He has a collection of thousands of books, loves to delve into learning, and loves to chew words.
He loves to pick mistakes and finger flaws, and the books he read, like homework for students to correct, are covered with red annotations.
He likes to study ancient texts, and the annotations he makes to state, county, and ancient inscriptions make people convinced and clap their hands and praise.
Whether it is in terms of knowledge or character, he can be called a teacher, but he calls himself "Old Man Wang".
His name is Wang Huaiting, 91 years old, living in the family area of Dongbao Middle School in Jingmen City, Hubei Province, is a senior chinese teacher, a teaching and research member of the teaching and research group of the High School Language Special Center, has been teaching and educating people for 43 years, and is known as a "living dictionary" because he is familiar with the general meaning of the Xinhua Dictionary. A few days ago, his newly published collection of personal works, "Trivial Memories of Ordinary Life", is a testimony to his more authentic learning.
He studied and participated in the annotation of many classics
After Wang Huaiting joined the work, he never stopped self-study, Studied ancient documents, and had more than 10,000 books in his home, the most of which were ancient documents, reference books, history books, and literary books, such as "The Complete Collection of Eight Hardcovers of the Tang and Song Dynasties", the hardcover deluxe editions of "Twenty-Four Histories" and "Qing History Manuscripts", etc., and was rated as one of the top ten bibliophiles in Jingmen City.
After his retirement, he continued to study diligently, ordering eight or nine newspapers and periodicals, reading and taking excerpt notes, and so far, the excerpt notes are no less than 10 million words.
In the process of reading, whenever he encounters difficulties and doubts, he will look for answers from many reference books at home, and he will not give up until he solves them. Sometimes he also writes about "tofu blocks", talks about his experience, and talks about questioning or absurdizing an article.
In 1999, Elder Wang was invited to participate in the compilation of the "History of Dongbao Literature", and later was invited to participate in the text proofreading of many historical books such as "Throwing Knives from Ancient Glory" and the compilation of "Twenty-Four Filial Pieties", and his accurate writing skills were unanimously praised by experts. In 2001, he joined the "Foreign Archaeological Team" composed of Liu Nanxi, a well-known figure in Jingmen, to copy and annotate the ancient inscriptions of Jingmen, and after 10 years, he changed his manuscript eight times, and finally jointly published the "Annotations on the Inscriptions of Jingmen Monuments", which contributed to the cultural preservation and collation of Jingmen City.
During the study of the inscription, Elder Wang and Jiao Zhiyun, former deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Jingmen Municipal People's Congress, met each other, and the two sides studied the annotations of the inscription together many times and appreciated each other. In 2006, the work of "Jingmen Zhou Zhi Dian Annotation Book" was launched, and Jiao Zhiyun, who was responsible for the review and revision work, pushed and invited Wang Lao to take the main proofreading.
The Qianlong edition of the Jingmen Zhou Zhi was compiled by Shu Chenglong of Jingmen Zhizhou at that time, and after ten years of completion, it was printed in the nineteenth year of Qianlong (1754). It looks through thousands of years of history and runs through Jingmen for hundreds of miles, and is an encyclopedia reflecting the history of Jingmen, which has been praised by a generation of great men, Mao Zedong. In order to let more people relive the history and understand Jingmen, in October 2006, the Municipal Archives Bureau, together with the Party History Fangzhi Office and the Urban Construction Archives, launched the school printing work of "Jingmen ZhouZhi".
As a "masterpiece to understand the history of Jingmen's five-thousand-year civilization", the proofreading work is the top priority. Today, Elder Wang still remembers the scene when he participated in the proofreading: "I am responsible for more than 500 pages of proofreading, to break sentences and punctuate the original text, to convert traditional characters and variant characters into modern common standard characters stipulated by the state; in the proofreading, the time, tasks, place names, events, and strange words and phrases originally recorded are annotated, difficult problems are examined, and obvious typos are corrected." The part of the proofreading I was responsible for took more than 8 months to complete, or under the condition of adding a lot of night shifts. ”
He made a long written speech at the first meeting of the book, vividly reflecting the more authentic side, "We must be cautious in doing learning, and we must not take for granted anything that has no basis." He gave examples of how to mark, dot, and note. When it comes to "notes", he explains what kind of words he encounters, what kind of professional dictionaries he finds, and also gives examples of how to go back to the roots. He said that once, in order to find out who the "Xuanren Saint Lie" in the "Biography of Hu Xuanlie" was, he searched through the general reference books and did not find them. Checking also the "History of Song" in Emperor Gaozong's previous "Benji", Fang Zhi was the mother of Emperor Shenzong and Emperor Zhezong, and the title of Empress Gao. In order to ascertain the content of the "slander" in the "False Accusations of Xuanren", he checked the "Biography of HouFei" and learned that the "false accusations" were in the "Forgiveness Transmission", and then checked the "Biography of Xing Shu Lie", and he had "abolished the intention after being falsely accused". After learning the content of the "false accusation", he breathed a sigh of relief.
It was with this spirit of seeking the roots that Elder Wang completed the annotation part of the "Jingmen Zhou Zhi" that he was responsible for, which was well received by experts.
After Wang Lao's reputation spread to Wuhan, when the Caidian District of Wuhan City compiled the "Chronicle of Hanyang County", he specially asked Elder Wang to make a note... Today, there are more than ten important classics that have been annotated and reviewed by Wang Lao.
Elder Wang is already a year old, his health has lit up red lights, he has suffered from cataracts, and his right eye has been operated on because of this, making it very difficult to see things. In addition, he also suffered from high blood pressure, intestinal obstruction and other diseases, and his memory was not as good as before, but he still worked tirelessly to study. At present, he is responsible for the revision of the annotated editions of Qianlong's "Zhongxiang County Chronicle" and Qing Tongzhi's "Jingmen Zhili ZhouZhi".
Love is more true, for the national magazine
Lists errata
Wang Huaiting is a more real person, the study of the text can be described as "word selection", the granddaughter said that reading books and newspapers is like changing the homework of students, and the above is densely packed with annotations made of red pen.
He not only marked errors in books, newspapers, plaques, inscriptions, slogans, etc., but also persistently wrote letters or telephones to authors, publishers, and units to which the inscription belonged, pointing out errors, and even listing errata. Many people humbly accepted his corrections and even issued corrections.
"Knowledge of Literature and History" is a national monthly magazine sponsored by zhonghua bookstore, which publishes articles on ancient Chinese literature, art, history, philosophy and cultural history, and Wang Lao subscribes to it every year. In 2009, he noticed some errors in the rigorous magazine and marked them one by one. By the end of the year, he had also made an annual errata and sent it to the editorial board. The editorial board sent him a thank-you note, "I'm impressed to have a loyal and serious reader like you, and gave him a new edition of the series. Since then, every Spring Festival, the editorial department of "Knowledge of Literature and History" will send greeting cards, commemorative books, calendars, etc. to Elder Wang. It is precisely because there is a group of serious readers like Wang Lao that the proofreading of "Knowledge of Literature and History" is more rigorous, and the magazine has a more high-knowledge readership.
Not only in the sea of books love more true, in life, Wang Lao also loves more true. In the Garden Plaza, if he sees which word is written incorrectly, he will reflect it to the relevant responsible unit. In the unit enterprise, he will also point out in time which newly engraved inscription has a typo or typo. Since his retirement, he has written dozens of erroneous texts and untruthful historical materials, and has made a contribution to promoting advanced culture.
Publish a new book, revise it for two years and change its manuscript
If you think that Wang Huaiting is a serious, unreasonable, and unsympathetic "stubborn old man" and "old-fashioned old man" because he loves to pick mistakes and loves more truth, then you are wrong, he treats people kindly and modestly. Therefore, in his nineties, he still had a group of friends around him, who climbed the lattice with him to do academic work, accompanied him to write poems and chants, accompanied him on walks, traveled, chatted, and played cards. His daily life is romantic, fulfilling, and full of fireworks.
Wang Lao's new book "Trivial Memories of Ordinary Life" is the essence of his past works, which contains both his academic works and his life feelings and feelings of home and country.
After more than two years of collation and revision, the book was finally published. Wang Lao's true spirit of striving for excellence is also vividly reflected in this book.
In order to facilitate the revision, he asked his daughter to print out his carefully selected manuscripts, and he repeatedly revised the printed manuscripts, and then let his daughter correct them and print them. In this way, I printed 6 times and repeatedly modified countless times before I began to print. During this period, he was also hospitalized several times due to illness, and after being discharged from the hospital, as soon as he recovered his strength, he began to revise the article repeatedly.
The book is divided into 5 parts, including his 50 articles, including the inscriptions he wrote, the inscriptions he made, the "finger flaws" he made, as well as his interpretation of some inscriptions, his thinking on proofreading, his reading feelings, and the Health puzzle sutra. Wenyou Liu Nanxi praised this book for embodying The cultural heritage of Wang Lao and the spirit of perseverance in learning, "at the age of 91, he can still publish books and still do learning, this spirit is incredible."
Another friend, Quan Shijin, gave Him a congratulatory poem on Wang Lao's 90th birthday: "Respectful and diligent in teaching, the blessing message is added to the world." Wang Yang is knowledgeable and knowledgeable, and the old style is great. Nine analysis of difficult interpretation of cold words, very true and false through the text. High wind zaide is not late, Shoubi Nanshan crane and pine. This congratulatory poem is a blessing to Elder Wang, and it is also a subtle summary of Mr. Wang's profound knowledge and rigorous academic discipline.
Source: Reading Times, Issue 02, 2022
Author:Guo Yuhong, Daniel Zhang (Special Correspondent of this magazine)
Editor-in-charge: He Jianjiao, Editor: Deng Rumeng