Column: Studying in a Room (61)
In recent years, when I bought used books on the Internet, I gained an unprecedented experience: all books sent from the northwest - Xinjiang and Gansu have dry pages and are in good condition; Whenever sent from the south, Guangdong, Fujian, the pages were damp and moldy, and there was a pungent smell. In this way, when I received books from the South, I placed them on the windowsill to bask in the sun and let the unpleasant smell escape. It has been 100 years since the publication of the "Collection of Modern Japan Novels" in 1922. The perimeter of the book has traces of long-term storage in the stack, and the inner pages are yellow, and now when you hold it in your hand, the corners of the spine have been returned to the confetti. Look at the collection of books in the source of the book, which is the collection of Jiangsu Songbai Library. Just like people living in damp places are prone to arthritis, this book has been sleeping in Zeguo for a long time, and his face naturally has a southern style. However, this is what I bought in Liulichang many years ago, not in recent years.
The book compiled by Zhou Zuoren, which was explained in "Zhitang Reminiscences", was written when recalling his interaction with Hu Shi. He said: "I have negotiated with him (Hu Shi) for a total of three times, all of which are translations. The first two were the "Modern Novel Translation Series" and the "Japan Modern Novel Collection", around 1921, which were the translations I published in the New Youth and Novel Monthly, and Lu Xun also specially translated a few articles at that time, making up 100,000 words per volume, which was collected in the World Series of the Commercial Press, and the manuscript fee was five yuan per thousand words, which was the highest price at that time. "One of the translations that the Zhou brothers sent to the Commercial Press through Hu Shi is my "Collection of Modern Japan Novels". The second-hand bookstore in Liulichang purchased the books scattered by the Songbai Library, repaired them, bound them, and then added a book jacket with kraft paper before selling. I took it in my hand and looked at it carefully, and saw that the gutter was still very white and clean, and knew that the original book was scattered; When I saw the reloaded book cover of the used bookstore, I realized that the front and back covers of the original book were missing. After the old bookstore is sorted out and processed, it is sold at a price of 20 yuan. This was the price set many years ago, and with today's used book prices, I can sell them now if they change hands and increase the price tenfold.
In the preface, Zhou Zuoren spoke highly of the achievements of modern Japanese novels, saying that "Japan's novels achieved amazing development in the 20th century, and not only the essence of national literature, but also many famous works have world values that can be compared with modern European literature and art." This high-level evaluation in the preface shows that after the Meiji Restoration, Japan embarked on a path of modernization, not only with rapid economic development, but also with novel writing catching up with Europe and becoming an integral part of world literature. In the second paragraph of the preface, he says that his selection criteria are "mostly based on personal taste", which means that the book he compiled is only a purely private selection and does not represent the whole picture of modern Japan fiction creation. For example, the works of the Japanese female writer Higuchi Kazuha at the end of the 19th century probably did not meet the "personal taste" of the compiler, so there was no income. Finally, he explained that the works of five people in the anthology were translated by "Lu Xunjun". In 1922, why did Zhitang call Lu Xun "Jun"? I suspect that their brothers both studied in Japan, probably following the customary name of Japan; Or, since the elder brother has become famous under the pen name of "Lu Xun", the younger brother will follow the crowd; Or, the brothers are all translators of this book, and they have the meaning of peers; Or, it's the brother's heartfelt respect for his brother.
Of the works of 15 writers translated in this anthology, I have only read the prose of Duho Kunikida, the novels of Soseki Natsuki, Ouwai Mori, and Ryunosuke Akutagawa in a relatively complete way; The collection contains a variety of their anthologies.
The advantage of buying and flipping through old books is that you can find the history that has disappeared from the yellowed and moldy pages; Holding a roll, it's like diving headlong into a time tunnel, looking for a little light ahead in the dark.
Wei Jianmin: Editor and reviewer of the Development Research Center of the State Council, author of essay collections "Looking for Danfeng Pavilion" and "Chen Gu Collection".