The Yongzheng edition of "King Ding Ancient and Modern Book Integration" was originally photocopied by Wuqiao Jinding Ancient Book Printing Factory from June 2006 to August 2008! The original size, reproduction of the treasures of the country, the original photocopied, the reshaping of the imperial seal, 5020 volumes, 520 letters of rice paper printing, ancient line binding book reproduced in front of the eyes of the world, not only the reproduction of history, but also the accumulation of a period of civilization.
The author interviewed Liu Bing, an expert in the identification of ancient books in Liaoning Province and director of the Special Collections Department of Liaoning Provincial Library. He told us that the "Integration of Ancient and Modern Books" is the most voluminous and most exquisitely printed book in the history of copper movable type printing in China. There are 25 surviving books in this precious book, of which only 12 are in China, and the Liaoning Provincial Library has a complete one.
Regrettably, the more than 1 million copper movable characters that Kangxi specially cast in the Wuying Hall to print the book were destroyed by the Qianlong Emperor. So, why did the Qianlong Emperor destroy these copper movable characters?
Chen Menglei is the compiler, why didn't he leave a name
Liu Bing said that the actual compiler of "Ancient and Modern Book Integration" is Chen Menglei, but the name on the book is Jiang Tingxi.
The reporter found in the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty: Forty-Nine Biographies" that Chen Menglei was a native of Minxian County, Fujian Province, and a famous scholar of the Qing Dynasty. Born in The Xiang mendi, he was a 21-year-old middle scholar and was elected as a Shu Jishi of Hanlin Academy, and soon became the editor of Hanlin Academy. In the twelfth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1673), the 23-year-old Chen Menglei returned to Fujian Province, coinciding with geng jingzhong, the king of Jingnan, who was stationed in Fujian, raising an army against the Qing. Geng Jingzhong was a famous scholar in Fujian, and he forcibly conferred official positions and coerced Chen Menglei into making him an official. Chen Menglei was forced to go into hiding in the temple, and later because his father was detained, he "had to enter the Geng Curtain, but still refused to be sealed by illness." At this time, his good friend Li Guangdi betrayed him, "Guangdi made the Japanese diving dream thunder detective news, obtained falsehood, and had a dense and thief-like appearance, and the light land was alone, and it was greatly favored." ”
Liu Bing told reporters that this brief account refers to the "wax pill evacuation case" that happened to Chen Menglei during the Kangxi period.
Later, Geng Jingzhong's army was defeated, "Menglei arrested the Beijing Division with a rebellion, and went to prison to discuss beheading." Guangdi was a secret covenant twice, and Menglei had to reduce his death to Fengtian. ”
This was the first time that Chen Menglei had suffered and was exiled to Shenyang
Chen Menglei was talented, knowledgeable, and literate, and exiled to Shenyang for 16 years, he presided over the revision of the history, successively compiled the "Zhou Yi Brief", "Shengjing Tongzhi", "Chengde County Chronicle", "Haicheng County Chronicle", "Gaiping County Chronicle", etc., and opened a school to recruit disciples, impart knowledge, and played a positive role in the development and development of Shenyang's urban culture.
In 1698, when Kangxi toured Shengjing in the east, Chen Menglei was pardoned and recalled to the capital and was ordered to study under the third son of Emperor Xiyuan, Prince Cheng. During this period, he was ordered to compile the "Integration of Ancient and Modern Books", and in April of the forty-fifth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1706), the first draft of the "Integration of Ancient and Modern Books" was basically completed, a total of 6 compilations, divided into 32 zhi and more than 6,000 parts.
In the fifty-fifth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1716), after nearly 15 years of compilation, revision and proofreading, the "Integration of Ancient and Modern Books" was finally completed. The Kangxi Emperor praised the performance and instructed further revision and improvement. After that, the imperial court set up a special ancient and modern book integration hall, set up a special team, cast copper movable type in the Wuying Hall, and began to print the "Ancient and Modern Book Integration". In November of the sixty-first year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1722), the Integration of Ancient and Modern Books was 96% completed in wuying hall.
At this time, Kangxi died, the Yongzheng Emperor took the throne, Yin Zhi was imprisoned, and Yin Zhi's teacher Chen Menglei was also implicated, and was once again exiled to Bu Kui (present-day Qiqihar City), which was farther away than Shengjing and had more difficult conditions, on the charge of "flaunting the market" and "committing many illegal acts", and eventually died elsewhere.
Yongzheng ordered the unfinished "Integration of Ancient and Modern Books" to be taken back, and Jiang Tingxi, who was then a waiter in the household department, was ordered to re-edit the book and delete Chen Menglei's name from the book.
In the sixth year of Yongzheng (1728), the "Integration of Ancient and Modern Books" was all printed and bound, a total of 64 copies, and another sample book. From the beginning of the compilation of Chen Menglei in the thirty-ninth year of the Kangxi Dynasty (1700) to the completion of all books, the "Integration of Ancient and Modern Books" took a total of 28 years.
Liu Bing said that although Yongzheng said in the imperial preface of the "Integration of Ancient and Modern Books" that he had "re-edited" the book and seemed to have made major changes, in fact, there was no change in the style except for changing the original "Thirty-two Zhi" to "Thirty-two Classics" and changing one word. And the so-called "addition and deletion of hundreds of thousands of words" in the preface, even if it is completely true, is only one-thousandth of a thousandth of a whole book with 160 million words, which is insignificant. Therefore, Chen Menglei should be the actual compiler of "Ancient and Modern Book Integration".
More than 1 million copper movable characters were destroyed by Qianlong
According to Liu Bing, the elaborately bound Yongzheng edition of the Copper Movable Type Hall Book "Ancient and Modern Book Integration" uses white civilized paper and yellow Taishilian paper. Civilized paper was used for the interior court furnishings, and Taishilian paper was used for conferring on ministers. Both versions are decorated with yellow aya and generously framed. Due to the sheer volume of the volume, only 64 copies were printed. "This book is not an ordinary print, it is the most famous internal copper movable type print in China, the largest copper movable type printing in Chinese history, representing the highest level of movable type printing in China since the Song Dynasty." Liu Bing said.
So, where are these precious copper movable words?
Liu Bing took out a book for reporters, "History of Movable Type Printing in China" published by China Ancient Books Publishing House in 1998. According to the book, in the fifty-fifth year of Kangxi (1716), in order to compile and print the "Integration of Ancient and Modern Books", Kangxi ordered Chen Menglei's request to be cast, and ordered the casting of a total of more than 1 million large and small copper movable characters, all of which were opened and cast at the movable type board in the Wuying Hall on North Long Street outside xihuamen. After the Qing court printed the Inner House books such as "Ancient and Modern Book Integration" with copper movable type, these precious copper movable characters were stored in the Copper Character Museum of the Inner House Wuying Hall. Regrettably, in the ninth year of Qianlong (1744), Qianlong ordered that all the copper movable types stored in the copper character library of the Wuying Hall be destroyed and melted at the casting furnace to cast the third Buddha of the Lama Temple, and since then these precious copper movable type have disappeared, leaving a very sad page in the history of Chinese metal movable type printing.
Thirty years after the destruction of copper movable type, the Qianlong Emperor wanted to print out the rare books and periodicals in the "Four Libraries Quanshu" museum, at this time the copper movable type in the inner house had all been destroyed, and the Qianlong Emperor deeply deplored this, and specially noted this matter under the sentence "Destroying copper and regretting the past" written for the Juzhen edition, and he sighed: "And if the copper characters still exist, then the book of the present seal will not be twice as effective as half the effort?" I deeply regret it. ”
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the "Integration of Ancient and Modern Books" was reprinted, but it was only a lead or photocopy.
Where are the 25 "Ancient and Modern Book Integrations" now
Liu Bing said that 47 years after the publication of the "Integration of Ancient and Modern Books", the Qianlong Emperor had ordered the construction of seven library cabinets throughout the country to prepare for the special storage of the "Four Libraries and Seven Pavilions". After the completion of the seven libraries, the compilation of the Four Libraries has not yet been completed, and there are no books to store in the cabinet for a while. Qianlong ordered the cabinets to "imitate the style of the four libraries of letters" and first store the "Integration of Ancient and Modern Books", but most of the 7 books stored in these seven cabinets were later lost. Among them, the Zhenjiang Wenzong Pavilion in the "South Three Pavilions" was first destroyed by the British army in the Opium War in 1842, and then burned all the books and books after the Taiping Army broke the city in 1853; a collection of books in Yangzhou Wenhui Pavilion was also burned after the Taiping Army broke the city; a collection of books in Hangzhou Wenlan Pavilion was burned after the Taiping Army broke the city for the second time in 1861. In the "North Fourth Pavilion", except for one book in Wenyuan Pavilion, which was completely burned when the British and French forces burned the Yuanmingyuan in 1860, three of the other three cabinets were completely preserved. One of the wenyuan pavilions of the Forbidden City is currently in the Palace Museum in Taiwan, one of the Wenjin Pavilion books is in the National Library of China, and one of the Books of the Wenshu Pavilion in Shenyang is in the Gansu Provincial Library.
"According to the records of the Bibliography of Chinese Good Books, 25 of the 64 copper movable type editions of the Ancient and Modern Book Integration that were printed that year still exist." Liu Bing explained in detail that 1 National Library of China, 1 Palace Museum in Beijing, 3 Palace Museums in Taiwan, and 1 Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in addition to one library in Shanghai, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hangzhou, Xuzhou, and Zhejiang, have one library each. In addition, there is 1 Central Library of Taiwan, 1 Tianyi Pavilion, and 1 Chengde Mountain Resort. Abroad, 1 in Paris, 1 in London, 1 in Berlin, 2 in Japan, 1 at Harvard University, 1 at Princeton University, 1 at Yale University, and 1 at the British Museum.
Of these 25 books, 16 are in the national memory and 9 are stored abroad. How these 9 books flowed out is unknown. Liu Bing told reporters that there are reports that one of the works in the collection of Yale University in the United States was donated by an early modern reformist and Anqing renrong when he studied at Yale University. Most of the 16 books in China have been preserved after many wars, such as the 1 part of the Palace Museum library in Beijing was originally stored in the Jingji Mountain Villa of the Panshan Palace; 3 parts of the Palace Museum in Taiwan were originally stored in the Wenyuan Pavilion, the Qianqing Palace, and the Huangji Hall of the Forbidden City in Beijing; the 1 part of the Xuzhou City Library was purchased by Hao Peng, commissioner of the pseudo-Northern Jiangsu Administrative Commissioner's Office in 1940, who used the balance of the Japanese army to requisition military grain and entrusted the great calligrapher Zhang Boying of Jiangsu Tongshan to buy it at the "Fujin Book Society" of the Beijing Liuli Factory.
"This set of "Ancient and Modern Book Integration" now in the Liaoning Provincial Library is said to have been originally the old collection of Zhang Shuaifu Dingyuanzhai, and this book is not a fragment of people's legends, but an extremely complete preservation of the whole book." Liu Bing explained that after the "918 Incident", this set of books was originally owned by the pseudo-Manchurian National Fengtian Library; after the founding of New China, the Northeast Library (the predecessor of the Liaoning Provincial Library) included this set of precious palace edition books.
Liu Bing told reporters that soon, with the use of the new library of Liaotu, this precious book will be preserved in the new library's more modern constant temperature and humidity library. Friends who like rare books can also get a glimpse of it in the newly built Museum of Ancient Books in the provincial map.
Opening the heavy iron door in the basement of the provincial library, Liu Bing took me into the thermostatic library of the Special Collections Department, and suddenly a cool breeze came to my face.
"These ancient books are all treasures, and they should be protected with emphasis, and the environment in the warehouse requires constant temperature and humidity."
Liu Bing said, "Specifically, the temperature should be maintained at about 18 ° C, and the relative humidity should be about 50%. The underground book library is also equipped with a domestic first-class fire alarm fire extinguishing system and anti-theft alarm system. Liu Bing led the reporter closer to a dense row of bookshelves, he gently opened a camphor wood box, and whispered: "Most of the ancient books and rare books in our museum are engraved copies from the Sixty Years of Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty." There are more than a hundred Song and Yuan engravings with the saying of 'one page and one or two gold', many of which are rare and orphaned, very precious. Most of the precious ancient books are 'hidden' in these camphor wood boxes, which can play a role in insectproof, dustproof, moisture-proof, and light-proof. ”
"Ancient and Modern Book Integration" lives in a "single room". In this separate study, hundreds of dark beige nanmu bookcases were neatly arranged, like soldiers waiting to be reviewed. "Ancient and modern book integration" several green lishu large characters attracted the attention of reporters. Open the book box, and inside it is neatly stacked with a letter line to load the book. The book is covered with a yellow Aya, and it is printed on Taishilian paper. Each volume is 28.5 cm high and 18.5 cm wide. White mouth, double-lined single fish tail. The six characters of "Ancient and Modern Book Integration" are printed in large characters above the trunk of the heart elephant, and the words "compilation, canon, volume" are printed in small characters under the fishtail, and the sides are on all sides, and the outer thickness is thick and the inner is fine.
Under the reminder of Director Liu Bing, I put on special gloves and carefully opened a letter, as if feeling the residual temperature left by Chen Menglei on the page. The book cover is fine yellow silk, and the inner text is civilized paper. This is the fragrance of books from 300 years ago, the fragrance of books in the Yongzheng Era, the fragrance of Chen Menglei's books, and the fragrance of copper movable characters in the Wuying Hall.
I met the copper movable type 300 years ago, I flipped through this precious book, no, this is not a book in the simple sense, it is history, it is the wisdom of the ancient Chinese. My heart was beating faster, I could clearly see Chen Menglei's silhouette in Shenyang and when he was exiled in Qiqihar, and I also saw the casting workers in the Wuying Hall sweating like rain in the fireworks...
Text/Wu Limit
Journal/Liaoning Daily
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(Jinding ancient books photocopied "Ancient and Modern Book Integration" into a book)
"Ancient and Modern Book Integration" is the largest surviving book-like masterpiece in China, a collection of ancient and modern classics, the outline is extensive, the longitude and latitude are staggered, and the pictures and texts are rich, and it has finally become an ancient Chinese book classic. Within the four seas, the finished copper movable type version is the most refined and detailed, which can be called a rare book.
(Rework the media report of "Ancient and Modern Book Integration")
Fortunately, we can always be a little relieved, the Yongzheng edition of "King Ding Ancient and Modern Book Integration" was originally photocopied by Wuqiao Jinding Ancient Book Printing Factory from June 2006 to August 2008!
(Photocopy specifications of "Ancient and Modern Book Integration")
The original size, reproduction of the treasures of the country, the original photocopied, the reshaping of the imperial seal, 5020 volumes, 520 letters of rice paper printing, ancient line binding book reproduced in front of the eyes of the world, not only the reproduction of history, but also the accumulation of a period of civilization.