"Collect materials and organize them into a book" is the well-known interpretation of the word editor in the "Etymology". For ancient Chinese, this interpretation is generally true. One of the reasons why I didn't make it out was probably because I liked to read miscellaneous books. However, I have accumulated some material that can make two supplementary explanations to the definition of the etymology.
First, the word "edit" in ancient Chinese is by no means an unusual term, and it is commonly used to be synonymous or similar to "edit", "compilation", "compilation", "compilation", etc. None of these words, in the light of the two concepts of editing mentioned by Mr. Lin [1], do not refer to the concept of "editing" "as part of the work of publishing".
China's publishing industry has flourished in the two Song dynasties, and the public and private book engraving industry, especially in Hangzhou in the Southern Song Dynasty, has been quite prosperous. However, in the classics of the Two Song Dynasty, the word "editor" which means "as part of the publishing work" cannot be found, nor can the word "editor", "series", "compilation", "compilation", etc., which means "compilation". From the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, China's publishing industry flourished. Nanjing, Suzhou, Changzhou, Yangzhou in Jiangsu, Huzhou and Hangzhou in Zhejiang, Huizhou in Anhui, Jianyang in Fujian, and Beijing and other places were all important towns for engraving books in the Ming Dynasty, and there were many bookstores. In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, famous literati such as Li Zhuowu and Feng Menglong personally participated in the publishing activities. However, in the classics of the Ming Dynasty, the word "editor" which means "as part of the publishing work" cannot be found, and the meaning of "compilation", "series", "compilation", "compilation", "order", etc., cannot be found. Li Yu of the Qing Dynasty was a famous writer, and he himself published his own and other people's works in Nanjing under the name of "Mustard Seed Garden", and also printed and sold letterheads, etc., and actually ran a publishing house. I am reading "The Complete Works of Li Yu", and I can't see the meaning of "editing" in it, which means "as part of the publishing work", and the meaning of "editing", "compilation", "compilation", "editing", etc. In the ancient texts, it would be nice if someone could come up with even one of them and let me see it. There is hope, but there is no possibility. Of course, this does not mean that there was no editorial activity in the ancient publishing industry, and that there were no editors and editors. It's another matter. However, it can be said that there is no reason for many people today to compare and confuse the words "editing" and those words that are synonymous or similar to the ancients with "editing" "as part of the work of publishing." The concepts that should be differentiated are not distinguished, but they are forced to be put together and mixed together, which can only confuse one's own thinking and the thinking of others. As a result, the history of editing has in fact become a muddled account, or a muddled account. In my opinion, if the study of the history of editing in ancient China does not solve this problem, it will run on the evil road, and the faster it runs, the more books it will have, and the more laughing stock it will leave for future generations. This is certainly not a good word, but it may not be a bad advice and a bitter medicine.
Second, the word "editor" in ancient Chinese, as well as its synonyms or proximal meanings such as "edit", "compilation", "compilation", etc., all mean a way of writing. The paraphrase of the "Etymology" also talks about how to "write a book", which is a way of "writing a book", that is, a way of writing (in a broad sense). I am now going to provide materials for writing novels, scripts, and acting in ancient times. These new materials, further proof that the meaning of these words have historically been and steadily confined to the way of writing, and that they have no connection with the editors in the publishing work.
In Chinese history, the first publication of the novel was in the middle of the Ming Dynasty (at that time it was often called "discourse"). In the journal, at that time, the author's signature "writing", "compilation", "editing", "editing", etc. Below, there are different ways of authoring the author on the earliest four versions of "Water Margin" that are now visible. The source is Lu Xun's "A Brief History of Chinese Novels":
- The 115th edition of "Zhongyi Water Margin" engraved in the last years of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty was signed: "Dongyuan Luo Guanzhong Editor".
- There are 100 editions of "Zhongyi Water Margin" with Li Zhen's preface and criticism, signed: "Shi Nai'an collects and compiles, Luo Guanzhong compiles and repairs".
- There are 120 copies of "Zhongyi Water Margin Quanshu" with Yang Dingjian's preface, signed: "Shi Nai'an collects and compiles, Luo Guanzhong compiles and repairs".
- Qing Jin Sheng's sigh 70 copies of "Water Margin", signed: "Written by Shi Nai'an in the Eastern Capital".
The authors of "Water Margin" have different accounts. Its first engraved copy is the 100th edition of "Zhongyi Water Margin" published by Guo Xun, the great nobleman of Wuding during the Jiajing period of the middle of the Ming Dynasty, which is called Guo Ben, but unfortunately it has been lost. According to the sixth volume of the "Baichuan Shuzhi", this department: "Qiantang Shi Nai'an's book, edited by Luo Guanzhong". Now scholars generally believe that "Water Margin" was a collaboration between Shi Nai'an and Luo Guanzhong. Shi Nai'an is the original work, so he signed the "book", "writing" and "compilation"; Luo Guanzhong sorted out and processed it on this basis, so he signed "editing", "editing" and "compiling". However, Luo Guanzhong never published "Water Margin" in his life. The fact that the original novel is sorted out and processed without publication is undoubtedly one of the authors of the novel. Therefore, Luo Guanzhong must have signed the "book" today, but he signed the "compilation", "editing" and "compilation" in the Ming Dynasty. It can be seen that in the Ming Dynasty after the development of the publishing industry, the meaning of "editing" was not the editor "as part of the publishing work", but only a way of writing.
The author of ancient novels did not sign the "editorial" after sorting out and processing the original work on the basis of Luo Guanzhong, but the original author like Shi Nai'an also signed the "editorial". Moreover, on the whole, the authors of ancient novels are mostly signed "editorial". The following examples are all the author's signature methods for famous novels engraved in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties:
"Jin Yunqiao", signed: "Qingxin Talent Series".
"Yu Jiao Li", signed: "Di Sanren ed.".
"The Biography of Good Friends", signed: "Famous Teachings in the Order".
Li Yu's "Silent Play" and "The Twelfth Floor" are both signed: "Jue Shi Barnyard Official Editing".
The same Luo Guanzhong signed the same "Water Margin", one signed "Luo Guanzhong ed.", and the other signed "Luo Guanzhong edited". The meanings of "editing" and "editing" are very similar. The authors of the above-mentioned novels such as "Jin Yunqiao" should be signed "authored" today, but at that time they were all signed "editorial". It can be seen that the meaning of "editing", which is very close to "editing", was not the editor who was "part of the publishing work" until the end of the Ming and early Qing dynasties, and it only meant a way of writing.
Until the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, under the influence of the language of the ancients, some people called writing novels "editing". Bao Tianxiao said in his "Words" of the author of "Shanghai Spring and Autumn": "Those who live in Shanghai for 20 years will have a little understanding of the conditions of various societies in Shanghai, and they will pick it up and edit it into a novel, called "Shanghai Spring and Autumn". [2] In the fifth year of the Republic of China (1916), Yang Chenyin's "Xinhua Spring Dream" (also known as "Romance of Hongxian"), Zhang Fu said in his "preface": "The resurrection of the republic, Chenyin held the Hongxian Dynasty for one day, and gave it to the business as a bamboo branch, published in the newspapers, and told the people. Yu said: If you don't pick it up and edit it, it will become a book, and the people of our country will observe and learn from it. Because of this, it became a book. [3] It seems that at the beginning of the 20th century, a group of cultural figures in Shanghai still called writing novels "editing". This is also clearly a way of writing.
Similar to writing novels called "editing", the ancients wrote scripts, which were mostly called "editing". I checked the "Record Ghost Book" and the Ming "Taihe Zhengyin Spectrum", all of which are called "compilation". Such as the cloud of "Recording Ghost Book":
The predecessors have died and are famous, and there are legends in the world. [4]
Youyun:
Cultivating talents makes up legends, and the climate gathers for a while. [5]
Today's Chinese, influenced by the language of the ancients, still call writing scripts "making plays".
In ancient times, the word "editing" was occasionally used in acting. Tao Zongyi's "Nancun Dropout Record" in the "Names of the Academy":
Wei, Wu, and Liu, the three of them, are the editors of Dingxin. Wei is long in recitation, Wu is long in somersault, Liu is long in Kefan, and everyone is happy so far. [6]
This quotation is well-known in the history of Chinese opera, and it is the most important source of information for recording the innovation and creation of performing arts by the Yuan actors of the Jin Dynasty. From the Jin Dynasty to the Jin Dynasty, Chinese opera was still in its infancy. Wei, Wu, and Liu are famous characters in the teaching workshop. They took the lead in collecting, sorting out and processing all kinds of performance techniques in the "tile shop", and synthesizing them into stage performance arts. Therefore, these three people are people who have made great contributions to the formation of Chinese theater and performing arts. "Dingxin Editor" refers to this. "Dingxin", that is, reform and innovation. This "editing" is to collect, organize and process various performance skills, and synthesize them into stage performances. This is a derivative of the word "editing", and does not deviate from the scope of its original meaning to denote a way of writing. This linguistic phenomenon is similar to the current expansion of the term "creation" originally used in literature to include "creation" in singing and filmmaking.
In ancient times, when writing novels, it was often called "compilation", "writing", "compilation", "compilation", etc., and occasionally "editing", and writing scripts was mostly called "editing". This can be grouped into one category. The other category is historical books, similar books, general collections, anthologies, etc., which are called "writing", "compiling", "compiling", "compiling", "compiling", "compiling", "compiling", etc. In the eyes of the ancients, these two categories had something in common in the way they were written. This commonality, in the minds of people after the Qin and Han dynasties, exists in comparison with poetry and literature. The ancients wrote poems and essays, whether they wrote excellent poems or poor poems, they could be called "works" and "works". In ancient times, there was no such thing as compiling poems or writings. In the view of the ancients, writing poems and essays was to express the author's own opinions, experiences, emotions, and so on. In the first two categories, it is necessary to collect materials and materials that do not belong to the author but belong to others; on this basis, the work of sorting out and arranging the author is generally called compilation, compilation, and arrangement; on this basis, the work of the author to transform and process is generally called compilation, compilation, compilation, and revision. Of course, there are always exceptions. For example, for the famous book "Historical Records", the ancients also called it "work". For another example, from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty, writing national history is also called writing, and the historians of hundreds of years during this period are called Shulang. Excluding such exceptions, the difference is the one described above. Therefore, library science and philology are right to regard writing, compilation, compilation, and compilation as differences in "writing methods". So, when the Song and Yuan dynasties began to write novels and scripts, they didn't also express the author's own thoughts and feelings, so why didn't they call it "writing"? This is an idea with the characteristics of modern people. Ancient people, who did not think the same as modern people, focused on the fact that writing novels and scripts required collecting materials and processing them into works. The fruitful results of literary history researchers in this regard show that the vast majority of works in the Song and Yuan dynasties and Yuan songs can be used to find the source of materials, which are generally taken from historical books, legends, notes, books, legends, and what they have seen and heard. Writing a novel or a screenplay without these materials and relying on artistic imagination is still a later thing. Therefore, Song and Yuan wrote scripts and scripts, all of which were called "editing". Later, writing novels gradually became more and more called "editing", and of course it can also be called "writing". This linguistic habit has been passed down, and it is not unreasonable to be called an "editor" occasionally. Therefore, the "editing" and "editing" of novels and scripts are also based on the characteristics of the way of writing.
In short, the word "editor", which was rarely used in ancient times, and those common words that were synonymous or similar to it, did not have the conceptual meaning of "editor" as "part of the publishing work", but all of them were the kind of writing methods that indicated the need to collect materials and materials belonging to others, and then do work on this basis. From the Qin and Han dynasties to the Qing dynasties, almost all other works were formed by this type of writing, except for the poems and essays written by the authors themselves.
Nowadays, most of the research on the history of editing is separated from the history of publishing, but in fact, it is mainly about the study of editing and compilation as one of the ways of writing. Therefore, most of them clearly stated that they would collect materials according to what the ancients called "compilation", "compilation", "compilation", "compilation", "compilation", etc., to delineate their own objects and scope. For example, Mr. Yao Fushen clearly stated in "Analysis of the Meaning of "Editing"" that "the research object of editing" is "the stylistic design of books, and the steps and methods of compiling books" [7]. In short, it is to study the way of "writing a book" or the method of "writing a book". He is a scholar who unequivocally believes that he should and must leave publishing to study the history of editing.
I objected to this view seven years ago, and asserted that the result of this was that "the history of editing could become the history of writing" and that "the history of editing in ancient China would probably be a confusing account"[8]. Leave that alone. What I want to say now is that, according to this logic, we should collect all the operas and novels that the ancients also called "compilation" or "compilation". Then, as I pointed out earlier in the Re-Treatise[9], such as "Guan Hanqing, Wang Shifu, Tang Xianzu, Luo Guanzhong, Shi Nai'an, Cao Xueqin, and others," all of them can easily and without any argument be called great editors, so that the number of famous editors in ancient times will "double or two," and then the number of famous editors will not be even more majestic? To uphold the correctness of one's arguments, one should carry out one's basic logic to the end. Now, I have provided a lot of specific materials such as "editing" and "editing" in novels and operas, especially "editing by Luo Guanzhong", which is still a unique "editor" and precious materials.
Excerpt from Liu Guangyu's "Three Treatises on What is Editing"
Editorial Journal, No. 3, 1994
bibliography
- Refers to the two different concepts of editing proposed by Lin Suifang: "'Editing' as a way of writing and 'editing' as part of publishing work represent different concepts. Lin Suifang, "The Concept of "Editing" and "Writings" and Related Issues", Editorial Journal, No. 1, 1994, p. 39.
- Bao Tianxiao: Shanghai Spring and Autumn, Shanghai: Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, 1991. "Shanghai Spring and Autumn" is divided into two parts, the upper part was written in 1924, and the lower part was completed in 1926, and was published by Dadong Book Company.
- Wei Shaochang, ed., Research Materials on the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School, Vol. I, Shanghai: Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 1984, p. 308.
- Edited by the Chinese Academy of Drama, A Collection of Treatises on Classical Chinese Opera (II), Beijing: China Theatre Publishing House, 1959, p. 104.
- Edited by the Chinese Academy of Drama, A Collection of Treatises on Classical Chinese Opera (II), Beijing: China Theatre Publishing House, 1959, p. 202.
- Tao Zongyi, Nancun Dropout Records, vol. 25, Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company, 1959, p. 306.
- Yao Fushen, "Analysis of the Meaning of "Editor"", Editorial Journal, No. 2, 1991, p.39.
- Liu Guangyu, "On the Concept of Editing", Journal of Editing, No. 3, 1987, pp. 9 and 13.
- Liu Guangyu, "On What is Editing", Editorial Journal, No. 4, 1991.
Editor in charge: Chu Xintong
About the Author
Liu Guangyu (1936-2024) was born in Wujin, Jiangsu. He graduated from the Department of Chinese of Shandong University in 1959 and stayed on to teach. In 1970, he was seconded to the Propaganda Department of Shandong Provincial Party Committee. In 1973, he returned to Shandong University and served as the deputy director of the editorial department of Literature, History and Philosophy, with full responsibility for the resumption of publications. At the beginning of 1975, he returned to the Propaganda Department of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee. In 1978, he served as the deputy director of the Theoretical Research Office of the Propaganda Department of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee. In the summer of 1979, he returned to Shandong University again and served as the director of the editorial department of Literature, History and Philosophy. During his tenure in charge of the publication, the circulation of Literature, History and Philosophy jumped to the top of the national circulation of similar publications. In the winter of 1984, he resigned from his administrative position and returned to teach in the Department of Chinese. He retired in 1996. Mr. Liu Guangyu is a well-known and influential editorial expert and publishing historian in China since the 80s of the 20th century. He is the initiator of the General History of Publishing in China, and his research on the history of publishing in ancient China is groundbreaking and has generated strong repercussions in the field of publishing history. In the fields of classics, Liu Zongyuan's research, and Chinese character culture, Mr. Liu Guangyu's research has also had an important impact. In his academic career of more than half a century, Mr. Liu Guangyu published Editorial Essays (Shandong Education Publishing House, 1989) and Liu Zongyuan's New Biography (Shanghai People's Publishing House, 1989). China Book Publishing House, 2017, Research on Editorial Theory (Shandong Education Press, 1995), History and Culture Essays (China Literature Publishing House, 2004), History and Han Publishing History (Qilu Publishing House, 2016), Cai Lun Papermaking and the Early Application of Paper (Qilu Publishing House, 2021), and published more than 100 academic papers. Several of these articles have been reprinted in full by Xinhua Digest and the National People's Congress. Mr. Liu Guangyu has twice presided over the work of "Literature, History and Philosophy" and has made important and outstanding contributions to the development of "Literature, History and Philosophy".
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