△ Mr. Yu Zilin
(Presided over the compilation of "Ancient Books News")
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Small publications, big value
——About the "Old Books" book series
Text / Chen Zishan
△ "Old Books News"
A thick stack of "Old Books News" (Shanghai Bookstore Publishing House) was placed in front of me, the folio was large and small, printed with old and new, although it has been more than twenty years, casually flipping through, through the slightly yellowed pages, still feel the abundance of information and love.
"Old Books News" is a literary and historical publication sponsored by Shanghai Bookstore (formerly Shanghai Old Books). When the predecessor of the "Old Books News", "Business Newsletter", was founded in 1959 as an internal business journal. I was just a primary school student at the time, I had no access, and even if I had the opportunity to see it, I couldn't read it. When I resumed publication in 1979 and renamed "Old Books", I was already a teacher in the Chinese Department of the University, specializing in modern Chinese literature. Due to the needs of teaching and research work, I became a regular visitor to shanghai bookstores, and for the first time I read the "Old Books" that was still an internal exchange with Mr. Liu Huating, and since then I have become a loyal reader of "Old Books", and I still have almost a complete set of "Old Books".
△ Shanghai Used Bookstore, which opened in 1956
There is often such a phenomenon in the history of publishing, when a journal is not much attention when it is launched, but over time, its value will gradually become prominent. Such is the case with the Old Books. How many people knew about this small publication at the beginning of its resumption? Not conspicuous at all. It is only a small publishing information publication run by Shanghai Bookstore to cooperate with the photocopying of old books and periodicals since the end of the Qing Dynasty, which is somewhat similar to the "Beixin" in the Beixin Bookstore, the "Enlightened" in the Enlightened Bookstore and the "Modern Publishing Circle" in the Modern Bookstore. However, after several years of publication, it has become an important publication to sort out and introduce the historical materials published in Shanghai's modern and contemporary culture, and has become a platform for the previous generations of cultural people and later researchers to exchange ideas and discuss the history of modern and contemporary Chinese literature and culture.
It should be pointed out that the historical context of the birth of the Old Books cannot be ignored. At the end of the 1970s, China's cultural circles, like the political and economic circles, were in ruins and waiting to be revived. Emancipating the mind and correcting the chaos was the strongest voice of the times at that time. In this context of the times, Beijing gave birth to the "New Literary Historical Materials", which is still published, in order to provide detailed and reliable historical materials for the re-evaluation of China's modern and contemporary literary history and cultural history, and the resumption of the "Ancient Books and News" should also be viewed as such, although the scale and role of the two are not the same. From the articles originally published in the "Old Books And News", it can be clearly seen that this valuable effort to turn the history upside down again, the introduction of the bookstores and periodicals run by the Chinese Communists and democrats in different historical periods, and the comments on the achievements of the left-wing cultural people in various fields of literature, history and philosophy at that time were fruitful. Due to the catastrophe of the "Cultural Revolution", a large number of literary and cultural historical materials were destroyed, and the rescue work done by the "Old Books" in this regard was even more extensive and timely. Moreover, with the further emancipation of thought and the continuous breakthrough of various forbidden areas, the vision of "Ancient Books" has also been continuously expanded, and non-leftist, liberal and even controversial historical figures, associations, bookstores and books, etc., as long as they have reference value in China's modern and contemporary literature and cultural history, are all excavated and sorted out in "Old Books".
△ From left to right: Chen Wangdao, Shi Jiecun, Tang Tao
What is particularly rare is that the "Old Books News" has successively published the memories of the "May Fourth" literary and publishing predecessors in literature and publishing circles, such as Chen Wangdao, Liu Yanling, Feng Zhi, Zhao Jingshen, Shi Jingcun, Hu Feng, Zhou Quanping, Lou Shiyi, Tang Tao, Ke Ling, Zhang Kebiao, Lin Dazu, Zheng Yimei, Pu Sixiao, Zhou Lengjia, Li Xiaofeng, Meng Tongru, Shen Songquan, Lu Fang, Fan Quan, Xu Juemin, Qu Guangxi, Wei Shaochang, Chen Congzhou, and other literary and publishing predecessors. In addition to Chen Wangdao, Li Xiaofeng, Meng Tongru and Qu Guangxi, who died before and during the "Cultural Revolution", all of the above-mentioned people have exchanged with me in correspondence or in person, and many of them have also had deep friendships. Therefore, reading "Old Book News", the sound and smile of these amiable and respectable predecessors are as vivid as in front of my eyes, which makes me feel very close, which is probably another reason why I prefer "Old Book News".
Mr. Yu Zilin presided over the compilation of this "Ancient Book News" book series, from the three aspects of "a hundred years of book industry", "literary circles at that time" and "memory of books", "collection of literature and history historical articles" and subsequent publications "Book Window" and "Century Book Window", which are full of dazzling and beautiful. This set of books is not only a more systematic review of the literary and historical masterpieces published in the "Ancient Books News" in the past ten years, but also provides a set of large-scale historical materials for the study of Shanghai's modern and contemporary literary history, publishing history, and cultural history, and its significance cannot be underestimated.
△ From left to right: Chen Congzhou, Zhang Kebiao
I think researchers today can get useful insights and important clues from this book series. For example, if you want to study the Creation Society from the perspective of new literature studies alone, can you not read the memories of Zhou Quanping, Shen Songquan and others in the department? If you want to study the Crescent Moon Society, can you not read the memories of Xie Jiasong, Chen Congzhou and others in the department? If you want to study the Analects school, can you not read the memories of Zhang Kebiao, Lin Dazu and others in the department? Of course not. The topics and ideas of many of the philosophical papers on literature and history may be brewing from this book series. For readers who generally love literature and history, this set of books is also readable and interesting.
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About the Author
Chen Zishan
Professor of the Department of Chinese of East China Normal University, editor-in-chief of the Journal of Modern Chinese.