✦
The famous book of Yang's water
✦
Text丨Zhu Hangman
Not long ago, Yang Zhishui sent a text message, saying that her "100 Cases of Famous Poetry" was published. Previously, at a literati collection in Beijing, Zeng Cheng, editor-in-chief of Life Bookstore, brought a sample book of "100 Cases of Famous Poetry" for everyone to have a sneak peek. Zeng Cheng said that this book has been done for three years, and he strives to keep improving and achieve the most satisfaction. At a glance, we can also feel that this book is elegantly done and heavy. When I get the new book and rub it carefully, I really feel that I have done it carefully. The whole book is hardcover, color printing, and the cover of the famous object pattern is bronzing. If the outer cover is fashionable, then the inner cover looks quaint, the purple suede book cover, inscribed by the scholar Luo Feng, and the Tao Ling chrysanthemum on the color paper, especially Qingfen. The book is traditionally turned to the right, the text is arranged vertically, and the layout of the text also has an ancient rhyme. Each famous object is first an entry, then a poem example, and then a reading and interpretation of the text, which is arranged in the way of the previous poem and the following. The text content is generally arranged on the right page, and the ancient paintings, sculptures, murals, etc. related to the famous objects are arranged on the left page, so that readers can better understand the historical situation where the famous objects are located. Huang Shang printed several beautiful books in his later years, which also referred to the way the ancients made books, and jokingly called this an elegant "fake antique".
In recent years, Yang Zhishui's books have been published extensively, and each one is more beautiful than the other, and I think it can be regarded as a special phenomenon of "Yang Zhishui's calligraphy". Among them, the representative and very impressive ones are, one is the ten volumes of "Persimmon House Collection" published by the People's Fine Arts Publishing House, the other is the five volumes of "Chinese Gold and Silverware" published by the Life Bookstore, and the other is the "Yang Zhishui Works Series" that is being published by the Guangxi Normal University Publishing House, plus the "100 Cases of Famous Poems" of the Life Bookstore, all of which can be called beautiful. Although these books are serious academic essays or monographs, or even relatively out of the field of research, because of their exquisite production, they have also become the object of search for book lovers outside of professional research. As far as I read these volumes of Yang Zhishui's works, there are three characteristics: one is that he is knowledgeable and elegant, and the topics involved can be cited from the side, showing good research skills, so they are not quick to perish; the second is that the writing is elegant, and the articles he talks about can be told in the form of academic essays, and the writing is concise, which is quite the charm of ancient literature, and it is worth reading again and again; the third is that the design is elegant, and almost every book has a large number of exquisite pictures, which complement each other with the ancient and famous objects mentioned, and the beauty of the antiquities is refreshing. Most of the antiquities in the book were interviewed and photographed by her in various places, and they were skillfully arranged by excellent book designers, which added to the antique interest. I think the reason why Yang Zhishui's books have become a phenomenon is because of her attitude towards good books for many years, and more importantly, because of her expectations for readers to appreciate them.
When I read Yang Zhishui's works, I read them as "articles". In my opinion, Yang Zhishui is first and foremost an essayist. The essayist does not write articles that are only good-looking, but writes essays and books, and the idea is to write an article, not a monograph, so reading every book of Yang Zhishui can almost be regarded as a series of articles with both literary quality and beauty. Or because of this, the writer only wants to write what he has in mind, and he does not want to write about what he is not interested in. It is precisely for this reason that there are few systematic monographs by writers. It's not that you can't, it's that you don't do it.
I remember reading her essay collection "Asking the Dao" (Zhejiang Ancient Books Publishing House, July 2017), and there was an article commemorating the Shanghai literati Jin Xingyao, which was very impressive. This article quotes Mr. Kim's letter about their "common characteristics":
"Our article may also be meaningless, but the talent is obvious. ...... I am tired of being mediocre, tired of turbans, and disgusted with mother-in-law chewing tongues. Aesthetic power, emotional nature, no theoretical basis. I like to read, I love books like my life, and I can't let go of the volume. I like to collect, close to greed, I don't go to the bookstore for a few days, and I am at a loss as if I have lost something. But I was afraid to go out, so I was restricted from buying books. Both the ancient and the modern like to read, but the emphasis is on the ancient. To get to the bottom of the knowledge, a small essay of one or two thousand words must read through the materials, and the time for preparation is more than the time for writing. ”
Although Yang Zhishui emphasized in this article that quoting the content of Mr. Jin's letter should exclude her, I have to sigh that Mr. Jin's vision is "vicious".
In this way, when I read Yang Zhishui's monographs on famous objects, I felt that I could easily flip through them and pick out the content I was interested in to read, all of which were pleasing to the eye, including evidence, research, insight, literature, and images of antiquities that she had traveled and visited. Later, I happened to read one of her essays in the newspaper "The Transmission of "Flying Sky"" (Wen Wei Po, June 5, 2018, "PEN" supplement), and felt that it was far-reaching and emotional. In this article, Mr. Sun Ji gave her a manuscript of Shen Congwen's "About Flying Heaven", which is very precious, but it is a text that expresses feelings. In this article, she wrote about her experience of asking Mr. Sun Ji, and even wrote that she read Shen Congwen's cultural relics research works, which seemed to be selfish. Shen Congwen was famous for his new literary writing in his early years, and in his later years, he switched to the study of cultural relics, and hid in history for 30 years, but Yang Zhishui said: "The road opened by Shen Congwen to combine literature and cultural relics will not be lonely." Reading this, I seem to understand a little, although in Mr. Sun Ji, Yang Zhishui has been able to enter the threshold of famous object research, but her research method is very different from her teacher, she is not an archaeologist or historian of the way of inquiry, but also some of Mr. Shen Congwen's style, they are all writing articles, and they are also discovering cultural relics from literature, giving cultural relics a literary view. From this point of view, her research on famous objects is a little enlightened.
Look at this book "100 Examples of Famous Poetry", it's much more fun. You can enjoy it as a collection of essays, or you can read it as a dictionary of ancient poems and famous objects, and if you are more interested, you can also explore the appearance of these famous things, as well as their use in the lives of the ancients, and do a historical journey, why not. In addition to this one, I also have several monographs on famous objects by Yang Zhishui, one of which is "Searching", which is a monograph on the famous objects in "The Golden Vase of Plums", and it is also the beginning of her research on famous objects. The other volume is "Naming and Acquaintance", subtitled "Museum Visits", and I admire her method of combining field visits with textual research, which is something that a pure literary researcher can rarely do. There is also a volume of "Seeing Paintings in Things", which looks at famous objects from ancient paintings and supports them with literature. It can be seen that Yang Zhishui tries to appreciate the life of the ancients from classical novels, ancient paintings and ancient poems, and it is really full of famous things.
Once a friend invited me to watch a play at Mei Lanfang Grand Theater, I knew that Yang Zhishui was also there, so I brought her new "Searching", and I had time to communicate after watching the play. I remember that she evaluated the value of her writings by "naming" those antiquities of unknown purpose, and many museums later adopted her results. For those famous things that are already familiar, what she writes is a narrative of "acquaintance", just like the nostalgia for teachers and friends, full of deep admiration and longing.
This article was first published in Beijing Evening News on January 26, 2024
"Five Colors of Earth: Book Review" column
Reprinted with permission
Thirty years of research on Yangzhishui famous objects
Gorgeous Encyclopedia of Ancient Chinese Poetry - See the original appearance of "things in poetry".
100 Examples of Famous Poems
Yang Zhishui by
ISBN 978-7-80768-400-8 定价 298.00元
Binding: cloth hardcover + art paper seal bronzing
Publication date: January 1, 2024
Life, Reading, New Knowledge Joint Bookstore Life Bookstore Publishing Co., Ltd
"100 Examples of Famous Poems" contains more than 160 entries, involving furniture, wine vessels, tea, incense, study, admiration, internal and external daily use, ceremonial guards, crafts, patterns and other categories in ancient life. From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the appearance of the objects involved in the poetry of the past dynasties has been hidden in the depths of history, and now we can obtain a clear and intuitive explanation. This book is the first monograph to annotate famous poems in detail, and it is also a miniature encyclopedia about "things in poetry".
The water of Young
He is a researcher at the Institute of Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and enjoys special government allowances from the State Council. He has been engaged in the research of famous objects for a long time. He is the author of "The Book of Poetry", "The History of Pre-Qin Poetry and Literature", "New Evidence of Ancient Poetry and Famous Objects" (two volumes), "Blue Picking in the Last Dynasty: The Search for Ancient Famous Objects", "The Color of Luxury: A Study of Gold and Silver Ware in the Song, Yuan, and Ming Dynasties" (three volumes), "Ancient Chinese Gold and Silver Jewelry" (three volumes), "The Collection of Persimmon Towers" (ten volumes), "Li Xu's Four Seasons of Pleasure", "Naming and Acquaintance: A Visit to the Museum", "Searching: Reading "Things" in a Golden Vase", "Chinese Gold and Silver Ware" (a total of five volumes), etc.
Click on the applet above to purchase
—END—Welcome to click on the view, share and forward to the circle of friends, pay attention to the life bookstore video number, and get the latest book news as soon as possible
Past Articles......
The Establishment of Life Bookstore丨Publisher Zou Taofen and His Times: Chinese Sociological Classics Library丨Famous Scholars Talk about Poetry丨Chinese Gold and Silverware Zhiwei Book丨Zhixin Book丨Zhiyu Book丨Small Comics Big Era
and
Ren Zhongmin丨Xia Chengtao丨Tang Guizhang丨Long Yusheng丨Zhan Antai, Miao Yue丨Yu Guanying丨Qian Zhonglian丨Lin Geng丨Cheng Qianfan, Wang Meng丨Bi Shumin丨Li Qiang丨Zhan Furui, Shao Yanxiang丨Xiao Fuxing丨Shen Jiguang, Li Ling丨Yang Zhishui