It is often said that "ten years to sharpen a sword", the publication of this volume of cultural and creative notebooks, before and after counting down, has also experienced a full decade. When I saw the sample book, I suddenly realized that whether it is a book or a cultural creation, for some book topics, it may not be possible to rush to achieve results, and all we can do is wait, wait for its natural growth, and wait for its water to come to fruition.
1
In 2012, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of Zhonghua Bookstore, among the series of commemorative publications published, there was a copy of "Handwriting of Modern Celebrity Letters Collected by Zhonghua Bookstore" (inscribed by Mr. Qi Gong), and at that time, as an employee who had just arrived at the bookstore, he could also receive a copy.
"Zhonghua Bookstore Collection of Modern Celebrity Letter Handwriting"
After work, I hurriedly looked through the handwriting of the letters inside, although the content was not close to looking closely, but the paper used by the handwritings of celebrities was also exhaustive, and there were many colors, although there were more notes used by institutions (such as the notes used by Liang Sicheng of the "China Construction Society" and the "Shanghai Crescent Bookstore notes" used by Xu Zhimo), there was also no shortage of private order notes (such as the "Bitter Tea Temple" made by Zhou Zuoren, a "tiger" note made by Tan Zemin), and then there were some Notes made in the South Paper Shop (such as Beiping Rongbaozhai and QingBiGe), and even Lu Xun, Zheng Zhenduo and the two gentlemen presided over the engraving of individual patterns in the "Beiping Notes" (such as Zhang Dongsun's Use of Jiang Cai Painting Okra Notes, Zhu Ziqing's Use of Yao Hua Painting Tang Painting Wall Brick Notes), red frame dark lines, thick and light, hidden between Han and Ink, adding a lot of elegance.
Liang Sicheng sent a letter to Shu Xincheng on November 17, 1932
Xu Zhimo sent a letter to Shu Xincheng on December 1, 1930
Zhou Zuoren sent a letter to Shu Xincheng on July 15, 1936
Tan Zemin wrote to Shu Xincheng in 1936
Zhang Dongsun sent a letter to Shu Xincheng on December 23, 1940
Zhu Ziqing sent a letter to Shu Xincheng on December 22, 1932
Of course, among these notes, the most attractive to me is three pieces of notes related to the Zhonghua Bookstore, to be exact, it should be two pieces of paper, "two papers" one is ma Junwu's "Zhonghua Bookstore Printing Department Notes" (Zhu Silan imitation bamboo Jane Eight Line Notes), one is Li Jiye's use of "Zhonghua Bookstore System" Cat Play Tactuous Eight-Line Notes; "One" is Zhang Wentian's red "X" combination border seal, printed on the imitation Song style Zhonghua Bookstore in Shanghai detailed address. As a modern bookstore employee, at the moment of "starting again in a hundred years", this "two pieces of paper and one letter" left a deep impression on me.
Ma Junwu sent a letter to Lu Feikui on January 13, 1930
Li Jiye sent a letter to Zhonghua Bookstore on July 20, 1933
Zhang Wentian sent a letter to Shu Xincheng on March 10, 1924
2
For more than a hundred years, pieces of paper have been idle and inked, recording the people of the past, the things of the past, and their back-and-forth on paper, which may be far better than today's various "plastic feelings".
Around 2015, driven by the trend of the Forbidden City Calendar, various calendar books bloomed for a while. In 2017, mr. Liu Yunlai's "Notes Calendar" began to enter the calendar book market, and the selected notes were either simple and cute, or carved into detail, or character history allusions, or landscapes, flowers, birds and birds, elegant color, full of style, can be called a "paper flower note museum". Until the 2020 "Notes Calendar", I was actually pleased to find that it contained a red leaf note made by the Zhonghua Bookstore, and I couldn't help but think of the allusion of the red leaf inscription poem, which was painted by Shao Nong in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, two red leaves, one low and one high, yin and yang to the back, dark red and light, full of meaning. This picture should have been first seen in the "Hundred Flowers Poetry Notes" at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and later was reproduced by many southern paper shops in the Republic of China period, and from the perspective of the seal, this note should be reproduced by the Zhonghua Bookstore during the Republic of China period.
Red Leaf Notes made by Zhonghua Bookstore (Painted by Shao Nong)
Excited, I thought: I don't know if there are more notes made by the Zhonghua Bookstore in the Republic of China period, so I searched everywhere on the Internet, and sure enough, I found several pictures and materials on the old book network, one for plum blossom notes (Mingren Luzhi painting), one for the lady notes (Zheng Mukang painting), one for the character scenery note (Feng Zi Kai painting), from the paper shape, printing process, these three pieces should be a set; the other is a two-color overprint flower note, painted lotus lotus leaves, on the Gaoye Marquis inscription Li Taibai verse, "Good period of color clouds heavy, want to give away the distant sky, Acacia for no reason, looking forward to the cool wind". Suddenly feel too liquid wind coming, see each other hate late.
Plum blossom notes made by Zhonghua Bookstore (Mingren Luzhi painting)
Ladies' Notes produced by Zhonghua Bookstore (painted by Zheng Mukang)
Red leaf notes on the mountains produced by Zhonghua Bookstore (feng zi kai painting)
3
A small stone stirred up the waves of five years ago, the so-called "remember, there will be an echo", this echo, the most feared, may not be late, but in the end only oneself to hear.
For the search for poems produced by the Zhonghua Bookstore during the Republic of China period, there were several ups and downs, but it was finally uneven. The sun and the moon flow, fortunately, I can always find clues in bit by bit, and then keep pursuing. In this process, when it came to the Takano Hou G Stone Note included in the "Notes Calendar 2021" and the Qin Huai Eight Yan Notes included in the "Notes Calendar 2022", Teacher Liu Yunlai also found in an auction catalogue that the two-page celebrity letters were also made by the Zhonghua Bookstore. Later, in an annotation of Mr. Liang Ying's book "Saying Notes", I found the clue of the Ten Scenic Notes of the West Lake made by China, because the first edition only had annotated information and no appendice pictures, but fortunately, a few years later, the publication of the collector's edition of "Saying Notes" allowed us to see the true face of the West Lake in the two celebrity books. Later, I was more fortunate to meet the flower note collectors in Shanghai in the WeChat group, and after communicating with them to introduce the intention, I selflessly provided me with electronic pictures of the relevant flower notes.
One of the stone notes painted by The Marquis of Takano, waiting for the phoenix
Dong Xiaowan of the Zhonghua Bookstore system "Qin Huai Bayan" note
Li Xiangjun of the Zhonghua Bookstore "Qin Huai Bayan" note
The writer provides one of the flower scale notes made by zhonghua bookstore
In the information age, although the ancient people's letter culture has long been replaced by the communication technology that is now instantly visible and audible, whenever we are tired of the "fast" of the times, it is inevitable that we will sometimes stop and feel the "slowness" of the past. Therefore, after accumulating certain materials, in order to pass on the ancient people's writing culture of "fish and goose affection", in order to retain the picture data of the poetry notes produced by the Zhonghua Bookstore in the Republic of China period, it was thought that on the 110th anniversary of the founding of the Zhonghua Bookstore, a notebook could be made with these poem patterns, and the ancient remembrance was also an echo more than a hundred years later.
At that time, it was May 2021, I immediately filled out the project application in the electronic publishing system of the bookstore, explaining the origin and intention of making this notebook, seeing these old papers bearing the imprints of history and time, and then got the approval of the department director, the leaders of the Bureau Celebration Office and the leaders of the bureau, and it was surprising that I actually obtained the poetry patterns made by the Republic of China made by the private collection of Mr. Xu Jun, the executive director at the time, a set of four pieces, the content of which was flowers, birds and waterfowl, which was well preserved.
Mr. Xu Jun is one of the flower and bird notes made by zhonghua bookstore
By the end of 2021, the pattern of the poem has accumulated from "two pieces of paper and one letter" at the beginning of the recitation to nearly 50 kinds. The following work is the integration of content, in terms of content, agreed with the director of the editorial office, the notebook is mainly in the appreciation of patterns and the practical function of writing, the content of the poem does not make too much interpretation and extension, only the text on the paper can be a simple interpretation. More than fifty kinds of poetry patterns, although the text information is not much, but because most of them are calligraphic characters, some are not easy to identify, in this process, they have also received selfless help from colleagues in the bookstore, thank you here!
4
Designers, not only to have the creative imagination of art, but also to have the hearts of craftsmen, in the face of such people, will always make us feel awe.
After the text content is compiled, the most important design link is now. In terms of designers' considerations, the first thing I thought of was Teacher Liu Yunlai, because more than 50 kinds of patterns, more than 20 kinds of them were provided by Teacher Liu free of charge, and the "Notebook Calendar" compiled and designed by Teacher Liu has been for six years, of which the 2018 edition has also won the title of "China's Most Beautiful Book". After the communication, Teacher Liu also gladly assumed the responsibility, believing that this is not only the inheritance of Chinese publishing culture, but also the promotion of "Huazhi culture".
In the electronic restoration of the poetry note pattern, Teacher Liu has a unique understanding and experience, how to accurately reproduce the elegant color setting at that time (at that time, the production of the note paper was mostly woodblock watermark, and most of the natural mineral pigments were used), how to truly reflect the texture of the old paper (at that time, the paper used in the paper was mostly handmade rice paper), which was the most reassuring for me as a "layman". Therefore, in the overall restoration, Teacher Liu and I reached an opinion that the overall follows the principle of "repairing the old as old", and the traces of the natural aging of the paper are the imprints of time, and generally do not repair, but only do some artificial defacements in the later period.
Although we have more than fifty kinds of patterns to use, but there are four kinds of pattern repair, let me and Teacher Liu are in a difficult situation, these four are: two pages of the Golden Winter Heart Plum Blossom Notes Codex, two pages of the West Lake Ten Scenic Notes Codex, because these four pieces of paper have been written, if used, it is necessary to repair the ink on it to reproduce the pattern of the original paper as a whole, its technical difficulty is very high, requiring extremely meticulous software operation technology, as well as a unique and sensitive grasp of line texture restoration. It is a reproduction of ingenuity and art. Although I myself have always been afraid of Jin Dong's cold jinshi qi, in the face of such a complex technical processing, I originally planned to give up, but Teacher Liu, as a book designer, he has a strong personal preference for Jinnong's lacquer books, these two ancient plum blossom notes, if he puts it down, he seems to be unable to let go, always feel sorry. In the end, Teacher Liu still decided to repair it, and the other two "Ten Scenic Notes of the West Lake" were also a drumbeat. I remember that when I saw the repair picture sent by Teacher Liu on WeChat, it was really cold and cold, which made people hold their breath. I would also like to thank Teacher Liu for this artist's ingenuity.
Ggu Plum Blossom Note Page 2 (Before Restoration)
One of the ancient plum blossom notes (after restoration)
Ggu Plum Blossom Note No.2 (after restoration)
Plum border thirteen lines (before repair)
Plum border thirteen lines (after repair)
Philosophers say that beauty is difficult. Indeed, especially the first shock, if you can't be alarmed, you can't impress yourself, how to impress the same good!
Regarding the cover design, Teacher Liu, as a book designer who "knows the most about flower notes", with his extremely responsible attitude, also tirelessly adjusts several times in the communication between telephone and WeChat. The rest is not much to say, or directly look at the picture, more intuitive.
There are five initial scenarios:
Scheme 1: Fresh green, boxed in the upper and lower volumes, inscribed by Mr. Xu Jun (the same later). Design concept: take quiet in the middle of the noise, listen to the incense in the quiet place.
Scheme 2: light powder, upper and lower volume gift box, design concept: raccoon paper peach blossom color.
Scheme 3: Chinese red, upper and lower book gift box, design concept: in line with the atmosphere of the bureau celebration.
Scheme four: Navy blue, one letter and two volumes, design concept: moving spring color does not need to be more, in the kaleidoscope of flowers, a thriving.
Scheme 5: single volume, ochre color on the left, plum blossom branches as bas-relief molding (arch flower effect in imitation paper); blue in the middle picture, plum blossom branches as embossing, local hot whitening; right picture green, flower branches pressed concave.
There are two modified scenarios:
Scheme 6: Navy blue, upper and lower volumes of gift boxes, design concept: known as brilliant, brilliant as plain; blue book for flowers to open randomly, gray book for plum blossom branches for bas-relief modeling (imitation of the arch flower effect of paper).
Scheme 7: Chinese red, upper and lower volumes of gift boxes, design concept: in the deep snow of the former village, plum blossoms bloom; the red book is a brocade flower, and the gray book is bas-relief shaped for plum blossom branches (imitation of the arch flower effect of the note paper).
Finalize the plan:
A box of two volumes, full of hearts, the front of the box embossed and labeled "Chinese Poetry Notes" (set of Republic of China Bookstore Juzhen imitation Song font), the bottom of the box printed "see the book as if meet" Zhu Wenyin.
One red and one blue, with one hidden, good things into pairs, each table a branch.
After the cover is determined, there is a series of publishing processes, in this "process", there are naturally small waves, after all, the collision of ideas will have sparks, and the rivers and rivers need the injection of living water, so that there can be a better product presented to the reader. Of course, deficiencies are certainly inevitable, but think of Gong Zizhen's poem: "The unhelpful end is meticulous, and Pepsi is good from defects." Groaning to the sunset mountain outside the mountain, who in ancient and modern times is free from emotion? "You can also be relieved!"
Perhaps compared with some publishing projects with a long span of time, the "ten years" of the growth of this notebook is only a light and fluttering decade, but the good thing is that its "lightness", its "blankness", pick up and put down, while appreciating poetry and beauty, and then fill in some of their own thoughts, it is enough.