years, inviting him to go to other cities, and he would say: "I am old and can't walk." Or, "Dr. Bai doesn't agree with me." "Excuses to push away. For example, in 2011, the "Three Old Collections" were published, including Shen Gong's "Eighty Traces", Zhong Shuhe's "Remembering the Side of Qingshan", Zhu Zheng's "Preface and Trek", and after publication, Hunan Boiling Bar Bookstore organized a symposium to invite Shen Gong and President Yu to participate, but they failed to make the trip. In his later years, in addition to going to Shanghai, he only went to Shenzhen, and Hu Hongxia celebrated his birthday. Shanghai is different, once or twice a year, Shen Gongdu will gladly agree. When he arrived in Shanghai, Shen Gong immediately became excited, revisited the old place, reunited his old friends, and every day when he had time, he was alone and wandered around the old streets. In the first few years, we didn't care, and then Shen Gong's ears became more and more back, and we couldn't stare at him, and after a while, people disappeared. We were worried, so when we went out again, we had to ask our families to accompany us, Shen Gong's daughters Shen Yi and Shen Shuang, and grandson Tan Xiao, who understood Shen Gong's habits and could report to Dr. Bai at any time. In this way, Shen Gong was a lot more honest, and his behaviors such as excessive drinking and unauthorized travel also relented.
Celebrate Shen Gong's birthday
Of course, Shen Gong was outside, and there were still times when he was out of control. I remember that in 2015, he took us to Hangzhou to meet Mr. Cai Zhizhong. That evening, Mr. Cai invited us to eat Japanese food and drink Japanese sake. Drinking until the second half of the night, Shen Gong really couldn't stand it, and refused to lose in front of Mr. Cai, lying on the Japanese floor for a while, climbing up and drinking. Back at the hotel, he said to me again, "I'll go to the West Lake tomorrow morning, and you should leave me alone." "It frightened me all night, and at half past three the next morning I went downstairs early and stood in front of the hotel waiting. At four o'clock, Shen Gong walked out with great interest, saw me and said, "Why have you been standing here and not going upstairs to sleep?" ”
Yu Xiaoqun: We all know that Shen Gong has a study, known as the "second room", which has a lot of important materials accumulated for many years. Later, we compiled books for him, and many contents were sorted out from here, such as "Eighty Traces", "Shi Chengji", "Shi Chengji Sequel", "Eight Eight Shen Gong" and so on. He said to me several times: "I have sorted out a lot of information one after another, and when you have time, you can ask Lao Zhu to come over and pull the information away." "Until 2020, we hope to publish a collection of essays for Shen Gong the following year, and go to the Shanghai Book Fair for the first time in August to celebrate the 90th birthday of the old man." Shen Gong said, "I'm old, I really can't move, or let Old Zhu come to my study, take the relevant information away, and you will sort it out yourself." "In the end, the book was not completed, and the person had left, leaving a deep regret.
Zhu Lili: According to Shen Gong's instructions, we successively took out some materials from his "second room", which I handled. When Dolphin Publishing House edited the "Shi Chengji" and "Shi Chengji Continuation", Shen Bus gave us two batches of materials. In 2020, as we prepared to compile a collection of commemorative essays for Shen Gong's 90th birthday, I went to fetch several large boxes of materials, including correspondence with Ji Xianlin, Li Shenzhi, Lü Shuxiang and others. Shen Gong has been arranged and categorized according to the initials of the characters, neatly and clearly.
Yu Xiaoqun: After I retired in 2018, Wang Qiang supported us to set up Caolu Culture Company. Wang Qiang has always said that Chinese publishers, he values Mr. Shen Changwen the most. To tell the truth, we can get the favor of the capital community, and Shen Gong's reputation and character have played a decisive role. In 2019, we cooperated with The Qizhen Museum of Zhejiang University Press to publish "Eight Eight Shen Gong", and then reinstalled many of Shen Gong's old works, such as "Editing Manual", "Shi Chengji", "Shi Chengji Sequel", "No Wind and Rain and No Sunshine", "Attic Language", "Eighty Traces", "Know" and so on. In the past few years, Shen Gong has been busy taking beautiful photos of new books, busy participating in new book release activities, and busy signing new books and reloaded books. Sometimes he came to the studio, sometimes to the bookstore to sell books, and until shortly before his death, that is, in December 2020, he would receive Zhu Lili and his editors to sign and leave messages for his books.
In the past three years, we have asked Shen Gong to come out for a small gathering almost every month. There was a group of friends, known as members of the Whale Hall, including Xie Qizhang, Xu Shilin, Yu Qi, Chen Guanzhong, Zhang Guansheng, Wu Xingwen, Zhao Guozhong, Gu Ben, An Jianda, Wang Zhiyi, etc. Several friends took turns to sit in the village, choose a tavern, sit around Shen Gong, giggle, and talk about the world. Shen Gong did not have to pick up the car to deliver, Zhu Lili sent him the address of the tavern by email, and he would come regularly. Drink a bottle of beer, eat a drunken shrimp, and talk about a few old things. Until before the epidemic, a small gathering at night, Shen Gong got lost, more than an hour late to find the tavern, which frightened us at that time, and then agreed with Shen Yi that when Shen Gong came out again, someone must pick us up.
Shen Gong was in front of the bookshelf
Zhu Lili: Shen Gong's ears are behind his back, and he is unwilling to answer the phone. At first he only received mail, and every mail was returned. If you don't reply, something must be wrong or you're sick. Later, I couldn't tell what the reason was, the mail was not smooth, Shen Gong often said that he could not receive it, so he had to change it to me and Shen Yi on the phone, make an appointment with Shen Gong to meet with Shen Gong, Shen Yi relayed to Dr. Bai for approval, and finally executed by Shen Gong. Since he got lost in 2019 and came out to participate in events, almost always I drove to pick him up. On October 18, 2020, Shen Yi called and said that Shen Gong was ill and asked me to take a car to send Shen Gong to the hospital. When they met, Shen Gonglian said, "I'm fine, in a few days, when I come out, you will invite me to drink." Soon Shen Gong was really fine, and he was quickly discharged from the hospital, and we met several times and wished him a happy birthday for the old man's house. He was in high spirits, offered to drink beer, and sang songs during the group photo after dinner. But from Shen Gong's face and legs and feet, the old man was indeed sick. The last time we met was on December 9, 2020, when I took two editors from Caolu to Shen's house and invited Shen Gong to a tavern not far from home, where he was drinking and signing books. At first, Shen Gong was still very excited, and after a while he was tired, and he said, "I'm sorry, I can't sit still." Help me take the wine and the book manuscript and go home and enjoy it. Soon Yu always wanted to go to Shen's house to visit Shen Gong, but there were suspected cases in the community, and strangers were not allowed to come and go at will, so they had to give up. I didn't expect this goodbye to be goodbye.
Yu Xiaoqun: Shen Gong left at the age of ninety, saying that he died without illness, but I think there are still two factors affecting him: First, the epidemic situation, he can't go out of the house for a long time, such an idle person, so restricted, seriously affected his mental state. Second, in July 2020, Dr. Bai fell ill and was hospitalized. In more than half a year, Shen Gong's life began to have no support and law, although Shen Yi worked hard and did his best to take care of it, Shen Gong was still inseparable from dr. Bai's care and concern.
Zhu Lili: We all know that for many years, Dr. Bai let Shen Gong take a large amount of medicine every day according to his physical condition, and also controlled Shen Gong's daily diet. Dr. Bai and Shen Yi's meticulous care for Shen Gong was very touched by what we saw with our own eyes. Dr. Bai is the same age as Shen Gong, and his body has always been very good, but there are some problems with his legs and feet, but his mind is very clear. Until April 2020, the elderly were still treating Mr. Yu and me, treating my family, and prescribing medicines to us. In September 2021, before Shen Gong's 90th birthday, we went to visit Dr. Bai, who was in a wheelchair and still had a clear mind, and called out our names when we met.
Yu Xiaoqun: I have always felt that the two old people are the best people in the world. They have worked hard all their lives, worked hard, and are gentle and frugal to people, which makes us sincerely admire, and they are also a model for us to do things. Their daughters, Shen Yi and Shen Shuang, are deeply inherited from their parents' families, and they are calm and quiet, generous and decent. Recently, the Grass Heron Cultural Organization published the "Shen Chang Anthology", and we discussed copyright with them, and Shen Shuang said several times: "You are like our family, all of you are my father's best friends." The compilation of the anthology is subject to your arrangement, and we have no opinion. ”