CCTV's "Reading" column recently broadcast the "Zhonghua Bookstore Good Book Award", focusing on the top ten good books of Zhonghua Bookstore in 2021.
The program is divided into two episodes, the previous episode has been broadcast on February 22 (for details, see "Zhonghua Bookstore's Top Ten Books of 2021 on CCTV's "Reading" column (Part 1)"). In the next episode, which aired on February 23, Zhou Xuanlong, editor-in-chief of Zhonghua Bookstore, and Wu Qilin, editor of Zhonghua Bookstore, chatted about five good books, including "China in Symbols", "Blood: The Family of "History"", "Wang Anshi Anshi Anthology", "The Twelve Hours of Qianlong" and "The Book of a Century-Old Revolutionary".
The show received widespread attention after it aired. The following is based on the content of the second episode, and more exciting content is welcome to watch the "Reading" column.
China in Symbols
Zhou Xuanlong: There are about a hundred symbols in "China in Symbols". It has no exact definition, but it also expresses some rich meaning. Let me give you a simple example, for example, when we talk about peonies, Chinese naturally think of great wealth and nobility, and when we talk about Shochiku plums, we immediately think of the three friends of the cold and cold, that is, noble character, can withstand the wind and rain, such a memory.
The focus of this book is to extract more than a hundred symbols from Chinese culture, from excavated cultural relics, documents handed down from generations, and various folk beliefs, to explain them, and to explain how these symbols came about, how they changed, and how they formed the way we are today. Then what it represents, and now what else it represents. Through this book, we can have a clearer understanding of our history and our culture.
Moderator: Another thing is that I think the illustrations in this book are very beautiful in addition to the content.
Zhou Xuanlong: Right. It can be said that it is a picture and text, and the abstract meanings that we convey from words through pictures are presented to you very vividly and very realistically. So we have a line on the cover of the book that says that through more than 100 symbols and more than 300 color pictures, some elements of 5,000 years of Chinese culture have been outlined.
Moderator: Such a book with pictures and texts, first of all, I recommend it to everyone.
Bloodline: The Family of the Chronicles
Moderator: The next thing we recommend for you is "Bloodline: The Family of "History"", so what are the specific characteristics of this book, or please share it with Mr. Zhou for readers.
Zhou Xuanlong: Good. So what is the Family? The family is some big family and some big clan that has been passed down from generation to generation. This book is an outline of the history of these 30 large clans and large families in the history of history. The author compares from the excavated documents and other historical materials to see what is the relationship between the history of the families in these 30 families written by Sima Qian and the actual history.
The author of the book also talks about the inheritance within these families: what are the constituent elements from the spiritual level? Why is this family so prosperous? What are the elements behind this legacy?
Swipe left or right to view the book's table of contents
Moderator: In-depth reading.
Zhou Xuanlong: Yes, it has an in-depth interpretation. If we talk about it from today's social era, everyone now emphasizes the so-called inheritance of family style, then the reason why these big families can exist for a long time, there must be some experiences and some good spirits that are very worthy of learning from our descendants, especially in the cultivation of good family style, I think this book is still worthy of our reference.
Moderator: Interested viewers can read it.
The Collected Works of Wang Anshi
Zhou Xuanlong: There was once a poor Xianggong in Chinese history, do you know who he is?
Host: That should refer to Wang Anshi. And last year, that is, 2021, was the 1,000th anniversary of Wang Anshi's birth.
Zhou Xuanlong: Many places have done commemorative activities, so the publication of this set of books is also timely. Judging from history and today's times, Wang Anshi is indeed a great politician.
During the time of Emperor Shenzong of Song, Wang Anshi launched a new policy, and at that time, many people in the old party opposed it. The empress dowager asked Song Shenzong, saying, "This person is so opposed to everyone, why do you still use him?" Song Shenzong said a sentence, "In the Manchu Dynasty, only Wang Anshi was a cross-country." It is not afraid of all difficulties, desperately doing things for the country. But because he doesn't understand well some things at the grassroots level of Chinese society. His Green Shoots Law later brought some trouble to the people, so he was also attacked by the opposition, and finally withdrew from politics in his later years. But it did not affect his status as a great writer and politician.
This book collects the main surviving poems, words, and works of Wang Anshi. And at present, it should be said that for the first time, a collation of the comparison system. This book is very well done, and Mr. Liu Chengguo has also done it for many years. For Zhonghua Bookstore, the "Basic Series of Chinese Classical Literature" is a relatively core product line of literature. The publication of "Wang Anshi's Collected Works" is equivalent to adding a bright spot to this product line and is an important work.
Host: We should have a very heavy sense of reading this set of "Wang Anshi Anthology" and recommend it to everyone.
"The Twelve Hours of Qianlong"
Zhou Xuanlong: I want to ask you a question first, what time does the emperor get up in the morning, do you know?
Host: It shouldn't be like our office workers going from nine to five, right?
Zhou Xuanlong: It's much harder than us, and I have to get up at four o'clock in the morning. We want to tell you that this book is called "The Twelve Hours of Qianlong." So what is this book about? As the name suggests, it is about the life of the Qianlong Emperor for one day, which is based on his experience on the eighth day of the first lunar month in the thirtieth year of Qianlong.
Why choose this day? Because the archives of the Inner House keep the entire whereabouts of the emperor on this day intact. But everyone will wonder, how can such a thick book be written on such a day?
In fact, this book only uses this day as a clue to time, interspersing Qianlong's life and the major historical events that occurred in the Qianlong Dynasty into every link of his work. For example, if he met with the minister -- because he met the minister at noon, he interspersed here with these important events in the history of Qianlong and the handling of some major military and state affairs.
Including his own private life, qianlong and his concubine relationship problems, such as the legendary mysterious xiangfei and his relationship problems... All very interesting.
Princess Kaki Images
This book has a lot of rich historical details, the twelve hours are only a line and a structure to organize the book, but what really runs through Qianlong's life is the politics and military, as well as his private life and family affection, which allows us to know more about the mysterious side of this feudal emperor who is in the position of the Nine Emperors.
Moderator: Such an interesting book, "The Twelve Hours of Qianlong" is recommended to everyone.
The Book of the Centennial Revolutionaries
Moderator: The following book recommended for everyone is called "The Book of a Hundred Years of Revolutionaries". The title is The Revolutionary Book, and it should be full of letters there, right?
Zhou Xuanlong: Right. The book contains letters to their families from 1921 to 2018 from 1921 to 2018 by heroic martyrs who died in revolutionary work. These hundred letters write from different angles about some of the problems he faces in his daily work, what he thinks, feels, and thinks.
But all of this boils down to one thing: sacrifice everything for the country and the nation. I think this set of books is especially for our contemporary society, for us in the era of peace and construction, perhaps sacrifice is not a norm, but it is of great reference significance for many of us.
Host: So reading this "Book of Centennial Revolutionaries", I think we should be able to receive a very profound education.
Zhou Xuanlong: There is a characteristic of this book, and I will introduce it to you. The original of each letter is attached to the book, and later we organize the letter into text, because some of the words in the original are not clear, and there is cursive writing, which others may not be able to understand. Put it into text so that we can see the letter. Then there is a small biography of the person who wrote the letter, and at the end of each article, a reading of the letter is made, that is, there is a distillation of its meaning.
Moderator: Then our top ten good books will be introduced here. Let's take another look back.