Zhou Zuoren after the "public version"

Zhou Zuoren's "night reading and copying" is a deliberate style.

At the beginning of the year, I stumbled upon that there were more than a dozen publishing houses printing Zhou's books. Ask friends in the publishing industry, only to learn that Zhou's works have entered the "public edition" as early as a few years ago, no matter who it is, there is no need to seek the consent of the copyright owner, nor do you have to pay any fees, you can use it for publication. That is to say, the old man of Zhitang can really become an "ancient" this time.

Although there are many kinds of Zhou's anthologies all at once, there is a sense of swarming, but I believe that these publishers are not focused on profit. Zhou's readers are "niche" in any case, and in the more than thirty years since the resumption of publication, most of the people who like Zhitang script have had one or more anthologies, and how many people can buy it? Therefore, my opinion is that Zhou Zuoren's "public edition" only provides an opportunity for publishers to display their publishing ideas and ideas, of course, the premise of course is to promote the Zhitang text. I bought several of them selectively, wanted to see what new look, and got the feeling that the publisher was very thoughtful and tried to be different, such as the design of the cover and the layout of the layout are innovative, especially some of them have not only beautiful but also appropriate illustrations, which is particularly pleasing to me. But in the most important part, that is, the text, we can't see how much effort has been put into it, and what improvements have been made. I think this is not due to the deliberate neglect and laziness of the publishers, but to their underestimation of the shortcomings of the existing texts of Zhitang's writings.

Since 1945, Zhou Zuoren's books have basically stopped publishing, but after the 1950s, several books and translated works about Lu Xun have been published without the signature of "Zhou Zuoren", and as for his self-edited anthologies, it seems that they have never been reprinted. Therefore, in the 1980s, When Mr. Zhong Shuhe began to systematically edit and publish Zhou Zuoren's self-compiled anthology and classified anthology, and when Mr. Zhi'an re-edited Zhou's self-compiled anthology after more extensive collection, they had limited resources for reference, and today, these published results appear to be somewhat hasty and rough, and it is understandable that these publication results are somewhat hasty and rough. Mr. Zhong allows Zhou's works to meet with readers in various forms, and Mr. Zhi'an provides readers with a version that strives to maintain its original taste and pure color, which can be said to have completed the "grassroots" stage of Zhou's work collation. In addition, although the Zhou text did not reach or approach the level of "final text", the two different views on the concept of collation and revision, in a comprehensive comparison, contained many positive and negative experiences, which provided valuable reference for the "discussion", "embellishment" and "editing" of the later generations.

Unfortunately, Zhou's works after the "public edition" have not yet seen a breakthrough in the "initial creation" stage, but they give people the feeling that the two revisers have also been "publicly published". Regrettably, I can't help but want to interject a few words as a reader, and talk about the Zhou texts before the "public edition", including the Republic of China edition and the revised editions of Mr. Zhong and Mr. Zhi'an, for the reference of those who aspire to succeed in martial arts, even if they attract some ridicule.

I haven't read all of Zhou's existing texts, but I've read most of them. I have read more times, only the early "Look at the Clouds", "Eternal Day" and other collections, the middle "Night Reading Copy" after the dozen or so. Therefore, my examples are limited to this scope, and there is only one example for each issue to be discussed, which was not found and handled in the previous version of the "public version".

1. Errors in the text

Let's start with the error of the text, that is, the problem of proofreading.

(1) Zhou Zuoren's own clerical errors. The first article of "Talking After the Candle", "What You Can Do", has the following paragraph:

It's a difficult thing, how dare I do it. At the beginning, I didn't dare, that is, I was so forced to do it, as if it was the eldest son in the "Eight Paths", and after wandering around, I often went to the horns.

My opinion is that although the "big" of the "eldest son" is the same as "too", it is better to change it to the word "too" that suits the habits of the current reader, and "the eight paths are completed" is undoubtedly a mistake of "eight phases of enlightenment".

"Eight Paths of Fulfillment", in the Buddhist scriptures, out of the "Great Nirvana Sutra", together with the bullet, the six bo, the beating, the throwing of stones, throwing pots, etc., the note is "plugging the drama", and all ordained people cannot observe it. The "Brahma Net Sutra" is called the "Eight Paths of the City", the details of which can not be known, Ming Lotus Yi "Fan Net Sutra Combined Notes" Yun: "Those who lead the eight roads of the city, vertical and horizontal eight roads, with chess pieces." Western drama also. If the following text "big son" refers to a chess piece, and it is said that "after wandering everywhere, it often goes to the horn", Zhou Shi should not be so imaginative to play, and anthropomorphize the chess pieces emotionally. Therefore, it is quite suspicious that the "eldest son" of this article is the "prince", just as the "great treasure" in the article "Notes on the Old Scholar's Temple" is "Taibao". In this way, the "eight paths of enlightenment" should be the mistake of "eight phases of enlightenment." The "Eight Phases of Enlightenment" is the story of Shakyamuni shakyamuni from birth to enlightenment to nirvana that most Buddhists know, so Zhou Shi can use it as a familiar scripture. According to the Buddha's manifestation in the human world, there are eight phases, called "eight phases". (The eight phases of Mahayana are: descending the rate of rebirth, entering the womb, dwelling in the womb, getting out of the womb, renunciation, enlightenment, turning the wheel of Dharma, and entering and dying.) "Enlightenment" is only one of the eight phases, but it is the main brain of the eight phases, so it is specially said that "eight phases of enlightenment." What Zhitang is saying here is that Siddhartha (i.e., Shakyamuni), the prince of the Kapilava Wei kingdom, tried all the outer paths before he became enlightened, but he could not attain enlightenment, so he "wandered everywhere and often went to the horns."

However, this kind of error can only be explained by comments, and it is not appropriate to change the original text, (the eldest son can change the prince). Zhou Zuoren read a lot of Buddhist scriptures, and many great monks did not know the word "Eight Paths of Fulfillment", and he could not have used it in the article, so it was a complete negligence mistake. This kind of temporary negligence is very strange, for example, there is a sentence in the "Guadou Collection: The Four Sides of the Family Above and Below", "Tai Shi Gong Yue, hurt and poor, life can not be nourished, death can not be buried also." The three sentences of "Hurting the Poor" are from the "Tan Bow", which is the words of the sub-road. Zhou Shi was young enough to read the Four Books, and it was impossible not to know, and no one could figure out how he had mistakenly become Tai Shi Gong.

(2) The source of Zhou's citations. The article "About Bitter Tea" in "Bitter Tea Essay":

"Mao Shi Grass, Wood, Birds, Animals, Insects, Fishes and Thins" "Mountains have chestnuts" A cloud: "The mountains are born in the mountains, which are roughly the same as the Shimoda Tree, the leaves seem to be narrow ears, and the Wu people use their leaves as tea." ”

The following quotation from "Mountain Trees and Mountains" is actually not from the "Mountain has a chestnut" article in Lu Jie's "Mao Shi Grass, Wood, Birds, Animals, Insects, And FishEs", that is to say, although there is a "mountain has a chestnut" on the volume of "Lu Shu", there is no text under this article. This passage actually comes from the "Covering the Lotus Tree" article of the "Lu Shu". Therefore, if Zhou Shi cites "Lu Shu", he should write "Mao Shi Cao, Wood, Birds, Animals, Insects, Fish and Fish Shu", 'Covering the Qiqi Tree' A cloud down" So why did Zhou Shi go wrong here? Also because of negligence. The version used by Zhou shi in excerpting quotations is actually The Ming Dynasty Mao Jin's "Lu Shi Shu Guang Zhi", which can also be meaningfully understood as Mao Jin's annotation to "Lu Shu". Because the "Lu Shu" itself is only 20,000 words, it can generally only be collected in the series of books to pass on, and there is no one-liner, and people receive "Lu Shu Guangyao" or other school books, and "Guangjiao" is the most commonly used. In the "Covering The Tree" article of the "Lu Shu Guangyao", the main text of the "Lu Shu" naturally has that paragraph, but in the "Mountain has a chestnut", Mao also quoted that paragraph in the "Note" he made. Zhou Shi found the text from the location of the "Note", but did not distinguish whether it was the main text of "Lu Shu", and conveniently wrote the source as "Mountain Youqi". Zhou Shi was very fond of Lu Jie's "Mao Shi Grass, Wood, Birds, Beasts, Insects, Fishes and Thins", and almost collected all the relevant versions of this book, and the mistakes in the places he knew best could only be careless. As for some editors who changed the phrase "mountain has a tree" here to "mountain has a tree", it is even more wrong, because there is no such thing as "mountain has a tree" in "Lu Shu".

(3) Zhou misunderstood the cited article. Zhou Zuoren's level of ancient Chinese proofreading is also first-rate among experts, especially in the case that the punctuation used is only commas and periods, and the broken sentences and concluded sentences are extremely accurate and rigorous. But it's not that it's infallible. For example, the first article of "Talking about Bing Candle", "About Yu Lichu", which has clouds:

The book "Old Tang Shu Yu Zhi" at the end of the cloud: "In ancient times, there were Ding men and Ding women, and if they wrapped their feet, they lost Ding women, and if they were weak, they could not finish their two instruments." And out of the ancient dance clothes, female are male. ”

The sentence "Female unworthiness is male unworthiness" cannot be understood, check the "Decameron Class Draft", the original sentence is "Female unworthy, then the male unworthy woman's heart cannot be changed, from the ancient Dazu when there are valuable and beautiful shoes". Male is not that men are as mean as women, but that men despise women. Here zhitang first misread, and then the quotation is incomplete.

(4) Errors in transcribing Zhou's quotations. There are many such errors, just to cite the example of "Talking About the Ruler Again" of "Talking about The Candle":

And the few in the world who are princes and old kings, once happy enough to be tired of Ye.

This sentence is also very puzzling, so I had to check the "and Xu Kejia" of the second volume of the Xuehong Xuan Ruler, and the result was: "And the few in the world are princes, and the old are the kings, and he has been happy enough to be tired." Zhou's record of "lao wei" and "why" and the words "also he" are missing.

(5) The textual error of the article cited by Zhou Shi itself. For example, the "Reading Wind Hypothesis Supplement" of "Talking about The Candle":

"Look at the Buddha, stand and cry", the farewell scene, the two words are exhausted, it is really possible to cry ghosts. Zhang Ziye said in a short and long sentence, "Eyesight is not as good as a person, go far up to the Creek Bridge." ”

Among them, "Zhang Ziye's short and long sentence cloud, 'eyesight is not as good as people, go far to the Xiqiao Bridge'" I felt suspicious, so I checked the original text of volume III of "Reading the Wind Hypothesis Supplement", the original text is written like this, then the problem lies in the "Reading the Wind Hypothesis Supplement". According to Zhang Xian's "Yu Meiren", this sentence was originally written as "the eyesight does not know the distance of the people, the bridge of the upper stream (or the river)", which can be seen that the quotation of the "Hypothesis Supplement" is both a misnomer and a misleading Zhou's wrong judgment. However, this kind of problem can only be explained in the school record, and the original text cannot be changed, because the mistakes are not all in the Zhou family. Moreover, Zhou Shi sometimes does not change the quotation, not necessarily because he does not know that there is a mistake. For example, in the article "Dou Cun" in "Wind and Rain Talk", there is a quotation: "Tang Ye Shi Shiyun, 'Should be suspected of sand teeth printing moss.'" Ye Shi is not a Tang dynasty, how can Zhou Zuoren not know, knowing without changing is the rule, if it is changed to "Song Ye Shi", naturally can not be said wrong, but how to deal with the following questions? That is, this poem was not actually written by Ye Shi, and the author was Ye Shaoweng Zi Si Zong Jing Yi. Therefore, such errors can only be pointed out in the proofreading and should not be changed in the original text.

The above are some mistakes in Zhou's original book, it seems that they will not hurt their bones and bones, affect the carelessness, and the sloppy ones have also read the past, but if these mistakes are as many as dozens or even hundreds, then they should not be sloppy, but should be taken seriously. However, the judgment of these errors must be justified, and it is especially prudent to change them, otherwise it will become good and wrong.

For example, there are those who know one and do not know the other. Zhou Shi originally had a literary habit of showing off bo, "Decoction Miscellaneous Knowledge" he was going to write "Decoction Magazine", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was going to be written as "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhou Shi wrote this way is not wrong, but if confined to habit, recognize the typo and change it to "orthography", it is not appropriate.

There are also changes to accommodate the current language habits. For example, "qi" is changed to "atmosphere", "branch flow" is changed to "tributary", "root yuan" is changed to "root", "lychee" is changed to "lychee" and so on. If you think that some of them are foreign languages and must be changed, what about the words "name" and "new Buddha"? Does some English also translate directly into Chinese?

There are also those who do not understand Zhou's quotations properly, but do not check the original book, and directly change their own words. For example, in the article "Five Old Little Janes" in the "Night Reading Copy", which mentions Yu Fan's "Four Notes in the Tea Room" Volume 10 "Song Ren Xiao Jian", and cites a paragraph of Song Zhu Ben's "Qu Huan Old News", there is a "one or two word Small Jane". A short, no matter how short it is, will not only have one or two words, this is just a very short exaggeration, and there is no error. Therefore, Yu Quyuan does not change according to the record, and the Zhitang Record Quyuan does not change, if we feel that "one or two words of small Jane" is not a word, "Qu Huan Old News" is not a secluded book, check it out, it is best not to lead Er to pick up the Zhu pen.

There are a few new typos added due to carelessness, and some of them have been used by publications after the "public edition", which is a pity.

Second, the problem of punctuation

Punctuation issues. Zhou Zuoren's article is known to be difficult to read, and although there are many reasons for this, the problem of punctuation is also one of the major items. My contempt, if properly handled on punctuation, the text of Zhitang will be much easier to read.

(1) Zhou's original text has many juxtaposed nouns without commas or ton signs, which is very inconvenient for today's readers. Let's start with an example:

"Wind and Rain Talk: Three Vernacular Poems" has the following three places that are juxtaposed. 1. "Mao Qiling Song Heng Shao Tingcai Dai Famous World". 2. "Zhang Shi Yu Gong Gu Tao and Shen". 3. "Zhang Da Lai Lin Hua Shi Cheng

In the first sentence, I can still separate the names of the four people, the second sentence I hesitate, and as for the third sentence, I can't think of it. Of course, the third sentence is fortunate that Zhou Shi himself has made a distinction with commas, for "Zhang Da Lai, Linhua, Shi, Cheng Li, Cheng Yu, Ying Shu, Gong, Zhong, Shi Fa, Biao", probably feel that it is too difficult for the reader not to give a break. So should the first two cases also be accompanied by commas or don signs?

There are many such cases, and Mr. Zhong Shuhe and Mr. Zhi'an Er have also done different degrees of treatment, but they have not been able to carry out the whole process, or add or not add, still leaving the reader with some confusion. For example, "Long depressed and drowning chu crazy public opinion", it is easy to be misunderstood as four people. The string of words "Shimizu Sunny Wind Nishizawa Flute Mu Kawasaki Giant Spring" ("Bing Candle Talk Gangdo Erse") is divided by several Japanese, I tried several plans and still could not decide, had to ask the children Su Pillow Book to solve.

(2) Zhou Shi is also very casual about the title of the book in the article, adding it if he wants, and most of it is not added.

A typical example is the "About Paper" article in "Wind and Rain Talk", all book titles, journal titles, and article titles, without quotation marks, without exception. Its previous article, "Mao's Sayings of Poetry", added the title of the book to the title of the book, and even the word "preface" of the poem is no exception. The two articles were written on January 4 and on January 8, separated by only four days. Some talk about the same book in the same article, either before or after, or vice versa. On this issue, Mr. Zhong and Ji An handled it better, that is, they both added the title of the book, and as for whether it was added or not, whether it was omitted, it was another issue.

(3) Quotation marks. Zhou Zuoren quotes others into paragraphs of articles are all quoted, sometimes only one or two sentences should also be put in quotation marks. The problem now is that the articles of foreigners quoted by Zhou Shi also carry the original quotation marks with the original quotation marks in the translation, that is, the quotation marks are added to the quotation marks; but if he cites ancient Chinese texts, then if there are quotations or dialogues in them, he will not put another quotation mark. Without quotation marks, it is familiar to everyone as "Zeng Zi Yi Zhen" in "Tan Bow", otherwise it is easy to cause some inconvenience to the reader. And look at the following "Bitter Bamboo Miscellaneous Notes and Drunken Yu Essays" quoting a paragraph in the seventh volume of Shandashi's "Notes on Park Xuezhai":

"Changli and Yu Xiangyang shu, boasting of their unworldly talents, And When Shu shu does not follow, Wen Wu only uses them, and this is also a real reputation for love." And the zhicun is meritorious, the matter is dedicated to the lord, the ancients have a word, please start from kui, and secretly pretend to be a great man. Nai Yun Yu today is only in a hurry, but it is only enough to enjoy the next dynasty, and how small it is. ”

This paragraph contains five more quotations, all from Han Yu's Book of Heyu, now in quotation marks as follows:

"The book of Changli and Yu Xiangyang boasts that he 'holds the talents of the world', 'Scroll Shu does not follow the times, and Wen Wu only uses them', which is also a true reputation. And 'the ambition is to make meritorious deeds, and the deeds are dedicated to the Lord', 'the ancients have a word, please start from Kui', and they implicitly pretend to be a great man. Naiyun 'The more today, the only thing that can be done is that the money of the rice servant is urgent, but it is only enough to enjoy the next dynasty', and how small is the ambition. ”

Comparing the two, you can see the effect of the quotation marks. The case of punctuation is complex, and the above is just a big end to illustrate that the punctuation marks in the Zhitang article need to be reprocessed. As for the specific nuances, that is the business of the insider.

3. The style of Zhitang

The typos and punctuation mentioned above are suggested changes; the following is to talk about the suggestions that do not move, that is, the style of Zhitang, and I mainly refer to the "night reading copy" style.

"Night Reading and Copying" is zhitang's original stylistic form, which is not only cherished and supported by himself, but also respected by zhitang researchers. I remember that Mr. Shu Wu once said that it was "no ancient person before, no one after it". At first glance, this statement feels a bit excessive, but in fact, it is very reasonable to think about it. From the rise of the vernacular movement to the emergence of "night reading and copying", it is only more than ten years, and indeed I have not seen the "ancients" who use this style. As for the comers, I think that no one may have simulated this body, but although the book has also read a lot and the pen has also kung fu, it is written like a lady of the, and it is natural to give up. So is "night reading" so advanced? But it is not, just because the body of Zhitang is completely tailored according to their own qualities in all aspects. For "night reading and copying", he began to write in 1928, but the real writing was four or five years later. We only look at his hand is "Yan's Study", "Yan's Family Training" and a series of other famous articles, we can not ignore his brewing and speculation in these years, my humble opinion, here he wrote "grass, wood, insects and fish" and other articles are "night reading copy" body exploration and exercise.

Zhitang's "Night Reading copy" is undoubtedly a success, and it can be said that it has reached the peak of prose creation that has been climbing for several years. Although some people ridicule him as a "copyist", he only makes some explanations peacefully, meaning "you may as well copy it and try it". By 1936, when Lu Xun answered Snow's question, he said that the best Chinese prose was Zhou Zuoren, which although it contained a great element of humility, it was not pretentious, and I think that lu Xun's approved Zhitang prose was a recent creation represented by "night reading and copying". The artistic level of these essays is enough to make Zhou Zuoren and Lu Xun stand side by side in different styles.

"Night reading and copying" is a deliberate style, and its uniqueness from the inside to the outside is intentional, or its external unique form is in line with the inner style and rhyme. When I first read such texts, the first thing I felt was not the brilliance of the article, but the awkwardness of the segmented form, so awkward that I really wanted to rearrange it. But when I think about it, no matter how unpleasant I look at it, I can't just get plastic surgery for others, so I have to look at it with a grudge until I adapt and understand. I asked a few of my friends who liked zhitang writing, and they generally had similar feelings.

The reason why I talk about this is that I hope that the friends who publish Zhou's articles "after the public edition" will not be kind enough to do plastic surgery on articles other than "night reading and copying" or "night reading copy", and for those unconventional paragraphs, do not split or merge, and let it be passed on to the world in its original appearance. I have this awareness, and it is only a recent thing. I opened a volume of "Night Reading Copy" published by a certain company in the "public edition" at hand, where all the quotations of Zhitang were proposed, and they were changed into a separate "block", and changed to italics, which was very pleasing to the eye, but I wanted to find out the original segments, but I couldn't find it. As for the difference between the plastic surgery book and the original reading experience, it is self-evident. The ancients had the saying that "love is enough to harm" and "the curse of engraving books is better than burning books", although it is somewhat biased, but it is also very important for us to warn.

Luan Baoqun