Lu Xun was the core figure of the New Culture Movement, and his research on his literature and thought was abundant, and the main force of his research was naturally scholars majoring in modern Chinese literature, while there was relatively little research on his traditional academic activities. In May 2024, Shi Xiang, a researcher at the Institute of Ancient Books Collation of Fudan University, published the book "Lu Xun's Ancient Books Collation and Examination" (Zhonghua Book Company), which focuses on the topic of Lu Xun's ancient book collation and research, using Lu Xun's manuscripts, complete works prefaces, diaries and other materials, divided into three parts: geography, medieval literature and history, and miscellaneous museums, and reveals Lu Xun's concept and practice of ancient book collation; This is a special book that combines the study of ancient books with the study of Lu Xun, so it can be said that it is not only a new achievement of Lu Xun's research, but also a new achievement in the field of ancient book protection research.
"Lu Xun's Ancient Books Examination", by Shi Xiang
Published by Chung Hwa Book Company in May 2024
One
The search for "not seeing the literal manuscripts".
Lu Xun and his brother Zhou Zuoren, who wrote books and collected books, also compiled books together, can be said to be scholar-type editors, but their literary names cover up their names as compilers. It is not uncommon for Lu Xun to read ancient books, because ancient books were still popular in the era in which he lived, and new printed books were still being explored and developed. Lu Xun's early writings also have a taste of ancient books, which is prohibitive; A number of books published by Lu Xun (such as "Miscellaneous Collection of Old Books of Huiji County") also belong to the list of line-bound books of the Republic of China. Later, he slowly turned to the writing of the people, expressing his mind in the language of the times, and eventually became one of the shapers of modern vernacular literature. His articles are a must-read for us since childhood, and his style of writing is also familiar to us, but how Lu Xun's articles and his knowledge arsenal are constructed, and what does it have to do with ancient books, scholars have not studied much, and we don't know much. What are the characteristics of Lu Xun's study of ancient books? What distinguished him in the study of ancient texts? Now, with this "Lu Xun Ancient Books Examination", we can know its inside story and know its details.
From this book, we know that Lu Xun wrote a lot of prefaces to ancient books, and spent a lot of effort to compile ancient books, including historical documents, such as "Book of the Later Han", "Book of Jin", "Miscellaneous Collection of Ancient Books of Huiji County" and so on; There are literature, "Ji Kang Kao", "Xie Lingyun Collection", "Yu Yongxing Wenlu", "Shen Xiaxian Anthology", "Biography of Scribes" and the like; There are naturalists, such as "Lingbiao Records Different", "Yungu Miscellaneous Records", "Saying Xuanlu Yao" and the like; There are also works by township sages, such as "Fan Zi Jiran", "Wei Zi", "Ren Zi" and so on. Why did Lu Xun copy books? What did he want to do when he compiled those ancient books? Isn't it to add strange knowledge? Wasn't it to keep some kind of memory he needed? Isn't it to pass the time of boredom? Isn't it copying books for the sake of copying them?
Manuscript of the Miscellaneous Collection of Old Books
"Lu Xun's Examination of Ancient Books" pointed out that the books copied by Lu Xun were not completed at one time, some were copied over and over again, some seemed to be copied more than once, and some had been edited. However, very few of the ancient books collected by Lu Xun were officially published during his lifetime, which may be related to his pursuit of excellence and striving for the quality of compilation. As the book says, "Lu Xun obviously chose the survey materials in a targeted manner; This kind of work in selecting the source of collation is not found in the literal manuscripts and deserves the attention of researchers. (p.206) Not only that, Lu Xun was taking ancient books as the object of his academic work, which lasted for a long time and focused on many things, both due to his own personal interests, social reasons, and the academic fashion of the moment, all of which may not be put into writing, but can only be revealed through the careful and detailed investigation of the researcher. These revelations do not mean a detailed combing of Lu Xun's ideological world, but they are also indispensable for understanding Lu Xun's spiritual world.
Nowadays, these ancient books transcribed by Lu Xun have been published, including the photocopied copy of the "Lu Xun Compilation of Ancient Books Manuscripts", the collated version of "Lu Xun's Collection of Ancient Books", and the "Preface to the Ancient Books" in "The Complete Works of Lu Xun", so it is possible for Lu Xun to study ancient books. What are the problems of photocopied and organized books that deserve the attention of researchers? How do we know Lu Xun's ancient books?
Two
"Back to the Manuscript" Versionological Vision
One of the main points to be expressed in this book is that when we re-understand Lu Xun's works on ancient times (ancient books), we need to have the concept of "editionology", otherwise we have done a lot of sorting work, but we have not done a detailed investigation of the "Lu Xun manuscripts" themselves, and we have not grasped the different levels of "manuscripts", so as to give people a false impression that Lu Xun has become a pioneer in the collation of ancient books, and has made unparalleled achievements, and the results are those works that are called Lu Xun that are collated and published by today. Therefore, the positional positioning of "back to the manuscript" is very important.
The so-called return to manuscripts means that we will follow the large number of manuscripts and manuscripts that are known today, whether they are complete or scattered, whether they are valued by the world or ignored, and they need to be carefully analyzed, judged and explained from the perspective of re-examined editions.
Yu pre-book manuscript
(Lu Xun marked the text quoted in volume 59 of the "Book Notes" at the head of Lu Qintiao, and also collected a lost text from the "Three Kingdoms" Pei Note supplement. The source of the compilation marked at the end of each text is circled, indicating that it has been verified according to the original book. ）
This book argues that, according to the concept of ancient books, if we observe Lu Xun's manuscripts, we will find that manuscripts are not only as simple as the first draft, the clear draft, the first draft, the second draft, and the final draft, but also that most of Lu Xun's manuscripts of different periods and different types have clear editorial intentions. To put it simply, the so-called manuscripts of Lu Xun's compilation of ancient books are not books copied by Lu Xun for the purpose of reading, but have his intention to compile and proofread. For example, the "Preface to the Collection of Ji Kang" clearly says: "Fortunately, his book is now in the Beijing Normal Library, and it is urgent to write it, and it is even more correct to take the yellow book, knowing that the roots of the two books are the same, and there is a mutual robbery." However, what is missing can be corrected by the other book, and it has both two lengths, which is a victory. …… Now, according to this article, don't make a volume to replace it, and make a volume of "Yiwen Examination" and "Bibliographic Examination", which are attached at the end. Hates the absurdity of knowledge, neglects Gaido, and wants to keep the old texts, so he has to flow a little. (The Complete Works of Lu Xun ·Preface to Ancient Books, pp. 64-66) Shi Xiang made an extremely detailed comb of the four main manuscripts and more than ten minor manuscripts (Shi Xiang numbered from A to R), compared the original text, process draft, and final draft, and used the manuscripts preserved to this day to "investigate the collation process and various details and microscopic operations in between", and pointed out that the historical value of his manuscripts "lies in the continuity of the manuscript chain", so as to return to the "historical scene" of Lu Xun's ancient book work and obtain the "historical picture of collation and study". (p.168) In other words, the return to the manuscript is not to determine the "only definitive version" from the manuscript, but to present the details of history and the significance of its academic history through the manuscript.
"Lu Xun's Ancient Books Examination" is a real book film
For another example, the compilation of Xie Cheng's Book of the Later Han Dynasty was completed by Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren's brothers, which is a kind of "gain-type compilation", that is, first looking for the manuscript of a certain book from different ancient books, and compiling a long manuscript of the manuscript. Secondly, the initial manuscript is processed cooperatively, adding text, sentence reading, and case language, and at this stage, it is necessary to review the original book, add new content, and make judgments and screenings on the text, and at the same time compare it with the previous edition; Finally,Someone transcribes the final draft.,The final draft is not the final appearance.,You need to continue the previous second step of the process.,In order to make a more complete book.。 Shi Xiang said: "Checking and recording the text, correcting and correcting errors, examining the authenticity, and conjugating and ranking are only part of the compilation work. Another important aspect of the compilation is how to arrange the texts and give them a meaningful structure, so that they can be turned into works, rather than a collection of them piled up at random. (p.80) In this regard, the dynamics of Lu Xun's manuscript and the exemplary manipulation of the final manuscript provide a visible example of the collection of ancient books. This is also another kind of academic value of Lu Xun's manuscripts.
Xie Chengshu's manuscript "Xie Chenghou Han Book Examination"
Most of the drafts of Lu Xun's ancient books are not marked with the time of writing, and are written on various manuscript papers, which seem to have no clue at first glance, but if you look closely, you will find that these manuscript papers have a time context to be found. Shi Xiang made a detailed and credible analysis and deduction of the time frame of various papers used in Lu Xun's manuscripts, and put forward the concepts of "main manuscript paper" and "other manuscript papers", and then used this to determine the writing time period of Lu Xun's manuscripts without marking the writing time. This kind of chronology is helpful to understand the evolution path of Lu Xun's academic thought more comprehensively, and also helps us to better analyze the transformation of Lu Xun's thought.
Three
Text-generating thinking for "intermediates".
Lu Xun once said that he was the "intermediary" of history "in the process of transformation" or "on the chain of evolution" ("Written Behind the Tomb"). Some people believe that the so-called intermediary is Lu Xun's understanding of the relationship between tradition and reality between self and society. Wang Hui even thought that in Lu Xun's view, the "intermediate object" was the consciousness of the seer, a model without a future, and a history of self-denial. (Resisting Despair, p. 182) This statement naturally has profound intellectual historical significance, because it inspires us to think about and comment on Lu Xun from an evolutionary and historical perspective. However, from the perspective of book history, "manuscripts", as "intermediaries", are more real "things", and they are "intermediaries" that need to be identified.
It is the writing of this manuscript that left the footprints of Lu Xun's own reading and thinking, and it can even be said