Cuiwei But Gu Ji: China Book Company and Modern Academic Culture, by Xu Jun, China Book Company, December 2021 edition, 492 pages, 88.00 yuan
Recently, I read Mr. Xu Jun's "Cuiwei but Gu Collection: China Book Company and Modern Academic Culture" (China Book Company, December 2021), and I was deeply touched. The author has worked at Chung Hwa Book Company since 1983, successively serving as editor-in-chief, general manager, executive director and director of the Ancient Books Collation and Publication Committee of the Publishers Association of China. Through the combing of the original archives and the letters returned to the Zhonghua Book Company, the author excavated the dusty old events behind the publication of many classic historical books, and with warm and delicate brushstrokes, he narrated the historical details of this issue of the book company like a few treasures, and the style and friendship of scholars were extremely vivid, outlining the group portraits of Chen Yinke, Zheng Tianting, Qian Zhengshu, Qi Gong, Zhou Liang, Zhang Zhengxi, He Ziquan, Tian Yuqing, Wang Zhongwen, Song Yunbin, Zhou Zhenfu, Fu Xuanqi and many other senior scholars. As Mr. Cheng Yizhong said in the "Preface", it is precisely because of the author's respect for history, reverence for documents, and admiration for previous sages that he wrote these enthusiastic articles. (Preface, p. 2) He also argues that the articles in this book have become the historical source documents accumulated in the history of the Chung Hwa Book Company and a part of the historical materials of modern Chinese academic culture. Therefore, the subtitle of the book "Chinese Book Company and Modern Academic Culture" is not self-exaggeration. (Preface, p. 6)
Since 2006, Xu Jun has been responsible for revising the "Twenty-Four History" and the "Qing History Manuscript" of the school text, and the collation and research of relevant editorial historical materials is the core content of many articles in the book. Regarding the relationship between the "Twenty-Four History" collation project and the times, there is a passage in the program that is relatively plain: "The process of sorting out and publishing the 'Twenty-Four History' reflects a history of the development of Chinese academic culture in the past 20 years, and also reflects the changes in the political climate in the past 20 years. It must be taken into account that when the work of ordering schools was launched in 1958, it was the period of the implementation of the "Great Leap Forward", so when Song Yunbin ordered the "Records of History", he also had to chop wood for steel smelting in the morning. The course of history is always not subject to the will of man. Planning, planning, can not keep up with changes in objective conditions. Therefore, our work will always leave some regrets for future generations to continue to revise. (Preface, p. 3) Whether from the perspective of publishing history or academic history, "the vicissitudes of the sky and the vicissitudes of "Cuiwei" are also precious historical materials.
In 1956, Zheng Zhenduo published an article in the People's Daily to advocate the compilation and publication of "the 24th History of the People's Republic of China with a brand new appearance and excellent proofreading", and on February 9, 1958, the Scientific Planning Committee of the State Council held the inaugural meeting of the Planning Group for the Collation and Publication of Ancient Books in Beijing. From 1958 to 1978, it was the stormy twenty years of the "24th History" point school history, according to the division of Mr. Zhao Shouliang, deputy editor-in-chief of the bookstore, 1958-1963 was a stage of exploration dominated by the "first four histories"; From 1963 to 1966, scholars from other places concentrated on the history of the school at the Zhonghua Book Company on Cuiwei Road, Beijing; Finally, from 1971 to 1978, the history of the school in Wangfujing was concentrated. It is worth noting that in 1967 there was a period of school history that may have been less than a year, but the author points out that due to the interference and influence of the politics of the time, the results of the 1967 point school were basically not presented in the later completed point school book. The so-called influence, for example, in order to reflect that "punctuation should also talk about class struggle", an old gentleman proposed that when encountering a peasant uprising, it should also be mentioned in sections, just like the imperial chronicle. (p.437) In the archival materials described in the book, we can also see various details of the life of scholars from other places who were transferred to Beijing, such as the official letter from the Chunghua Book Company in October 1963 to the Haidian District Grain Bureau of Beijing Municipality to add rice to the first batch of old gentlemen who came to Cuiwei Road School History, or Mr. Ma Xuchuan, a secretary in the school group during the school history period of Cuiwei School, who submitted to the bureau every half a month a report detailing the daily life, work situation, and problems reflected by each school history gentleman.
In Mr. Cheng Yizhong's "preface" and the author's article of the book, they both talk about the "internal distribution" that he has participated in or understands, which is of great historical value. In the study of China's publishing history in the second half of the twentieth century, "internal distribution" is indeed an important topic. Senior editor Shen Zhanyun's masterpiece "Grey Book, Yellow Book" (Huacheng Press, October 2007) is a rare "book discourse" that integrates scholarship and thought, and the "leather book" studied is a foreign social science and literary work "internally distributed" in the sixties and seventies, and the publishing units are mainly Shanghai People's Publishing House and Beijing's Commerce, Sanlian, World Knowledge Publishing House and other units. In my personal reading history, Aitmatov's "White Steamer" (translated by Lei Yan, Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1973) is an important literary book. In fact, long after the "leather book" faded out of the reader's sight, "internal distribution" still appeared. In the late seventies, some "internally distributed" books were also available in society. In the early spring of 1978, I immediately returned to Guangzhou to buy books after I got the admission notice from the Chinese Teachers History Department from the admissions office of the commune. With a library card to purchase provincial literature and history materials, he bought a number of internally distributed Western historical works on the second floor of the Beijing Road Tools Bookstore in Guangzhou, such as Sevostyanov's Outline of Modern American History (Upper and Lower, Triptych, 1978), Mariot's Modern Britain (three volumes, Business, 1973), General History of India (four volumes, Business, 1973), P.E.N. Tyndall's History of Central Africa (Shanghai People, 1976), and Feige's A Brief History of West Africa (Shanghai People). , 1977), Isat Al-Nus, et al., Outline of the Geography and History of Syria (triptych, 1974), E. Bonjur, et al. A Brief History of Switzerland (Shang, Xia, Jiangsu People, 1974), etc. In fact, even today, the history of countries such as the history of Central Africa, West Africa, Syria, etc. are extremely specialized, and there are probably not many publishing houses willing to publish these books in today's supposedly prosperous academic prosperity. What I didn't expect at that time was how the "economic account" of the "internal distribution" book was calculated, and Mr. Cheng Yizhong's "preface" mentioned this problem: "I remember the beginning of 1973... To publish books such as "Selected Works of Zhaoming", "Zi Zi Zi", and "Five Dynasties Poems", they were first reported by the "publication port" for instructions, and prepared to be printed for internal distribution. Premier Zhou also instructed: Whether it is issued internally or not, it must be paid according to the price (to the effect). I realized that many of the books distributed internally at that time were sample books sent by publishers free of charge, and there were quite a few of them. Premier Zhou understood the cost burden of the publishing house, so he added such a instruction. (Prologue, p. 4) This shows that even in that era of political override, economic accounts had to be calculated.
Mr. Cheng also talked about some examples of the speed of book production and the timing of its release. For example, in 1959, he accepted the task of editing "Hai Rui Collection", and Qian Junrui, vice minister of culture, asked about it, but due to the collation of proofreading, punctuation, compilation and repeated unified revisions, the publication of the book was delayed until the end of 1962. For example, in March 1962, Zhou Yang instructed to publish a collection of papers and monographs from the past of old experts, and Zhou Liang's collection of papers was one of them. However, due to a misopportunity, there was no public release by 1964. In 1961, Zhou Yang wrote a note to publish the collection of Xu Wenchang, Tang Xianzu, and Zheng Banqiao, and Mr. Cheng accepted the task of compiling the "Xu Wei Collection". Due to repeated revisions, the paper type was delayed until 1965, and it was not printed until 1983. That delay is twenty years. In 1973, Mr. Cheng accepted the task assigned by the central authorities to reprint the "Selected Works of Zhaoming", and did not dare to typeset it, so he proposed a plan to photocopy the Song engraved version, which was actually approved. At that time, I took the opportunity to print more and sell it internally to experts and scholars such as Cao Daoheng and Yuan Xingpei. There is another landscape of "internal distribution", Mr. Cheng talked about an important experience of internal book editing: "In 1976, about May, the publishing port issued an order that Chairman Mao should read the large-print copy of "The Complete Works of Li Taibai", and China and Commerce jointly signed the office at that time, and the leaders of the society mobilized several colleagues to expedite the proofreading, and assigned Mr. Zhou Zhenfu and I to be responsible for finalizing the draft. This time, we did not wait for the final draft of the whole book, divided it into volumes, arranged them in volumes, and carried them out with a clear sample and sent one volume to the Central 'Cultural Revolution' group, and about ten volumes were sent. Until 22 o'clock on the night of September 8, several colleagues from the proofreading department and I were still working overtime at the Xinhua Printing House to read the samples, but unexpectedly Chairman Mao died in the early morning of September 9. (Preface, p. 5) These are "book-making" historical materials that should not be drowned out by time.
In the articles included in the book, the author has more evidence-based discussions on the publication process of some selected topics, which not only has valuable historical value, but also is an important empirical research result in itself. The article "An Unrealized Publishing Plan: The Interaction between Chung Hwa Book Company and Mr. Chen Yinke in the 1960s" reorganizes the relevant archival materials, corrects or supplements the discussion of previous relevant research, restores the old events of the publication of Chen Yinke's works in the 1960s, and also provides readers with an important perspective on publishing history in the context of the times. Since the end of the 1950s, the Shanghai Editorial Office of Chung Hwa Book Company (hereinafter referred to as the Shanghai Editorial Office) has contracted the first compilation of the Jinmingguan series from Chen, and Beijing Zhonghua also received Tang Yijie's proposal to publish Chen Yin's dissipated papers in this issue. By the 1980s, seven "Chen Yinke Anthology" were published by Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House. The author points out, "Compared with the way the Shanghai Editorial Institute and Beijing Zhonghua handled the same matter in organizing Chen Yinke's works, the courage and boldness of the predecessors of the Shanghai Editorial Institute are enough to make us still deeply admire half a century later, and in addition, we can also see the difference in the publishing environment between Beijing and Shanghai at that time." (p.61) In the two-year contract between Beijing and China, the situation of Yang Rongguo's intermediary relationship was a key issue. On the basis of carefully combing through the correspondence, archived materials, and understanding of the relationship between Chen and Yang, Xu Jun came to the conclusion: "Yang Rongguo and Chen Yinke did not have much personal friendship and contacts, so when Beijing Zhonghua was intensively requesting instructions and reports to prepare for the appointment, Yang Rongguo actually did not move his troops, neither did he ask the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee in accordance with Qi Yanming and Jin Canran's request, nor did he formally convey the intention of Beijing Zhonghua to make an appointment, and he did not even understand Chen Yinke's plan to write and publish it. "Of course, this is only speculation half a century later, and Yang Rongguo did not write to explain the 'strangeness' in the meantime..." (p. 78) Some important details of the author's account in the course of this "unfulfilled publishing plan" in Beijing China are also worth quoting. In fact, after Tang Yijie, Yang Rongguo proposed to Beijing Zhonghua at a conference on August 4, 1960, the publication of Chen's collected essays, in which he said that "On Rebirth" was only mimeographed in China, and was later published in Hong Kong with ulterior motives. In an August 22 letter to Qi Yanming, Jin cited two problems reflected by Yang: First, Chen Yinke said after being criticized that he would no longer teach, such as printing his anthologies. "First, it must not be changed, second, it must be printed quickly, and third, it must be paid high"; Second, the preface to the Hong Kong edition of "Rebirth Edge" says that such a manuscript cannot be published in the mainland. Therefore, the publication of Chen Yinke's collected essays attracted the attention of the three vice ministers of the Central Propaganda Department, the Ministry of Culture Xu Liqun, Zhou Yang, and Qi Yanming, as well as Guo Moruo. In addition, Qi Yanming issued a directive on 29 March 1961 after Jin Canran's letter on "whether it is possible to formally submit a draft to Chen": "It is possible for 'Zhonghua' to submit a draft to Chen, and only tell him that if the article involves fraternal countries and Southeast Asian countries (because ancient Chinese history often regarded these countries as vassals and the text contains insulting words, it is easy to cause the other party to be unhappy when published today), please pay careful attention to it so as not to cause unnecessary trouble." Moreover, the issue does not need to interfere with any of its arguments. (It seems to have little to do with ethnic minorities, because it is always easy to explain domestic problems, of course, it depends on the proportion of the speech.) (p. 67) The "First Edition of the Jinmingguan Series" was sent to the Shanghai Editorial Office in March 1963, but it could not be published because of the sensitive issues involved. On March 1, 1966, an article entitled "The Political Problems of Chen Yinke (Jinmingguan Series)", which may have been written mainly on the basis of the review opinions of the Shangjian Institute, was written in an article entitled "The Political Problems of Chen Yinke (Jinmingguan Series)": "Where the author uses his own narrative sentences to discuss foreign-related matters, slanderous peasant uprisings, Han chauvinism and great-powerism, and foreign-respecting ideology, he or she shall delete or modify them as appropriate, or use quotation marks to identify them; Historical materials cited by the author are generally not changed, except for particularly serious ones such as Zhengdong Article, which need to be dealt with, but they need to be properly explained in the Publication Notes. If the author agrees (through Yang Rongguo, CUHK) to make the necessary deletions, he or she may consider accepting the publication (using internal distribution or controlling the distribution after the academic community has obtained a print run, and the print run should be smaller for the academic community's criticism and discussion). (p.84) This short treatment is full of dry goods: what needs to be dealt with is the author's own narrative verse, and the historical material cited is generally unchanged except for a few cases, but it needs to be accompanied by a "publication note"; In addition to "discretionary deletion and modification", quotation marks can also be used "to identify"; In addition to "internal distribution", the method of publication is also to control the number of prints issued by subscription; The purpose is for criticism and discussion. It may be further pondered that although it is not known when the review opinion of the Shanghai Editorial Office was written after receiving Chen's manuscript in March 1963, the Editor-in-Chief Office was already in the midst of a storm when it was about to sweep away when the Editor-in-Chief compiled and printed this article on March 1, 1966. Judging from the scale and language grasped in this treatment, it may be a turning point in reflecting the academic and political symptoms at a very sensitive moment.
At such junctures, Mr. Wang Zhongwen, who has quietly contributed to academic publishing, is "a scholar who should not be forgotten". He was the second son of Wang Guowei, a young scholar, who worked at the Beijing Di'anmen Post Office after 1949, and in 1957 was labeled a "rightist" and expelled for participating in the founding of the doujin publication "Yiwen Zhi", and later became an interim editor of the bookstore on the recommendation of Xu Shuofu. He was the reviewer of the full draft of the Chinese edition of Quan Tang Poems after the Qing compilation of Quan Tang Poems, and later devoted two years to devoting all his energy to the revision of Quan Song Ci. On September 25, 1966, three days after Wang Zhongwen had finished explaining the work he had undertaken, he wrote another letter to the literary group, in which he said: "If one of them can still be considered for publication, the new person will not know what has happened, and the work will inevitably be more troublesome." I would like to explain the various manuscripts.... (p. 2) Xu Jun says, "Reading this letter now inevitably feels a little sad... Mr. Wang left this world in 1969." (p. 3) In the nineties of the last century, in the author column of the simplified version of the "Quan Song Ci" published by the Chung Hwa Book Company, the signature "Wang Zhongwen Participated in the Order" was solemnly added.
Finally, I remembered that Cheng and Xu both mentioned the origin and a good saying of the "history of Cuiwei School" in their articles (see pages 6 and 450 of the "Preface"): "The history of Cuiwei School" was first mentioned in 1963 when Mr. Wang Zhongyi and others stayed in the dormitory of the Chinese Book Company on Cuiwei Road, when the old gentlemen would go to Yuyuantan and Taoranting together on weekends, and during one trip, Mr. Wang Zhongyi suggested that Mr. Luo Jizu "draw a picture of us people, called "Cuiwei School History Map". Unfortunately, this proposal did not materialize, and only one photo taken at Mr. Chen's home is the single most complete group photo taken during the "History of Cuiwei School" (see page 348 for photos). This is a very touching literary history calligraphy and painting story. It's a pity that I don't have the image materials at hand, otherwise I would also like to draw a "History Map of Cuiwei School", knowing that I am not self-sufficient, but just as an old student of the history department to pay tribute to the predecessors of history.