Author: Chen Gang (Associate Professor, College of Liberal Arts, Shaanxi Normal University)
Notes are a rich cultural heritage left by the ancients, not only a large number, but also from astronomy, down to geography, three religions and nine streams, can be said to be all-encompassing, containing immeasurable historical and cultural value. In recent years, with the publication of a large number of notebook series, the research on notes in the late Ming Dynasty is also in full swing. However, these studies mostly use notes as auxiliary materials for research in other fields, and there has been a lack of strong discussion on the issues of information generation, record writing, revision and retouching of notes. The weakness of the study of notebook writing not only directly affects the understanding of the nature of notebook materials, but also leads to the blindness of the use of notebook materials to a certain extent.
Information generation of notes
The research on the information generation of notes mainly focuses on what kind of group the cultural information recorded by the author of the note, under what kind of situation, and in what way it is finally generated.
You might as well use the characteristic "talk record" notes of the late Ming Dynasty to illustrate. In the late Ming Dynasty, a considerable part of the notes were eventually formed by recording conversations. The content of such notes is not the author's original creation, but the author's record or rewriting of what the "interlocutor" said. There are three main groups of "talkers" in the late Ming Dynasty: scholars, scholars, and folk literati.
Most of the scholars have a long period of reading and writing, such as Jiang Yingxiao, Wu Jiong, Chen Di and others, and their knowledge background determines the content focus of the "talk record" notes to a large extent. Closely related to the formation of "talk record" notes is also the experience of various people traveling to study and talking. The ancients attached great importance to the invention of teachers and friends, and Wu Jiong once lamented that he "has no Yang and Xie encounters, no teachers and friends have nothing to invent, and there is nothing to improve their conduct". After serving as the governor of Hangzhou, he had the opportunity to "wander in the martial arts", participate in the gentry gathering, and finally recorded the words of his own and others' conversations, forming the book "Cong Yu".
The eunuch group can be divided into two categories: one is the more prominent dignitaries, such as Li Yangong. Although Li Yangong was not the main provider of information about the conversation, his social status had a strong cohesive effect on other interlocutors. The people of the time commented that he was "good at writing and ink, inviting celebrities, breaking the knots and cold, lyricists and tourists, and running like a horse." "This provides a good platform for conversations from all walks of life. There is also a category of literati who have served as prefects, governors, and counties, such as Wang Tongdao, Yi Fangzhi, Jiang Yingke, etc. When they travel to a place, they often feel fresh about the local customs, strange things and strange things, and in the gathering with relatives and friends, this kind of content can be "news see" and "talk about help". As a result, the flow of information between different regions and different groups has been realized through word of mouth.
The role of the folk literati community should not be underestimated. Their interests are often in poetry, calligraphy, painting, and antique appreciation, and they often gather elegantly, form associations to write poems, drink and talk, which has also become another cultural soil for the generation of "talk" notes and information.
This is the case for information generation research on "conversation" notes, and similar research ideas can be adopted for other types of notes. For "experiential" notes, what exactly is the author's experience type? For "transcriptional" notes, what is the cultural behavior and cultural purpose behind the author's transcription? Is it to prepare for the imperial examination or to prepare for the writings? Only a careful examination of these issues can lead to an in-depth understanding of the information generation of notes.
Record writing of notes
The research on the recording and writing of notes mainly includes the following four issues: the motivation of the note-writer, the trade-off criteria of note-taking materials, the way of recording the content of the note, and the way of writing the note-taking text.
There are three main motivations for the authors of the late Ming Dynasty notes: one is influenced by the spirit of Confucianism, advocating that the notes should exert a beneficial influence on the hearts of the people of the world; One is influenced by the ancient tradition of erudition, and expects to achieve a well-informed cultural realm through the recording of notes; Others see notes as a pastime tool, hoping to have an entertaining effect by recording scherzos, gods and monsters.
Late Ming notes also formed a certain standard of material selection. On the whole, the author mainly considers the following three points in the record: First, the authenticity of the material. This is mainly manifested in the fact that the author tries his best to choose the public rights and wrongs of the world, and adopts an attitude of abandoning slanderous theories that originate from personal likes and dislikes; The author tries to select carefully considered materials and discard those that are not accurate. The author tries to choose content with a definite basis, and adopts an attitude of discarding the nonsense that catches the wind and shadows. The second is the scarcity of materials. In the historical notes, the author often emphasizes that the recorded material is not included in the official history; In the collection notes, the author often explains the differences between himself and his predecessors in terms of the subject matter and scope of the collection, which shows that the author wants to avoid the mainstream cultural system and find another place in the broader scope of knowledge. The third is the relevance of the material to the author's concerns. The recorder himself has certain personal experiences and hobbies, so it is normal for people to record the things they are interested in every time they see them, and to turn a blind eye to the content they do not pay attention to.
After identifying the object to be recorded, the author needs to convert it into text in a certain way of recording. The writers of the late Ming Dynasty notes often used Heyi as the writing carrier, and the towel box and towel box as the storage tool, and after a long period of accumulation, it finally formed a notebook. The limited writing space and the lack of the classification function of the box have had an impact on the short, scattered and messy text appearance of the notes, and finally constitute the division between notes and treatises in the style of writing.
Of course, from a writing point of view, the late Ming notes are not irregular. For example, under the influence of historical commentaries, authors often reserve a textual space to express their personal opinions after recording; Driven by authenticity, authors often state the time, place, and source of the record at the end of the entry; In the arrangement of materials, the author generally follows the principles of "the same and the like" and "the opposite and the like". The specific forms of these writings are closely related to the cultural traditions and academic thinking of the notes, and only by understanding the cultural traditions and academic thinking that the author adheres to can we have a deeper understanding of the writing of notes.
Revised retouching of notes
Over time, many note-writers have revised and embellished previous records. How will the initial appearance of the note change during this process? What is the reason for this? This is exactly what the Notes Revision and Retouching Institute is looking for.
Revision studies must be carried out at different stages of the note-taking text, and for most notes, all the reader can see is what it will look like. Wang Tongrail's "Ear Talk" series is not the case, from Wanli Ding You to Wanli Guimao, due to the author's increase with the increase, there have been five volumes of "Ear Talk", a fifteen-volume "Ear Talk", and a 54-volume "Ear Talk". In the process of developing from "Ear Talk" to "Ear Talk", the text of many entries has undergone significant changes, which provides an excellent sample for the study of note revision and retouching. Through comparison, it is not difficult to find that Wang Tongrail's modification and retouching are mainly concentrated in the following three levels:
Record level. First of all, Wang often attaches the same kind of events that he has read and heard after the book is written to the original entries. On the one hand, the analogy enriches the content of the original article, and on the other hand, it also proves that the recorded event is not an isolated case. Second, for some events, the author later received more direct material or more precise information, so he replaced or rewrote the original entry with new content in the "Ear Talk". Thirdly, in "Ear Talk", the author also gave a fuller explanation of the background of some events, making the ins and outs of the events more complete and achieving a better narrative effect.
Argumentative level. From "Ear Talk" to "Ear Talk", the discussion at the end of the entry is obviously on the increase, which shows that the author is no longer a simple record-keeping of the anecdotes he has heard before, but hopes to deepen the theme of the story through conscious reflection. This change is closely related to the change of Wang Tongliang's identity: Wang Tongliang began to write "Ear Talk", and was in the period of waiting for officials, mainly recording anecdotes with a kind of entertainment mentality of searching for curiosities and hunting for strangeness. With the passage of time, Wang Tongliang gradually became a member of the eunuch class, and at this time, Wang Tongliang felt more of a responsibility to the imperial court, so he looked forward to transforming "Ear Talk" from a book of hunting for strangeness to a promising book through the change of discussion.
Expression level. For example, to fill in the narrative loopholes, so as to make the logic of events more impeccable; Add details and decorative elements to make the narrative of events more realistic and moving; Adjusting the narrative sequence, streamlining the narrative text, and improving the narrative logic greatly enhance the readability and interest of the text. This kind of change incorporates more narrative techniques and literary colors into the work, and realizes the further transformation of oral legend from "oral" to "desk".
All in all, note-taking research should not only focus on the development and utilization of note-taking materials, but also fully restore the book-making process and writing process of notes, and conduct a comprehensive investigation of notes from the perspectives of information generation, record writing, revision and retouching, so as to form an accurate understanding of the content of notes. In addition, different types of notes should be placed in their respective cultural traditions, and the cultural occasions in which notes were born should be restored, and the cultural behaviors accompanying the generation of notes should be explored. Although this reflection was triggered by the notes of the late Ming Dynasty, it is also applicable to the study of notes from other eras.
Guangming Daily (2024-08-05 13th edition)
Source: Guangming Net-Guangming Daily