In April, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Promoting the Work of Ancient Books in the New Era, which pointed out that it is necessary to improve the work system of ancient books, improve the quality of ancient books, and accelerate the transformation and utilization of ancient book resources by "excavating the era value of ancient books", "promoting the effective use of ancient books", "promoting the digitization of ancient books", and "doing a good job in popularizing and disseminating ancient books".
The surging news observes that the originally cold and shelved ancient book research and publishing field is undergoing new changes, and at the level of mass promotion and popularization, ancient books are also rejuvenating with the help of new technological achievements and new means of communication.
What is the work of ancient books
What is ancient book work? An Pingqiu, director of the National Committee for the Collation of Ancient Books in Colleges and Universities and a professor at Peking University, divides the work of ancient books into three components, namely, the collection and protection of ancient books, the collation and research of ancient books, and the publication and planning of ancient books.
The collection and protection of ancient books mainly includes the identification, storage and restoration of ancient books, and its main work is concentrated in the library system, and the competent department is the Ministry of Culture and Tourism; the collation and research of ancient books, including punctuation, collation, annotation, translation and in-depth research on this basis, etc., participates in a wide range of groups, but the systematic work is concentrated in colleges and universities, which belongs to the System of the Ministry of Education; the planning and publication of ancient books is completed under the overall coordination of the national leading group for the collation and publication of ancient books. These publishing houses form a joint force to publish the results of the collation of ancient books.
Ancient books talents engaged in these three kinds of work need to master solid knowledge of ancient literature, and at the same time have their own characteristics in terms of skill requirements. The collection and protection of ancient books require practitioners to master identification skills and restoration skills, and the collation of ancient books requires the collator to have a deep understanding and study of the text, while the publication of ancient books not only requires editors with professional editing ability, but also understands project operation, understands the market, and has the quality of managers. At present, the cultivation of talents from ancient books is basically carried out within the above three circles.
The staff of the National Library of Ancient Books Restoration Center work
There was a serious shortage of talents in the field of ancient book protection, and there was no successor, and the promulgation of the "Opinions" also reflects that in recent years, related work is receiving more and more attention.
In 2007, the Ministry of Culture established the National Center for the Protection of Ancient Books, and in 2015, the China Association for the Protection of Ancient Books was established. Since then, a number of state-level restoration centers have been established, and ancient book restoration techniques have been set up to teach and apprentice, and various training courses have been held to cultivate talents through multiple channels. Since 2014, the National Center for the Protection of Ancient Books has cooperated with Fudan University, Sun Yat-sen University, the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Tianjin Normal University to open majors in the protection of ancient books, recruit professional masters, establish disciplines, and compile teaching materials.
Cultivating talents in the collation and publication of ancient books is another situation.
In 1959, the Department of Chinese of Peking University and the Zhonghua Bookstore jointly established the Department of Classical Literature, and has set up 5 undergraduate training units in the direction of classical literature such as Peking University and Zhejiang University, as well as more than 80 research institutions, specializing in cultivating talents for reading and sorting ancient books. There are more than 20 professional ancient book publishing institutions that have gradually developed in China, as well as some publishing institutions that do not specialize in the publication of ancient books but also publish books related to ancient books.
Ancient books waiting to be restored in the library
Talent for the collation and publication of ancient books is scarce
At present, the cultivation of talents for the collation and publication of ancient books is basically limited to colleges and universities and enterprises through daily teaching, in the form of old and new, project practice, short-term training courses, etc.
The talents cultivated in the traditional way are indeed solid and effective, but there are also problems such as limited radiation personnel, insufficient information exchange, long cycles, and different environments lead to different training effects. In addition, for publishing enterprises, under the assessment of economic benefit indicators, no matter how effective the training method is adopted, how many resources can be invested in the publication of ancient books with low economic output value are doubtful, which objectively leads to insufficient investment in talent training, unstable team, uneven quality of talents, especially the scarcity of high-level talents.
The cultivation of ancient books talents has high investment, long cycle and slow return, which is its objective characteristic. Ancient book talents have high requirements for professional knowledge, and they must have multiple skills, and they also need a lot of practice to polish.
The publishing institutions of ancient books have also repeatedly expressed anxiety about the lack of talents for ancient books, and Ni Peixiang, president of Phoenix Publishing House, said: "The publication cycle of ancient books is long, the professionalism is strong, the income is low, and the tracking and publishing of a 'big book' may make the editors from full of green silk to full of snow, so that many young people engaged in the publication of ancient books are impatient and lonely, and turn to other professions." To retain these hard-won and valuable talents, we must find a way. ”
The newly issued "Opinions" also pointed out that it is necessary to "strengthen the construction of talent teams." Strengthen the construction of professional institutions for the preservation and protection of ancient books, collation, research and publication, expand the scale of talents for the protection and restoration of ancient books, strengthen the strength of research institutions for the collation of ancient books, improve the mechanism for the inheritance of talents in ancient characters of ethnic minorities, build an academic exchange platform for professional talents in ancient books of ethnic minorities, and strengthen the construction of professional publishing teams of ancient books. Improve the employment mechanism to ensure the work treatment of personnel related to ancient book work. Strengthen the training of ancient book talents, implement the ancient book talent training plan, set up a national ancient book talent training library, and build a training base for ancient book talents and a training platform integrating ancient book collation and research.
Digitization of ancient books
Since 2020, the epidemic has continued to rage, and online meetings and live video broadcasts have become the new normal. This trend has also spread to the field of ancient book research and talent training.
The surging news learned that zhonghua bookstore launched the project of the college in 2020, according to Hong Tao, general manager of the Zhonghua Bookstore Gulian Company, who undertook the project, the project mainly focused on the following aspects, first of all, to build an online training platform and establish an online course resource library. At present, the courses planned by the platform of the College include the collation of ancient books and the analysis of classic cases of publishing, the collation of ancient books and the intensive teaching of special skills in publishing, the collation of ancient books and the study of special knowledge of publishing. Hundreds of teachers have cooperated with the Academy of Books, all of whom are scholars with outstanding achievements in the collation of different types of ancient books and documents, as well as experienced editors in the field of ancient book publishing.
"At present, the courses we plan are mainly concentrated in the field of ancient book collation and publication, and we intend to gradually join the course of digitization of ancient books in the future, and the field of ancient book protection has not yet been involved." Hong Tao introduced.
"The cultivation of ancient books talents has many tentacles, the current path opened up by the College of Books, in many industries, in fact, there is a similar business, but in the ancient book collation and publishing industry is indeed a new idea, due to the characteristics of ancient book work, we deal with these businesses without ready-made experience to follow, each step must grope forward." The "Opinions" particularly emphasize the need to set up a national ancient book talent training database, build a training base for ancient book talents and a training platform for the integration of ancient book collation and research, which is very consistent with our work direction. Hong Tao said.
The Surging News also noted that the "Opinions" pointed out: "It is necessary to promote the digitization of ancient books. Support key units in the digitization of ancient books to become stronger and better, and strengthen the management and open sharing of digital resources for ancient books. Coordinate the construction and service of digital version resources for ancient books, and promote the development and utilization of professional databases of ancient books. Actively carry out research and practice on the structure, systematization of knowledge, and the use of intelligent use of ancient book texts, and accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the collation and utilization of ancient books. ”
The database construction of ancient books is also quite noteworthy, the National Library of China introduced, until last year's World Book Day, "Chinese Ancient Books Resource Library" and "National Ancient Books Census Registration Basic Database" since the official launch of the service in 2016, the National Library has successively released 33,000 ancient book resources (pieces), more than two-thirds of the collection of rare books and ancient books to achieve online reading.
Recently, in the first "Peking University Digital Humanities Works Exhibition" held at Peking University, "Map of The Migration of Ancient Chinese Celebrities", "Chinese Han Dynasty Image Information Database", "Chinese Classical Poetry Analysis System" and so on have been applied to academic research, providing great convenience for scholars.
The latest online databases are also becoming more and more specialized and refined, such as the "Yin Xu Oracle Bone Database" jointly developed by Zhonghua Bookstore Gulian Company and Professor Chen Nianfu of Zhejiang Normal University, which contains 59591 pieces of oracle bones, bu ci 143856 articles, each of which contains two parts of imitation and interpretation, and marks the classification of the theme of the bu ci, the specific source and the font group category.
"Ancient Books Through Time": The Popularization of Ancient Books
The "Opinions" also pointed out that it is necessary to do a good job in popularizing and disseminating ancient books, increase the publicity and promotion of ancient books, and do a good job in the mass dissemination of ancient books through multiple channels, media and three-dimensionality. Many cultural programs and documentaries, such as "China in classic books" and "Ancient Books Through Time and Space", focus on ancient books.
The ancient book revitalization documentary "Ancient Books Through Time and Space" was launched in March this year, no longer choosing a thick and long narrative method, each episode of the nine episodes is only about fifteen minutes, and it is used in the form of short and medium videos to make four or two pounds in the volley.
Each episode of "Ancient Books Through Time and Space" chooses a theme, such as the first episode "Feast in Ancient Books", which begins with the conclusion: If a modern person travels to the Song Dynasty, he should not have to worry about whether he will be accustomed to eating. This issue tells the story of the foodie Lu Ran salvaging Song Dynasty recipes from ancient books and restoring them to more than 300 visible and edible Song Dynasty delicacies, including "crab stuffed orange" and "vegetarian steamed duck". The resurrection of the food in ancient books always has a different attraction for gourmets, starting from the extremely cumbersome eggplant in "Dream of the Red Chamber", in today's era of material abundance, with only a pair of skillful hands, the delicacies tasted by ancient dignitaries can also be decoded and served to the dinner table of an ordinary family.
Crab stuffed orange
In the following narration of "Ancient Books Through Time and Space", Chen Shiyu, a scholar of costume history, examines ancient costumes through ancient books, and restores the archeological data of the plane to form a body shape. In addition, Satan Jun, who used a paintbrush to outline the sacred beast of the Classic of Mountains and Seas, Ying Yonghui, who mastered more than 40,000 art characters in ancient book fonts, and Zhang Yu, who searched for artistic inspiration in "Peony Pavilion", their stories are also presented in the documentary.
Although paper has lived for thousands of years, the continuation of its fate depends more on the patchwork of generations of skillful craftsmen. In the second episode of "Stitching and Tearing Civilizations", Zhang Yongquan, director of the Dunhuang Studies Research Center of Zhejiang University, strives to collect fragments of Dunhuang and stitch them together into complete chapters. In addition, "Ancient Books Through Time and Space" also records the story of folk collector Li Shuangjie's collection of 25,000 family trees, and Li Dejing, president of the Dongba Cultural Research Institute, who rescued and translated and sorted out the ancient books of Dongba.
Zhang Yongquan restored Dunhuang literature
The ninth episode, "I Repair ancient books in guotu", tells the story of Du Weisheng and others of the Guotu Ancient Book Restoration Center who restored the "lake" album of the Yongle Canon. In 2021, Guotu held an exhibition entitled "Zhu Huan Hepu, The Rebirth and Re-creation of the Yongle Canon", and 9 copies of the Jiajing copy of the Yongle Canon, which was once scattered around the world, were exhibited in the Guotu Collection. At the scene, even under the faint light, you can feel the brilliant, gentle and elegant charm of the "Yongle Canon".
【Attached: This article is written with reference to the following information】
The General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Promoting the Work of Ancient Books in the New Era
An Pingqiu: Talking about the three components of the current ancient book work - and the cultivation of talents for ancient books
Cultivation and change of ancient book editors