World Book Day
Editor's note: April 23 is the annual World Book Day. In the high-speed life, opening a book is gradually becoming a difficult thing, so we prefer to feel more happy reading on this day. Just like Mr. Wang Zengqi recalled in those days: "Lying in bed eating powdered salt beans (a specialty of Jiangyin), drinking boiled water, reading books, temporarily forgetting the trigonometric functions and chemical formulas, exams, scores, I have a lot of time, this day is really quite happy." May every "reading day" be such a happy day!
The following articles are excerpted from the "Complete Compilation of Wang Zengqi's Essays", let us listen to Mr. Wang Zengqi's memories of reading and talk about his reading experience.
A book of eight folds
The 1080s were popular in the 1930s, and most of the books bought by middle school students were of this kind. One discount, and eight deductions, that is, the price is like one yuan, and the actual sale is only eight cents. Of course, the pricing behind the book was raised in advance. But after a fold and a half buckle, it is always very cheap. Why not lower the price and sell it at a real price, and use this one-fold and eight-discount method, which is probably the greedy psychology of the people who buy books: this is almost equivalent to giving in vain.
Most of the books are note-taking novels for people's entertainment, such as "Zi Mu Whisper", "Night Rain and Autumn Lantern Record", "Continuing Qi Harmony" and so on. However, there are also good writing and interesting contents, such as Yu Yuxin's "Banqiao Miscellaneous Notes" and the "Yingmei'an Reminiscences" that ventured into Xinjiang. There are also old poetry collections. The "Jade Words" and "Broken Intestinal Words" that I first read were such a fold-and-eight copy. I still remember the appearance of "Broken Gut Words", the cover is brick red, and one side is painted with a quill that drips two drops of ink. The books are very thin, but there are also thicker ones, and the Jiannan Poetry Banknote is a fairly thick two. The cover of this book is beige coated paper with Wang Xishen's inscription. This is quite expensive in a 100% book.
On Sundays, go to the street in the morning, buy things (towels, toothpaste, socks and the like), eat a bowl of crisp eel noodles or spicy oil noodles (I was in high school in Jiangyin, Jiangyin noodles I thought was the best, really fine as silver wire, soup is also excellent), a few lard green leek pie (full of fragrant), to the book stall to pick one or two books with a fold of eight, back to school. In the afternoon, lying in bed eating powdered salt beans (a specialty of Jiangyin), drinking boiled water, reading books, leaving the trigonometric function and chemical formula behind the mind for the time being, exams, scores, what do I have, this day is really quite happy.
Old book stalls
Kunming's used bookstores are concentrated in Wenming Street, north of the street, west of the road, and there are several used bookstores. Our relationship with these used bookstores is not to buy books, but to sell books often. The owners and guys of these old bookstores are not very good at books, as long as they are slightly neater books, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, grammar, science and engineering, all, and the purchase price is not low. Especially the reference book, take it, and pay for it at that time. When I was in the Southwest United University, I was often broken, sometimes I couldn't get up high, and I fell into bed. Zhu Dexi saw that I had not appeared until nearly 11 o'clock, and he knew that I had not yet landed at lunch, so he grabbed an English dictionary, walked in, and pushed me: "Get up, go to dinner!" "When you get to Civilization Street, you can get out of the dictionary, and two people can eat a meal of broken crisp buns or two bowls of braised chicken rice noodles, and they can also drink two or two wines."
The most popular of the reference books is "Etymology". A classmate found that the price of "Ciyuan" in a bookstore was much higher than the original price, and the shelves of the Commercial Press around the corner had dozens of brand-new "Ciyuan", so they bought it at the original price, turned around and sold it to the old bookstore at a high price. He did this kind of portership several times.
I should have bought a few books at the Kunming Used Bookstore, but I can't remember what they were.
In Shanghai, I can't go to a used bookstore. Sometimes I go with Huang Bao, sometimes I go by myself. I also bought a few books. The impression is that I bought a copy of "The Merchant of Venice" in English. At that time, I probably wanted to learn English well, but I never finished reading the "Merchant of Venice".
I did buy a few good books at the stall. I was teaching at a secondary school on Foch Road, and I had a co-worker, let's call him Lao Xu, who cleaned the floor outside the office and classroom, turned on the water, and packed food for a few homeless single teachers. The food is extremely simple, and is often served with braised yellow croaker and stir-fried chicken feathers. He also set up a book stall outside the school gate. His book stall is a veritable "floor stall", not even a board or tarpaulin, the book is directly spread flat on the cement floor of the sidewalk. Lao Xu sat on the inside of the school gate, doing things in his hands, choosing vegetables or removing the water alkali of the iron pot, while glancing at the stall with his eyes. I went in and out, always crouching down to read his book.
I once bought some of his books,—— which were about the same price as rotten paper, two of which are memorable, one is Zhang Dai's "Tao An Mengyi", which is probably still in an unknown corner of my house. For me, one is very valuable: the commentary of Tang Xianzu of the Universal Library, "The Tale of Dong Xieyuan Xixiang". I have always been partial to Dong Xixiang, thinking that it is not comparable to Wang Xixiang. Tang Xianzu's comments, including the eyebrow batch and the total batch of each one, are extremely wonderful. The book is large, the paper is thick, and the soup commentary is engraved by hand. Tang Xianzu's characters resemble Ouyang rate more "Zhang Han Ti", Xiu Yi resembles Chen Laolian, very cute. I have never seen the original Linchuan Book, I have seen this photocopied engraving, and I can't help but be fascinated. What is the rare version of the "Universal Library"? But in me, who do not collect books, I regard them as treasures. This book has followed me for many years, about ten years ago for people to borrow and not return, so that when I want to quote the soup commentary, I can only get it in my memory, I am overwhelmed!
Egg book
Comrade Zhao Shuli had hoped that his books would be sold at temple fairs in the countryside, and that farmers could exchange a few eggs for them. This ideal has never been realized. It is difficult to exchange books for physical objects, because the price of eggs fluctuates. But it was so cheap that it was only worth two or three eggs, and such a book had been available before.
My family opened a Chinese medicine store WanquanTang in Gaoyou Beishikou. There is a book stall under the porch of Wanquan Hall all year round, two benches supporting three door panels, and the "books" are placed on top of each other. In order to avoid the wind blowing away, a few squared wooden sticks were pressed across. The stall owner sat on the side with a small bench and looked quaint. These books are all record books, the cover color is a light purple very thin slogan paper, printed with a single line of character paintings, all related to the content, the left left left a rectangular box, printed out of the title: "Xue Ding Shan Zhengxi", "Three Please Fan Pear Flower", "Li Sanniang Carrying Water", "Meng Jiang Girl Crying the Great Wall" ... Inside is a white "text" with a light paper lithograph, and there is an empty word between the two sentences, which is not easy to pronounce. I used to borrow it from a stall owner. A "book" is read in a moment, because there are only a few pages, read one, and then change.
This kind of songbook is almost the same, and the beginning is always: "Since Pangu opened the world, the Three Emperors and Five Emperors have come to the present", and the Three Emperors and Five Emperors are close to any story. The lyrics are not very literary, but the text is smooth and rhymes (seven-word sentences and cross sentences). Of course, there are many unnecessary "water words". Mr. Lao She once criticized the old qu art for having many unnecessary words, such as "Opening words and having words called Zhang Sheng", "calling Zhang Sheng" well, why do you still have to "open words" and "have words"? No, otherwise it will be less than 7 words, and the rhyme is not good. This kind of "water word" abounds in the record book, and it also becomes a kind of literary theory. I would like to think about when I have time to study the "water words" in the songbook. Not kidding, I think what is lacking in our new poems is this kind of "water word", which is too crowded between words, which is a digression. One of the most interesting record books I've ever read is "The Queen Mother Scolds the Chicken."
This kind of singing book is sold to farmers. The peasants went into the city, beat the oil, tore the cloth, weighed the salt, went to Wanquantang to buy "laughing in the street" to cure toothache, and warm navel ointment to cure stomach pain.
When the peasants take this kind of book, they do not read it, but they read it aloud. Those who can sing "send unicorns" and "watch fire dramas" also have to play the tune and sing. When one person sings, many people sit around and listen. Self-entertainment is an important cultural life in the countryside of the hometown.
The record book is priced at about 120 yuan, which is equal to a bowl of wide soup dumplings, equivalent to 3 eggs.
This lithographed record book came out of nowhere (probably shanghai), and the author of the song does not know who it is.
Another extremely cheap book is the drum song section of "Hundred Books". It is hand-copied on raw paper, folded, unbinded, and the name of the song is written in writing, with a rectangular ink print on the back of the "Hundred Books" (the size is like dried tofu). The characters inside are quite large, they are crappy pavilion style scripts, and they are all slightly flat. This kind of music book is sold at temple fairs, and I have bought several copies at Longfu Temple. Later, I couldn't see it anymore. The price of this record book is equivalent to three eggs.
Incidentally, I think of a problem, the information on drum lyrics and folk songs in Beijing is extremely rich, but no one has seriously studied it. Mr. Sun Kaidi once compiled a catalog of popular songs, but it was only a catalog. In fact, there are many things that can be studied here, from the perspective of folklore, from the perspective of Beijing dialect, and of course from the perspective of literature, it is worth drilling into, engaging in 10 years and 8 years. Generally speaking, beijing opera sections only attach importance to their literary nature, attach importance to Luo Song window and Han Xiao window, and do not attach much importance to more slang. In fact, there are some very vulgar pieces. For example, "the big grandmother visits the temple fair" and "the poor grandmother visits the temple fair", just look at the title to know that it is very interesting. Che Wangfu has so many songbooks, and has been lying in the capital library to sleep, what a pity!
Reading is a rewarding experience.
When I was about eleven or twelve years old, one summer vacation, I found a set of books of towel boxes and Motoki movable characters on the dusty bookshelf of our family flower hall, and pulled out a copy of "Records of Ridge Tables" to look at with relish. Then I watched "Ridge Outside the Ridge Answer". Since then, I have been very interested in notes and travelogues. Until now, it has been so. The text of this type of book is concise and simple and emotional, which has an influence on the language style of my work.
From the fifth grade of elementary school to the first and second grades of junior high school, the teachers who taught Chinese were Mr. Gao Beiming. Among the texts mr. Gao taught, I was most impressed by Gui Youguang's "First Concubine's Strategy" and "Xiang Ridge Xuanzhi". One summer, Mr. Gao taught me Zheng Banqiao's family letters and sentiments. I later borrowed The Complete Works of Zheng Banqiao from Mr. Gao and read them through. Zheng Banqiao's yuanbai poems and prose close to the spoken language, and the gentle benevolent heart in his poems, I was deeply moved. The whole collection is handwritten and engraved by Itabashi, and it is also a pleasure to see his calligraphy.
One summer, I read dozens of ancient texts of the Tongcheng School from Mr. Wei Zilian. "Tongcheng Righteous Law", not thick. The Tongcheng school is not all "fallacious". I thought it would be beneficial for middle school students to read a few ancient texts of the Tongcheng School, such as Yao Nai's "You Taishan" and Fang Bao's "Zuo Zhongyi Gongyi Anecdotes".
The high school I studied in, Jiangyin Nanjing Middle School, pays attention to mathematics, physics and chemistry, and the homework is very tight, and there is not much time for reading outside the classroom, but it is not completely absent. I bought a set of "Lexicology Small Series" compiled by Hu Yunyi; after doing the exercises or on Sundays, I copied them one by one, and the words were in italics. In this way, I read the words and practiced the words. Transcribe, which I thought was a good way to read poetry. Reading words, with a certain degree of accidentality, because I bought a set of "Lexicology Small Series"; at the same time, most of the words have a sentimental mood, lingering in the scenery and cherishing Zhu Yan, and the feelings of a middle school student are easy to match.
After the fall of Jiangnan, I could not go to Nanjing Middle School to study, so I took refuge in the countryside and lived in a nunnery written in my novel "Ordination". In addition to the mathematical, physical and chemical textbooks, the only books he carried with him were a copy of Turgenev's "Hunter's Notes" and a copy of "Shen Congwen's Anthology" stolen from the "Pheasant Bookstore" in Shanghai. So I read these two books over and over again. Arguably, these two books have guided me on the path of literature and have always had a profound impact on my work from the inside out.
I studied the Department of Chinese at Kunming Southwest United University, and chose to read three of Mr. Shen Congwen's courses, "Writing in Various Genres", "Creative Practice" and "History of Chinese Novels", and was a veritable disciple of Mr. Shen. In order to teach the needs of the class, Mr. Shen collected a lot of literary works, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, various genres. The books on his shelves, I have borrowed and read almost all of them, one after another. Among the foreign writers I like the most are Chekhov and a Spanish writer, Asorin. Because, they are a bit like me, closer in temperament.
As a literary lover, or a young person who aspires to become a writer, he should read a lot of books, but he can focus on it and have some preference. A writer should know himself and know his temperament. And one of the ways to know your own temperament is to see which writers' books you prefer, you will look into them as soon as you look at them, so read them; some writers' books, if you can't read them, don't look at them! For example, Balzac, I admit that he is great, but I just don't like it.
I advocate reading books and reading more miscellaneously, that is, not only reading literary books, but also books outside literature. For example, I love to watch Wu Qilin's "Chinese Botanical Names and Facts", Fabre's "Insects". Some books, such as the ancient book "Song Ti Torture and Wash of Injustices" about the ancient gongzuo (forensic) autopsy, look at it, it is also strange and interesting.
Ancients: "Unwinding is beneficial". Some people objected, saying that reading books should have choices. I think that as long as it is a book, it is beneficial to open it and read it, even if it is a yellow calendar in old age.
Talk about reading miscellaneous books
I read very miscellaneously, without a system and without purpose. Grab a book and read it. If you don't feel interesting, you throw it away. I spend a lot more time reading miscellaneous books than I do reading literature and reviews. It is often seen that it is related to seasonal customs and folklore, such as "The Chronicle of the Jingchu Years" and "Tokyo Dream Record". The second is Fang Zhi and Travelogue, such as "Records of The Ridge Table" and "Answers from the Ridge Outside". I also like to read books about grass, wood, insects and fish, such as Fabre's "Insect Record", Wu Qimao's "Botanical Names and Facts", and "Flower Mirror". Books that talk about serious learning are also very good as long as they are well written without being pedantic, such as the "Decoction Draft". "Ten Driving Fasting New Record" is almost, and some of it is also quite funny. I also love reading and painting. Some books cannot be classified, such as the Song Ti Punishment and Wash of Injustices, which is about autopsies. Some books themselves are very complex in content, such as "Mengxi Pen Talk" and "Rong Zhai Essays" and other books, which have to be called notes in general.
Reading miscellaneous books has at least the following benefits:
First, it's a good rest. Making a cup of tea and lazily leaning back on the couch and reading a book of miscellaneous books is much more comfortable than playing poker.
Second, you can increase your knowledge and understand the world. I know from Fabre's book that I was deaf, and I am very happy to know from Wu Qilin's book that the Aoi in the ancient poem is the winter amaranth that hunan and Sichuan people still eat.
Third, you can learn the language. The words of the miscellaneous books are written more casually, more naturally, not sitting on the edge of the house, deliberately writing, but having their own emotions, and close to spoken language. A modern writer learns language from the ancients, instead of painstakingly reading the "Selected Works of Zhaoming" and the "Eight Families of the Tang and Song Dynasties", it is better to refer to miscellaneous books. This makes it easier to dissolve into your own pen. That's a little bit of my experience. Young writers, might as well try it.
Fourth, from the miscellaneous books, we can understand some principles for writing novels and essays, especially book theories and painting theories. Bao Shichen's "Yizhou Shuangyi" Yun: "Wu Xing's calligraphy pen, dedicated and smooth, one point and one painting, one word and one line, arranged in the top of the line." Ancient theatrical font, the size is quite different, such as the old man with the young grandson line, the length is uneven, and the affection is sincere, the pain and itch are related. Wu Xingshu is like a scholar entering the alley, the fish runs through Xu Xing, and the color of the race after the competition, everyone meets, and An can make the upper and lower left and right blanks have words! "He's talking about writing, isn't that what he's writing novels and essays?" The various parts of the novel and the prose should be "sincere in affection and itchy", so as to achieve "scattered form and not scattered".
The harvest of reading miscellaneous books is very much, and I will talk about this with my own feelings.
Excerpt from the 2019 edition of the People's Literature Publishing House's Complete Essays of Wang Zengqi
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