Mr. Chang Peter in his later years
At the end of October, I said to my two colleagues who were going to Taipei with me: When we arrive in Taipei, we must take time to visit Mr. Peter Chang, who is the most important bibliographer in Taiwan, whom I respect and admire. A few days later, however, Brother J.S. Edgren flew from the United States to Canton, and before dinner, he suddenly told me that he had heard that Mr. Peter Chang had passed away. It took a big spore out of me. Busy asking: How do you know? Who did you say? Brother Ai just said: I heard about it. I checked online that night, but there was no report, and I really didn't want that to be true.
On the afternoon of November 3, I flew directly from Guangzhou to Taipei, and Mr. Huang Wende from the Special Collections Group of Taipei's "National Library" was already waiting for the pick-up at Taoyuan Airport. Mr. Huang told me that Mr. Chang's memorial service was held last week. The next day, at the Second International Symposium on Chinese Literature held at Taipei University, I met Brother Chen Shihua again, who assisted his family in handling the funeral affairs of Mr. Chang when he returned to the west, and was also the writer of "The Biography of Mr. Peter Chang". Brother Shihua said that after Mr. Chang left, he wanted to inform me as soon as possible, but he could not be contacted for a while.
Mr. Chang is a filial piety in Hubei, born in 1921, his real name is Ruiqing, because he was baptized when he was a child, and his teaching name is Peter. No. Chan Nunnery, in his later years, he was also called the old man of Zongtao, and he admired Yuan Confucian Tao Zongyi. In the summer of 1945, after graduating from the Department of History of the National Central University, Professor Zhang Zhiyuan, the head of the department, was introduced to the Special Collections Section of the National Central Library. In 1949, the rare books and cultural relics of the "Central Library" were transported to Taiwan, and Mr. Chang was one of the escorts. From 1954, he was the director of the Special Collections Group of the Central Museum, in 1970 he was transferred to the director of the Library and Archives Division of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, and in 1984 he was promoted to the deputy director of the National Palace Museum in Taipei. He spent 25 years in the Special Collections Group of the Central Museum and 30 years at the National Palace Museum in Taipei.
Mr. Chang's name is a temple, and that has a history. The original meaning of the beetle is an insect that lives in the depths of the wardrobe and bookbox, alias silverfish, commonly known as silverfish. This is because Mr. Chang has been with rare books for a long time, and he also read the sentence of Li Gang, the famous minister of the Southern Song Dynasty, "I grew up as a beetle book, and I still comfort my heart when I am old", so he took the name of "Ji'an". Speaking of the word "蟫" (silverfish), Mr. Jin and Mr. Chang have some fate, and Mr. Chang's collection is called "Supplementing the Inscription of the Group of Books of the Python" and "The Complete Works of the Treatise of the Python". Coincidentally, Jin also often refers to himself as "Old Silverfish", and my books are "Old Silverfish Reading Essays" and "Old Silverfish in the Book Collection". Gainqing Xu Wanzhi has "I am willing to be old in the book series, and I will not hesitate to turn into a silverfish", and Zhang Yuanji has the sentence "I am an old silverfish in the book series, and I am self-defeating by the camel bridge". Whether it is "beetle" or "beetle", it is just that after Jin followed his predecessors Ju Lao and Changgong, he found fun in the remnants of the book collection and did what he could.
In addition to Gu Tinglong, Pan Jingzheng, Zhao Wanli, and Ji Shuying, Mr. Chang is also my favorite master. I think it was the practice of edition bibliography that created Mr. Chang, who is the scholar with the most rare books in Taiwan, and no one can match him. From May 1946 to December 1948, he compiled 2,000-3,000 rare books of the Ming Dynasty in more than two years. Later, Mr. Chang said: "Every day I go to work to open the box and blow the books, and at this opportunity, I will read all the books that were not edited by my hand that year." The Buddhist texts that I didn't dare to touch before, because of the need to compile and print the bibliography, I also read it carefully to understand its classification and direction. "In the past, I did not dare to touch the Song Jin and Yuan editions, but at this time, I was ordered to compile the "Song Version Catalogue" and "Jin Yuan Version Catalogue" and all of them were reviewed...... The eleven years until the 54th anniversary of all the rare books moving to Taipei were the golden age of my life, and my knowledge and experience in edition bibliography were greatly enriched. ”
I have two sets of "The Complete Works of the Anthem" in my hand, two thick volumes, one of which was given by Director Feng Mingzhu of the National Palace Museum in Taipei. I have read some of these chapters, and I think that without a lot of practice, it will be difficult to write a series of special articles and papers, such as "Discussion on the Catalogue of Old Chinese Books", "Examples of Forgery in Ancient Books and How to Identify Them", "Methods of Identifying Editions", and "Several Topics to be Studied in Mainland Editions".
Due to the isolation of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Mr. Chang's contributions to traditional Chinese culture, as well as his attainments in philology, bibliography, and editions, are rarely known to mainland scholars, and his works, reference books, and reference books are not well known to domestic researchers. Mr. Chang is the author of "Lectures on Chinese Bibliography", "Essentials of Book Editions", "Treatise on Editions of Bibliography", "Revised Inscriptions of the Books of the Ji'an Group", and "The Complete Works of the Treatise of the Ji'an". During his tenure at the "Central Library", he edited the "National Central Library" Rare Book Bibliography, "Taiwan Rare Books Joint Catalogue", "Taiwan Public Collection Song and Yuan Books Joint Bibliography", "Song Ben Catalogue", "Jin Yuan Ben Rare Book Catalogue", "Ming Dynasty Printmaking Preliminary Edition", "Taiwan Genealogy Problem Solving", etc., edited the "Song People's Biographical Data Index", "Ming Dynasty Biographical Data Index", and participated in the compilation of the "Siku Quanshu Index". During his stay at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, he edited the "General Catalogue of Old Books of the Palace Museum", presided over the photocopying of "Poetry and Essays of Painters of the Past Dynasties", "Collection of Yuan Renzhen Essays", "Collection of Collected Works of Artists of the Ming Dynasty" (sequel to the Collection), "Palace Museum Series", "Ming Dynasty Editions and Engraving Series", "Wenyuan Pavilion Siku Quanshu", "Wanwei Collection", and promoted the publication of "Palace Archives and Folds" and "Living Registration". In particular, it should be mentioned that in 1969, the "Central Library" in Taipei cooperated with the Hanhua Cultural Business Company to photocopy 11 kinds of "Rare Book Series", which was compiled and selected by Mr. Chang, who was then the director of the Special Collections Group, and the "Vajra Prajnaparamita Sutra" overprinted in Zhumo of Zifukuji Temple in the first year of the Yuan Dynasty (1341) was one of them, which was the first German "Mainz Bible Psalms" printed in color in Europe 116 years earlier, and this photocopy, imitating its original form, strives to be realistic (note: I have repeatedly accessed the original and photocopy appreciation, this book was photocopied again by the "National Library" in Taipei last year, it is a small book in a towel box, extremely cute, and one of my treasures is a gift from Dr. Zeng Shuxian, the director of the "National Map").
Peter Chang et al., "Index of Biographical Materials of the Song People"
This is a truly impressive palmares. I have used most of Mr. Chang's books, and he wrote rare book chronicles in the 50s and 60s, which I read when I was a visiting scholar in the United States in 1986, and later copied and archived them all when I was at Harvard-Yenching. I am deeply impressed by Mr. Chang's erudition, and I am also admired for his active promotion of rare books and photocopying rare and rare books. In a letter to me in February 1996, Mr. Gu Tinglong, the former teacher, said of Mr. Wu Wenjin, the director of the Harvard-Yenching Library, that "people who think about the cause and are loyal to the cause are the most admirable." ”
This also applies to Mr. Chang.
The first time I met Mr. Chang was in April 1999, when I went to Taipei for the first time, and I was invited by Wen Zhe of the "Academia Sinica". When I arrived in Taipei, Professor Pan Meiyue reported to Mr. Chang. Mr. Chang immediately decided to invite me to dinner. Also seated at the Howard Hotel in Taipei that day were Professor Pan and his wife, and Wu Rongzi, director of the Sinology Library at Leiden University in the Netherlands. I have the impression that Mr. Chang was dressed in a blue Tang suit, but I can't remember anything about what was discussed during the banquet. What touched me the most was that after the dinner, Mr. Chang asked his driver to take me back to the Academia Sinica Scholars Exchange Center, which was the guest house where I lived. I said, "What's going on, that's your car, I can take a taxi back." Mr. Chang said: You are my guest, so I should send you, and besides, you are coming to Taipei for the first time, and I will take a taxi myself, so you don't care. In the face of such a simple senior, I can only obey my fate. The next day, I went to the Forbidden City in the morning to express my gratitude. In Mr. Chang's office, he gave me his "Inscription on the Inscription of the Supplementary Books of the Forbidden City" and entertained me at noon in the Forbidden City Restaurant.
There is a way: blessed without borders, tin pure, the rod dynasty has a canon to wish the age. In 2004, in order to celebrate his 85th birthday, his students initiated the compilation of a collection of essays on the 8th birthday of Professor Peter Chang, which was published by the Taipei Student Book Company the following year. Jin did not think about it, and also wrote a small article "Saying "Ben Ya Zang Board" to congratulate Mr. on his birthday.
Editor-in-chief, Department of Chinese, Tamkang University
"Collected Essays of Professor Peter Chang on the Fifth Birthday of the Eighth Rank and the Fifth Birthday"
I don't know if Mr. Chang has any relatives in the mainland, but I do know that he has a good friend - Pan Tianzhen. Mr. Pan Tianzhen is the former deputy director of the Nanjing Library and the deputy editor-in-chief of the editorial board of the Rare Books of Chinese Ancient Books, and we have been working together for eight years. As early as the beginning of 1981, the review of the Bibliography was carried out in Shanghai, and at that time, the editor-in-chief Mr. Gu Tinglong, the deputy editor-in-chief Mr. Ji Shuying, the consultant Mr. Pan Jingzheng, as well as Shen Jiyuan, Ren Guangliang and I were working in the same large office. Mr. Pan Tianzhen once told me that he and Mr. Chang were classmates at the Central University in Nanjing, and they got along very well, and the two of them drank the same amount. In November 2002, I went to Nanjing and made a special trip to visit Mr. Pan. I told Mr. Pan, "I met Mr. Chang in Taipei, and I also told him about your participation in the editing of the Bibliography of Chinese Ancient Books and Rare Books. Chang was very happy to hear this, and he said, "It's a pity that we can't get together to drink anymore." At that time, I also told Pan that it was a pity that such man-made reasons prevented classmates and friends on both sides of the Taiwan Strait from shaking hands and enjoying themselves (in January 2004, Mr. Pan also drove west due to stomach cancer).
At the end of February 1989, Mr. Chang attended the International Advisory Meeting of the American Research Library on the Joint Catalogue of Chinese Rare Books. The meeting was held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and was attended by Mr. Gu Tinglong. Afterwards, Gu Shi told me that he had met Mr. Chang. In April of that year, Mr. Chang sent a letter to Mr. Gu, copying the reference page of the Qing Vocational Sitang manuscript "Reading History Fangyu Minutes" in the collection of the Taipei Central Museum, which Mr. Gu needed, and asked a friend to bring it to Shanghai and forward it. At that time, Gu Shi was doing research on the manuscript of Gu Zuyu's "Minutes" and wanted to photocopy and publish the manuscript "Minutes", so he needed the Taipei Central Museum to compare the originals, and Mr. Chang helped with this. In the mid-90s, cross-strait cultural exchanges were still proceeding very slowly, but Mr. Chang still seized an opportunity to visit Beijing. He told me that because he was the deputy director of the National Palace Museum in Taipei and was a special officer, he kept a very low profile and returned to Taiwan within a few days. I know that it was August 1996, and Mr. Chang also took the time to attend the celebration of the publication of the "Four Inventory Catalogue Series" held in the Summer Garden of the Beijing Hotel. These things are not mentioned in "Memories of the Sickbed".
In the past 100 years, there have been many well-known scholars, experts and professors in the field of Chinese library science, such as Miao Quansun, Liu Yiwei, Shen Zurong, Yuan Tongli, Jiang Fuxuan, Pi Gaopin, Li Xiaoyuan, Wang Changbing, Yao Mingda, Qiu Kaiming, Wang Xiantang, Wang Chongmin, Zhao Wanli, Qu Wanli, Wang Dalong, Gu Tinglong, etc. They have made extraordinary contributions to editions and library management, but after the death of these great talents, although future generations will remember them, few monographs have been published for the past few decades to commemorate these ancestors or study them, and the only ones who wrote the chronology are Cheng Huanwen's "Qiu Kai's Next Year's Genealogy" and my "Gu Tinglong's Annals". I have read Mr. Qian Cunxun's memoir "Miscellaneous Memories of Studying in the United States: A Review of Life in the United States in the Past Sixty Years", and I have also read Mr. Chang's "Memories of the Sickbed: Zong Tao's Self-Statement" (1-5).
Among all Mr. Chang's articles, the most lively and truthful text is his memoir "Memories of the Sickbed", which is also my favorite to read. The memoirs were originally published in the Bibliography Quarterly, edited by Chen Shihua, but they were discontinued after only two issues, and were later published in five installments by the National Library Bulletin, the first two of which were reprinted from the original Bibliography Quarterly. It was in 2004 after he recovered from a serious illness that he began to write, and until October 2007, when he completed the first two articles, he said well: "The biography of the little person was originally boring, but I experienced the Northern Expedition, the War of Resistance against Japan, and the Civil War, and came to Taiwan for nearly a year,...... If my students want to write a biography for me, there are some anecdotes that they don't know about it. If I tell a story, it can also be used as a material for after-tea and drunken chats. The memoir is divided into 22 chapters with a total of 40,000 words. There is a detailed review of his life experience, childhood, high school, and university, and then he entered the "Central Library" to work in the Special Collections Group, escorted rare books to Taiwan, "Yang Tu" reopened in Taipei, Jiang Fuxuan transferred to the Forbidden City, concurrently served as the Forbidden City, the Palace Museum full-time, and the preparation of magazines. I had a vague feeling that the narrative seemed to be unfinished, probably because of Mr. Chang's physical condition, which allowed him to meditate and recuperate in a small building in Tamsui and not allow him to work overloaded.
I remember that in early 2004, I was invited by National Taiwan University to go there for a week, and in addition to giving lectures, I also read many rare books in the library of National Taiwan University. Brother Chen Shihua also drove me to Changfu to visit my husband, and the gift I brought that time was the newly published "Gu Tinglong Yearbook", which can be regarded as "a piece of talent love paper". Mr. Chang was in a wheelchair and was pushed out by his eldest son to meet me. He was in good spirits, and he told me that the National Museum of History had sent a girl to interview him and wanted to do an oral history of it, and he also recorded it. However, Mr. Chang's Hubei Xiaogan dialect and his accomplishments in bibliography made the girls born and raised in Taiwan at a loss, and because the oral history project was not funded by the "Cultural Construction Association" and dropped out, the girls stopped after four visits. At that time, I thought that if I had time to stay in Taiwan for three more weeks, I would be able to sort out a manuscript of tens of thousands of words.
From April 1986 to September 1987, when I was a visiting scholar at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, I went to seven or eight East Asian libraries to read rare Chinese books, especially in the East Asian Library of Columbia University. In October 1987, shortly after I returned to Shanghai, one of the things I really wanted to do was to record Mr. Gu Shi Tinglong and Mr. Pan Shijing Zheng, and I wanted to make a detailed memoir of their early years, as well as what they saw and heard when dealing with ancient books, and the important things they did in their lives. However, the "climate" at that time was not right, and when I applied to the deputy director in charge at the time to buy recording equipment, he rejected me on the grounds that he "had no money at all".
One thing I never figured out was that in April 1990, I left Shanghai to settle in Hong Kong, and two years later, at the end of April, I went to the United States as a visiting scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute at Harvard University. Not long after, at the Harvard-Yenching Library, Professor Pan Mei-yue of National Taiwan University told me: Soon after you arrived in Hong Kong, Mr. Chang knew that he wanted to ask you to work in Taipei. I did not know that under that circumstance I had never corresponded with Mr. Cheong, and that I was an unknown junior, that Mr. Cheong would know that I was living in Hong Kong. Later, in a letter to me from Mr. Qiao Yanxuan in 1994, he said, "Passing through Hong Kong in the autumn of the previous year, I received the order of Mr. Peter Chang to inquire about the Chinese University of Chinese, and Wen Min had gone to the United States, so I could not know Jing". "The year before last", that is, in 1992.
Mr. Chang is in Taiwan and has made great contributions to traditional Chinese culture. Jin went to Taipei several times, and was summoned every time, and the last time I visited Mr., I only felt that Mr. only had the inconvenience of hearing and legs, and the rest was good. What I didn't expect was that although Taipei had a good foster environment and excellent medical care, it failed to keep Mr. Chang, and he left too quickly. Although the green mountains are here, the philosopher is dead. Mr. Chang dedicated his life to the "National Library" and the "Palace Museum" in Taiwan, and his "Complete Works of the Treatise on the Temple" and other works are the academic ideas and legacy he left to future generations. Mr. Zhang Foqian, a master of the writing association, once gave Mr. Chang Lianyun: "The glass must be done, and the cards must be big; This really outlines Mr. Chang's uninhibited, chic and up-and-down style in his spare time, as well as his knowledgeable and meticulous style.
Mr. Cheong was born in 1921 and died in 2011 at the age of 91. About everyone will have a little nostalgia and regret before riding a whale to the west, and they will leave a long-cherished wish for future generations, and Mr. Chang is no exception. His last wish is simple and unpretentious: peace and sustainability between the two sides of the strait, peace and security for the country and the people, and the promotion of Chinese culture to the world. All of you and friends are together, healthy, happy, safe and happy.
December 3, 2011
Editor in charge: Chu Xintong
About the Author
Shen Jin, a native of Hefei, Anhui Province, was born in Tianjin in 1945. He graduated from the Department of Library Science of Wuhan University in 1966. He has been working in the Shanghai Library for a long time, and has studied the study of catalogue editions under Mr. Gu Tinglong, Pan Jingzheng, and Qu Fengqi. From February 1986 to October 1987, he did library science research at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In 1988, he was awarded the title of research librarian, making him the youngest research librarian in the field of librarianship in China at that time. He used to be the third director of the Library Association of China, a member of the Academic Committee, the deputy director of the Ancient Books Editions Subcommittee, the director of the Special Collections Department of the Shanghai Library, and a member of the 7th Shanghai CPPCC. In 1990, he worked at the Institute of Chinese Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong. In April 1992, he went to the United States as a visiting scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute of Harvard University, and served as the director of the Rare Book Office of the Harvard-Yenching Library of Harvard University. After his retirement, he was successively employed as a distinguished expert of the Sun Yat-sen University Library and a distinguished professor of the Institute for the Protection of Chinese Ancient Books of Fudan University. He is the author of "Gu Tinglong Yearbook", "Gu Tinglong's Book Title Photo", "Weng Fanggang Yearbook", "Weng Fanggang Title Codex Collection", "Book City Rucui Record", "Chinese Rare Ancient Books and Rare Book Records", "Harvard University Harvard-Yenching Library Collection of Chinese Rare Book Records", "Book Series Old Silverfish", "Old Silverfish Reading Essays", "Book Rhyme and One Pulse Fragrance", "Shulin Story", "Book Sea Yang Record", "Fufang Collection", "Japanese Chinese Book Catalogue" and many other works.
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