Jiang Xun, a resident of the Great Lai. Born in 1970 in Shenyang, Liaoning Province. Graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Painter, poet, book binding designer, collector of ancient books and engravings. Founder of the "Model Bookstore" independent bookstore, the "Boiling Rain Mountain House" line-bound bookstore, and the engraving museum.
Over the years, dozens of large-scale art exhibitions have been held in Beijing, Shanghai and other places.
He is currently the Deputy Secretary-General of the Binding Art Committee of the China Publishing Arts Council.
He has won many awards such as "The First China Publishing Government Binding Design Award" and "China's Most Beautiful Book".
He likes to collect and appreciate, especially the research on ancient carving collection, and is the collector with the largest collection of ancient carving plates in China.
On January 16, 2022, while sorting out books in the bookstore, he accidentally fell from a high place and died at the age of 51.
Jiang Xun in the Model Bookstore Poetry Space
Nineteen years ago today, we fell in love at first sight. Today, two years later, I am your legal wife.
Today is the seventeenth anniversary of our wedding, but I am the only one left. And everything I couldn't hold up.
Jiang Xun, you can go with confidence, go to heaven to find a pure land, and use your strength to shelter those who need books to obtain tranquility.
Books are the ladder of human progress, like you said, if you are gone, I hope that the model bookstore is still there, I hope to help you guard it well.
I really love you. I will always be your Xing XiaoBei.
- Xing Na
Text/Xing Na
As a professional writer, former media person, and lifestyle writer, what I never expected was that the article I came to write today was actually my mourning for my deceased husband.
It's time to wrap up, whether it's for me, Jiang Xun, Model Books, or our relationship.
He went to book heaven
On January 16, 2022, Jiang Xun accidentally fell from a high place, and the rescue was ineffective, leaving this world forever.
My husband, Jiang Xun, is a painter by birth and has the persistence and persistence of an artist. I still remember the excited look on his face every time he came home holding a book. This may be what every book lover looks like.
"Mo" means "mod" and "van" is its tray. Model Bookstore is an independent bookstore focusing on engraving, printing and design. During the epidemic, in order to keep 6 stores, we even sold the house where we had lived for many years. Because I always thought it would be worth it to change a house for 6 bookstores (two of which closed in August 2021 due to the epidemic).
Books, poems, engravings, these are all the sustenance of my husband in this life. Whether the model bookstore is there or not, please believe it – our insistence on reading. Engraving is a reflection of civilization, please do not treat it as a pile of waste wood, please pass it on well. Maybe we can't recreate the Wenjin Sculpture Museum, but it's still where our dreams began.
Jiang Xun once wanted to accompany this bookstore to walk for 40-50 years, and it was obvious that the sky was not what people wanted, so he entered the paradise of books.
A model bookstore in the Centennial Church, a poetry space
He said "I love you more than my parents, money and books"
On January 16, 2003, I came to Beijing by train from Tianjin with my luggage. I never imagined that on the same day 19 years later, I would lose my husband forever.
How fascinating was Beijing in the early 2000s? Back in time, on my third day in Beijing, my friend Lei Yan said that there was a poetry reading party in the evening, and we could go to play together. Yes, 19 years ago today, I met Jiang Xun.
The "there" bar in Hat Alley, where we met for the first time. As if in the last life, the old moon was drawn to the red line, and a young literary woman and a young artist fell in love with each other. On the anniversary of knowing each other for two years, we got married. The following year the daughter was born. At this time, I had changed from a literary editor to a fashion magazine editor, and Jiang Xun ran an art company called "Boiling Rain Mountain House", which was mainly based on binding design, and his greatest interest was to buy books, panjiayuan to search for engraved editions, auctions or old bookstores.
We lived together for 19 years and he didn't offer me a penny or even give it to me. With my education, I wouldn't have bothered to talk to him about it, and it was enough for me to support myself and my daughter. I asked him, "How much do you love me?" He always "prevaricated" with Dalí, who said to his lover Gala, "I love you more than my parents, money, and Picasso." He said, "I love you more than my parents, money, and books." ”
As a student of fine arts, he has always liked to draw. After graduating from Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, he became the art editor of Shenyang's Shichao magazine. Later, he decided to develop in Beijing, and continued to work as an art editor in the Poetry Journal, while studying in the central academy of fine arts, while painting.
Boiling Rain Mountain House, Heavenly Secretary, Model Bookstore
When reading, a hand-drawn decoration manuscript can be sold for 8,000 yuan. With the proceeds from selling paintings, he bought a small villa in Tongzhou Tuqiao, which in the late 1990s was about hundreds of thousands. The first time I went back with him, I saw that the room was full of canvases, instant noodles, and oil paint.
Jiang Xun loves to collect engravings
Later, he set up the "Boiling Rain Mountain House", acting as an agent for book publishing, and he came to do book binding design. All the money earned is used to buy books and engravings. He didn't smoke, he didn't drink, he didn't splurge anything, he just collected it almost like crazy, making the house more and more full.
He has been short of money, both as a business and as a collector. Initially, the sale of ancient books can be exchanged for money, and then, the sale of the property. Boiling Rain Mountain House, Wenjin Sculpture Museum, Heavenly Secretary, Model Bookstore, all the money he earned was subsidized to his career. When there was a problem with the company's operations, he began to borrow money, to borrow everywhere he could. The only person who can pay for his feelings is himself.
A close friend of Jiang Xun said that when Jiang Xun can make money, it is when he no longer frantically expands the bookstore. I don't know what his insistence was for, like his name, and I don't know exactly what he was looking for. What I am left with is not only the ancient love of literary and artistic youth, but also a huge debt crisis.
We sold our house during the pandemic, and I naively thought he wouldn't be so tired and relaxed. In my opinion, we are proud to have so many bookstores. Even though the house I'm renting now has two weeks to go, I'll have to move to a smaller house.
He founded the poetry space in the old church
"Model Bookstore Poetry Space" was established in 2019 and is located in the Chinese Anglican Church, which was completed in 1907.
Bookstores in churches are rare worldwide. At the first sight of this church, Jiang Xun thought, "If there really is a book heaven, then it is here." "Because for him, books are faith.
"I'm a person who is obsessed with light. In my opinion, a building with a sense of history, even if the years change, the sunshine is unchanged. What he expected was the power of rebirth – where is a city's sense of history best reflected? It should be architecture, which and the city are like a community of life, moving forward along the trajectory of time, sharing honor and disgrace, and meeting with a new era. Continuing to write the history of the Chinese Anglican Church and making it the most beautiful bookstore in the world has become Jiang Xun's dream.
"I like winter the most, the sun is not so high and so intense, it will shine obliquely through the narrow window. After the transformation, this light becomes softer and more intoxicating through the stained glass. Ever since inadvertently feeling the afterglow at dusk, Jiang Xun has enjoyed wandering around the bookstore that is about to close. He hopes that 85 Tong Linge Road can become a new landmark, and everyone has the opportunity to re-understand the church, not only as a photo punch card, but also as a reading space.
The Chinese Episcopal Church is a national key cultural relics protection unit, from the approval, it faces many and even unimaginable problems, from design to construction is also very tedious work. As a designer and bookstore owner, Jiang Xun gave endless patience and all his preciousness. "I don't like to renovate an old building, I want to go back to its original state. Many people walk into the poetry space for the first time and feel that time is flowing back. That's what I wanted. Let everyone see the scratches of the years - some of the imprints are broken, but they are beautiful, Jiang Xun is very sure about it, "Let future generations talk about it, I just complete the part I should do."
Jiang Xun is at the door of the Model Bookstore Poetry Space
In Jiang Xun's wish, more activities will be held here, such as signing, salons, exhibitions, and various handmade and lifestyle courses. Like the other stores of The Model Bookstore, it will precipitate a little bit in time and always give people the power of quiet.
His bookstore began experimenting with live streaming
Jiang Xun is gone, as the guardian of his career before his death, what I think of most at this moment is the burden of responsibility and the hardships of the road ahead.
Model Bookstore, the first store in Yangmeizhu Xie Street, which opened in 2014, is "net red", and the "poetry space" in the church can also be said to be "explosive". But even so, we can't make ends meet. If everyone just took photos and sent them to the circle of friends, the bookstore would really not survive. I hope more people come here and start to really love reading from now on. I think this is also Jiang Xun's last wish.
I started broadcasting live around mid-autumn festival last year. I had never thought of it before, and I always thought that the physical bookstore should go at its own pace. Until I suddenly realized that this may be a brand new marketing attempt.
Later, I encountered the ten bamboo auctions, and it was a one-shot deal. Within 3 days of my decision to broadcast live, it was officially launched. Before, I always watched the anchors in the social platform work hard to bring goods, and when I came to myself, when the guests in the live broadcast room frequently bid, I would say to them, "Please consume rationally." The anchor was helpless: "This may be the most Buddhist bookstore owner lady." ”
Auctions are a lot of fun, especially in live streams. Watching the carefully selected cultural and creative small objects, rare books, and literary utensils being photographed away by the guests, I feel deeply comforted in my heart - these small objects that silently accompany us in the bookstore have finally found the real owner. If independent bookstores have their own personality, then live streaming is like a "buyer's shop", and each "buyer" determines its temperament.
Books are still the top priority of the whole auction, and raw edge books, out-of-print books, and author-signed books are still the C-bit choice for live streaming. Enthusiastic readers will say to us, "Even if you don't shoot anything, you can learn a lot." "Unlike offline auctions at auction houses, online auction randomness is interesting. Instant interactivity, so that more buyers began to tell the demands in the live broadcast room - some buyers asked to return, some interspersed with on-demand books, book-side cultural and creative items, some people missed a lot and asked to be re-listed...
These are all fun that cannot be felt offline. When a reader comes to a bookstore, he may come to have coffee with friends, or he may come to collect books, or he may just stop and go. In the hours of live broadcasting, he may touch the soul of a bookstore.
Even if the world comes to an end tonight
In the two years of the epidemic, I have read so many circulation reports (epidemiological investigation, referred to as "circulation investigation"), so far, no trace of bookstores has been found.
At the end of February 2020, at the Wuhan Fang cabin hospital during the most ravaging period of the epidemic, a boy who was sent to the hospital quietly read a book "The Origin of Political Order: From the Pre-Human Era to the French Revolution", and instantly became popular. This may be the brightest moment for books during the COVID-19 pandemic. After that, there was no news about books or bookstores. As a physical bookstore practitioner, after reading so many copies of "flowing" information in the past two years, I really feel that the bookstore seems to have become an island.
Thank you to everyone who loves to visit the bookstore. Everyone who walks into a bookstore seems to me to be a "philanthropist," and it's the arrival of everyone who keeps the industry alive.
About a few years ago, an investor happily came to the bookstore to find me. He is elegant and artistic, does not look like a speculator who is eager to make a quick profit, and in my opinion is definitely a "perfect investor". I took him around the whole bookstore, and he lingered for a long time. Later that day, I saw that his circle of friends updated a status, which roughly means that meeting a beautiful bookstore turned out to be such a joy, but also to be grateful for the logistics, when visiting the bookstore, I ordered, I didn't expect it to be delivered so quickly. I laughed at myself for a while and deleted the guy— an investor like this who would never invest in a physical bookstore in his lifetime.
There is a lot to do in this world, why did you choose a bookstore? I remember when the epidemic was in place, I was responsible for taking my temperature and registering information at the entrance of the bookstore as usual. A lot of readers come here, which makes me a little flattered. Someone chatted with me after two hours of walking around and thanked us for providing a place where people in the city could get a moment of peace.
Recently, I read a book, Notes on Bankrupt Booksellers, which I read endlessly. Translator Wang Qiang wrote a preface, "Even if the world comes to an end tonight", which mentions: "Ordinary bookstore" is just an ordinary house, it is only for one generation or at most two generations to live; and the "classic bookstore" is like a towering church, the height of its base has surpassed other buildings, far away, people will see its great shore, and the next generation of book lovers will find their peace and enlightenment in it.
As an ending, it couldn't be more appropriate.
The mourner said
A true reader and book lover, he walked unexpectedly, and his voice was like a sight. May all the friends who love the model bookstore help to extend Jiang Xun's wish, let the bookstore always be there, and let the "poetry space" of the old church always have poetic ripples, with his silent and gentle gaze.
- Scholar Yu Dan
Today, I saw the news that Jiang Xun, founder, poet, book binding designer and engraving collector of Model Bookstore, died in Beijing on January 16, 2022, at the age of 51. How is this possible?! On the 14th, I just met this passionate artist and book lover, who brought me the books I bought more than twenty years ago, asked me to sign them, and asked me to visit his bookstore. Tragedy struck two days later, and it is said that he fell to his death while sorting out books in the bookstore. Whoops, life is impermanent, the world is ridiculous, and I am extremely sad.
——Writer Zhou Guoping
This is the second time I know of an accidental death of a bookstore owner in a bookstore. In February 2008, Luo Zhihua, the owner of the Hong Kong Qingshu Bookstore, was collecting books in the bookstore warehouse when he was trapped and killed by more than 20 boxes that collapsed. The death of a book lover in a book series is also a request for benevolence. I hope that the family will mourn.
--Fan Tingluo, book publisher
The bookstore is still there, the labor model has passed away, and it is good all the way.
——Poet Zhai Yongming
Last night's bad news came, I can't believe it, Jiang Xun is a person with ideals and feelings to do big things, these two years have been intersecting, last year also did a small exhibition in his bookstore, a few days ago also contacted. His departure is heart-wrenching!
——Painter Shen Jingdong
Never thought of it. Big brother is not easy, big brother is eternal.
——Writer and screenwriter Shi Hang
Hearing this news, I was very sad, and I hope that Teacher Xing will mourn and take care of himself. "Beautiful because of the book" was loved by Jiang Xun's brother, who took the initiative to participate in the design and devoted himself to the publication of the book, so that the friendship of friendship was very touching to me. Last Friday, I went to Mr. Zhou Guoping's house with Brother Jiang Xun and participated in the live broadcast, but I did not expect to say goodbye forever. His unfortunate death, like Mr. Luo Zhihua of the Hong Kong Qingshu House, is as unexpected, and I hope that Brother Jiang Xun will enjoy the sweetness brought by books in another world and less bitterness.
——Writer Gu Xiaoguang
In 2013, Mr. Jiang Xun came to me with a book about Yangmeizhu Publishing and QingyunGe and said that he hoped to open a bookstore in Yangmeizhu called Model Bookstore. "Mo" is the meaning of the word model, "Fan" is the tray of the word mold, and the model bookstore is an independent bookstore that adheres to the focus on engraving printing and design. In 2014, the first store of Yangmeizhu Hutong was opened, and after that, the model bookstore was opened in The Source Bookstore, Friendship Bookstore and Poetry Space on the original site of the Tianqiao, Financial Street and Chinese Anglican Church. The persistence of the model bookstore is admirable, and I hope that the "model" brand has always been there, and Mr. Jiang Xun is doing well.
——Jia Rong, former head of Yangmeizhu Xie Street
Unexpectedly, nineteen years later, in the subway, on WeChat, seeing this death news, the pain in my heart was really indescribable... At that time, Xing Na had just graduated from college and came to the editorial office as a female student. Later, our magazine gave Jiang Xun's "Boiling Rain Mountain House" for overall design. Later, Xing Na and Jiang Xun married. I went to their Guozijian's house a few times, sat on the couch, drank Almond coffee that Xing Na had brewed, admired Teacher Jiang's collection one by one, and listened to him in Mandarin with a Northeastern accent, telling the characteristics and benefits of each version. Can't forget his gentle and generous smiling face...
——Zeng Yuli, China Youth Publishing House
I didn't really believe it until I saw the message sent by the hostess, and I didn't know what to say after the surprise. In 2017, I had the privilege of photographing Model Bookstore and Mr. Jiang Xun, the book lover who left behind books, engravings and bookstore spaces that gathered his life's energy and efforts. Rather than his departure, I would rather believe that Mr. Jiang Xun continues to exist in another way, hoping that the model bookstore will get better and better.
——CCTV reporter JUJU
Note: The title of this article originates from the painter Zhuang Hong's work for Jiang Xun
"Blue Flowers and Mourning Friends"
Text and courtesy photo/ Xing Na
Editor/Jing Wang