Wuzhitang can be regarded as a time-honored brand in Guiyang bookstore, and the person in charge, Shu Qifeng, is also the "old qualification" of Guiyang Book Industry.
In 1993, Shu Qifeng participated in the establishment of Sisyphean Bookstore. In 1997, he founded his own bookstore "Ten Steps". In 2005, the bookstore moved to No. 126 Yan'an East Road, becoming known as the "Five Halls" for book lovers in Guiyang.
"Erudition, inquiry, prudence, discernment, and dedication are the halls of the five. Shu Qifeng introduced that the name of Wuzhitang comes from "The Mean", which is not only the process of seeking knowledge, but also the process of self-cultivation, which is not only his concept of being a bookstore, but also his attitude and method of reading.
搬迁6次 初心不改
After 6 relocations, Wuzhitang is now on the 21st floor of Fantasia Building, No. 194 Xinhua Road, Nanming District, and you can see the Nanming River at a glance through the window. It has 5 rooms, 200 square meters in size, and more than 30,000 books. The wooden shelves in each room of the bookstore are neatly filled with books, and there are no bestsellers, most of them are literature, history and philosophy books, including county chronicles, Guiyang city history, and books with the characteristics of various ethnic groups in Guizhou.
Shu Qifeng introduced that in 2005, after the bookstore moved to No. 126 Yan'an East Road, it was renamed "Wuzhitang". In the next 15 years, there were many customers and business was good. In 2019, due to the impact of the market, unable to afford the rent of hundreds of thousands of yuan a year, Wuzhitang moved the bookstore to the 16th floor of the Fantasia Building, and in 2020, it moved to the 21st floor today.
The high rent once made Shu Qifeng want to close Wuzhitang permanently. Shu Qifeng recalled that they said goodbye to readers on the official account of the bookstore, and many old customers who had followed them for many years persuaded them to leave messages or write letters on the official account, hoping not to close the bookstore. "The bookstore has a lot of followers and support from book lovers, and we also have our own complexes, so we decided to move here first. ”
Gou Jing, the manager of Wuzhitang Bookstore, said that some readers were students more than 10 years ago, but they still read in the bookstore after they worked, and some readers still bring their children to Wuzhitang to read and buy books after they get married.
The trust of readers is the driving force that supports Gonodo to continue to persevere.
Adhere to the characteristics of the breakthrough
Since its establishment, Wuzhitang Bookstore has been the only special bookstore in Guizhou that specializes in operating publishing houses and stocks genuine books. In addition, the bookstore also treasures many rare books, rare books and rural documents, which have very distinctive characteristics.
Old books and old books are a major feature of Wuzhitang, and they are also the "treasures" that Shu Qifeng is most proud of.
How can the bookstore on the 21st floor continue to operate? Shu Qifeng said that this is not a street, but in fact it has no advantage in opening a bookstore. With the characteristics of Gonodo, it can't attract new readers of every age, but this relatively niche group of old customers in the past is the reason why Gonodo has stuck to the present. Because of this group, Shu Qifeng divided the books into three parts: new books that are sold in full, special books with a ceiling of 20% off, old books of a certain age, and wire-bound books.
The reason why Wuzhitang has a lot of books on local history of Guizhou stems from Shu Qifeng's obsession with local history and culture. He has been committed to collecting local documents and materials in Guizhou, covering the writings of people in Guizhou, works about Guizhou written by officials in Guizhou, local publications in Guizhou, codex of famous sages in Guizhou, calligraphy and paintings, manuscripts, manuscripts, and school books, etc., and the time limit is as early as the "Qianling Mountain Chronicles" in the Kangxi period. At the same time, it collects all kinds of miscellaneous items related to Guizhou, such as contracts, vouchers, etc., and collects more than 1,000 varieties. He said that we are Guizhou people and have the responsibility to find, discover and inherit the history and culture of Guizhou.
Shopping for old books and repairing ancient books, Wuzhitang is not only a bookstore for Guiyang book lovers, but also an old friend.
Gonodo also has a unique technology to undertake the restoration of ancient books. The restoration of ancient books requires certain technical means, which may be the "housekeeping skill" of Wuzhitang. Walking into the "Wuzhitang Collection of Guizhou Ancient Books and Literature Restoration Room", it is full of ancient books and rubbings on display, and the walls are full of tools and materials for restoring ancient books.
Shu Qifeng took out the restored ancient books, yellowed and dilapidated ancient books, and after one process after another, they have been "resurrected". He said that at present, nearly 1,000 ancient books have been restored and sorted out by Wuzhitang to provide materials and materials for cultural and historical researchers.
In the future, Wuzhitang Bookstore will continue to purchase high-quality books, build a cultural exchange platform, sell cultural derivatives, and add a book fragrance to Guiyang. Shu Qifeng said: "What has remained unchanged along the way is that we strive to build a local spiritual culture, create a space for cultural sharing, a space for the collision of ideas, and a space for reading and tea gathering. In the future, these will still be our pursuits. ”
Text/Guizhou Daily Tianyan News reporter Yao Man
Photo / provided by the interviewee
Editor/Zhao Shanshan
Second Instance/Cao Wen
Third Trial/Chen Xi