Zizhi Tongjian is a vast book of the ages, and it is also an indispensable book for the study of history.
Very early on, I bought a set of Zhonghua Bookstore books, twenty volumes, and the yellow seal was very grand. Because I have too few broken sentences and inverted words and sounds in ancient texts, it is very difficult to read. So on the one hand, I looked for someone to consult, on the other hand, I read Books such as Wang Li's "Ancient Chinese" to understand the context and meaning of words, and even found interpretations and commentaries to supplement them. Hobbies are the best source of motivation, enough to overcome all the difficulties in reading.
As a result, vivid historical pictures appeared in front of my eyes, and I began to know the ancient souls and witness the legends. In the neatly arranged phalanx of Chinese characters, you can cross the long river of history and understand all and what you love, you hate, you mourn, and what you worry about.
We live in a very good era, whether it is poetry, or novels, historical books, each book has been ordered by the sages, with this hook, annotation key, we can open the door of ancient books, read happily inside, enjoy the feast of history.
Later, I read more books, and found that there were many different versions of each book in circulation, and I gradually became dissatisfied with the reading of paperbacks, and I wondered if I could find the original to read.
At present, there are still ancient books circulating in the market, and I wonder if I can have a line-bound version of the Zizhi Tongjian.
Repair books
I first bought the fragments of the Ming carved book, half a page of ten lines, two crosses, the mouth of the book, can not see the fish tail, the years have caused, she has been scattered, only two hundred five, six, two hundred and seventy-three volumes, the content is Tang Ji twenty-one to twenty-three, telling the story of the Emperor Zetian, but unfortunately by the rat to bite a corner, there are circles in it, there are no annotations.
There are two books on the restoration of ancient books in the bookstore, one is the "Chinese Ancient Book Binding and Repair Technique" written by Xiao Zhentang and Ding Yu, and the other is Pan Meidi's "Ancient Book Restoration and Binding", so I tried to do the restoration. Looking back now, I was so bold.
In the summer of that year, half a bag of noodles was born with bugs, and my mother said to me, "Can't eat it, pour it!" "I think it can be a straw. First use a fine sieve to remove insects and slag blocks, knead into dough, and then pull out the bath tub of his childhood from under the bed, wrap the dough with clean gauze, squeeze out the small powder a little bit, so that the gluten is left in the gauze, and then soaked in water, let the small powder ferment, wait for the water to have acid, and then pour the surface rotting water, and then soak it with water, so repeatedly, after almost half a month of the situation, there is no odor in the basin, get to the sun exposure, the mother will also dry the watercress sauce, see i put a large bath basin batter next to the watercress sauce basin, see a large bath basin batter next to the watercress sauce basin, I couldn't understand what I was doing, I was afraid of the sudden rainstorm, and begged my mother to put the basin into the house when she collected the watercress sauce basin. Soon, it dried, and I put away the dough, grinded it into a fine powder when making the rice, mixed it with pepper water and alum water and boiled it together. I used to compare it with the framing on the street, which was also placed in the drink bottle, and two weeks later, as soon as the lid was opened, the sour smell spewed out, what about mine? No gas, no sourness.
As we all know, the Song edition of the book can remain as white as jade after a thousand years, indicating that our ancestors did a good job in removing acid. Today, if we use modern "glue paste" and "mounting sticks" to repair, it will cause new damage to ancient books.
The rice is ready, and you have to find paper of similar color, because the range of rats is large, the waste pages left in the original repair book are not enough, until one day, in the antique city rice paper shop found that there is a sale of Sichuan bamboo paper, so I bought a batch, repaired the fragments, and now there are still a lot left, and no longer use, in case I need it from time to time.
Then, book opening, rinsing, drying, paper, filling holes, slipping the mouth, piercing eyes, laying pages, folding edges, folding pages, compacting, columning, twisting, buckling, threading. It took several months of busyness before and after, and it was considered to be completed.
I once saw a TV program that introduced the master of Tianyi Pavilion to repair books, so I ran to Tianyi Pavilion, and I did not visit the master, but I saw thin and watery rice on the repair case of Tianyi Pavilion, but people did not say how to do it.
I wrote a letter to Teacher Pan Meidi, and wanted to ask about Qi Lan, Slipping Book Mouth and other doubts, but did not reply to the letter. Think that people should retire, how bad it is to disturb others, maybe the unit did not transfer the letter to others?
Later, Teacher Du Weisheng published a book and wrote a letter again, this time Teacher Du returned, answering the questions of gold inlaid jade and pulp book repair machine, but people "only trained the library ancient book restoration practitioners, and the personnel who studied in a private capacity could not be received now."
However, with this letter, I was greatly inspired, thinking that there should be professionals in the Henan Provincial Library, I ran to ask, there is exactly one, or Du Weisheng's classmate, but people think that I, an amateur book cultivator, can not do such a meticulous job, after a brief introduction of two sentences, I will no longer say, but still look at his studio, it is worth the trip.
One year, in the Liulichang Chinese Cultural Heritage Bookstore, I saw a master repairing books, I stayed for a day and a half, people were not in a hurry to repair books, I took advantage of the time to ask, the master was reluctant to take care of me at first, and then there was a sentence without a word, before and after, I also learned a few tricks.
When I came back, I made a decision not to repair the book.
Why, fear of spoiling the books left by the ancestors. Think about it, books are the least likely objects to preserve. Water and fire are merciless, war plunder, man-made theft, rats and insect bites, so many years later, there are really not many left, especially rare books, so it is better to save old things than to meet good work.
Looking back at the past of repairing books, in a flash, more than ten years have passed!
Once wrote a poem to Ji Yufang, a master of books in Hefei, transcribed below, which is a confession of an ignorant teenager!
"Repairing the Sense of Book Puppetry, Gifting Ji Jun, With the Fourteen Cold Rhymes of Pingsheng on October 9, 2008"
Blessed land concubines are not envious, and there are many old books today.
Qing offerings are like lazy sacrifice books, scattered to the book stalls.
No one can recognize the loneliness, the filth is broken into the eyes.
I am willing to borrow Nuwa to make up for the heavenly hand and repair the new journal as the beginning.
The holes must be filled with calm, and the buckle leather line is like a rock.
The fine pulp is drawn with gold and jade, and the depiction is painted with silk.
Among them, zhiyin is the most difficult to find, but it belongs to the remnants of my generation.
The good color of the rebirth can be worthy of the ancient clothes.
Book visits
People who love to collect books always like to run outside, and I am no exception.
Exactly those years, young, the unit tolerance is large, and almost half a year a year is running outside.
There are many stories of visits to books, and there are only two visits to the Zizhi Tongjian.
Once was in the Temple of Literature in Shanghai, remember that it was the first time to Shanghai on business, early in the morning, I think there will be no gain, but, the book is so strange, it is yours, thousands of rivers and mountains will wait for you, not yours, rubbing shoulders is inevitable regret for life. In the noisy crowd, I squeezed forward, under a corridor, I saw a stack of books, is an old man in the purchase, I grabbed it, people tied up and did not let it open, I gently opened a corner of the book, actually is the "Zizhi Tongjian", asked the price, ten yuan a book, I thought I heard wrong, confirm, it is really "genuine", I paid for it, walked no two steps, a middle-aged friend rushed to ask me if I could transfer, I politely declined.
In fact, buying books is such a cruelty, you go a step late, the book is in the hands of others, so you watch the book disappear into the vast sea of people with him, from then on, people book the end of the world, such things seem to exist in every book digger's book search experience.
Well, let's talk about this edition of the Zizhi Tongjian, the Ming Dynasty, eighteen volumes, half a page, ten lines, two crosses, eighty-four to one hundred and thirty-four volumes, and one hundred and four to one hundred and sixty-six volumes.
Another time was in Chengdu, Sichuan, in the early years, many of the good books in Chinese bookstores were provided by Sichuan book lovers, and the price of books rose with the auction, and now it has become a dream. It was in a bookseller's house, there was only one volume, the book was very thin, only one hundred and forty-two volumes, to one hundred and forty-four three volumes, half a page and ten lines, two crosses, flower mouth, double fishtail, there was a engraved version of the size of the word number above the upper fishtail, there was engraving engraver "Zhonggui, Zhiwen" and other names under the lower fishtail, the right hand side, the collection of "once for the Peng family seat guest" (white fang), "Peng Xiong's collection of golden stone calligraphy and painting mark" (Zhu Chang), into the eyes I was stunned, I did not believe that I would have such good luck, that fish tail, that font, that stereotyped name, There is also that Shu Lang's jump, is it the yuan version, but the paper is not right, the Tibetan printing year is not long, take a closer look, it turned out to be the Qing Jiaqing Hu Ke family shadow yuan version of the book, can not buy the yuan version, buy "Hu Ben" is not bad, and the price is not expensive, it is a "version of the truth" it.
Buy books
Heaven has good intentions and does not vainly love treasure people. Opportunities are always left to those who are prepared to get my wish. That summer, I went to the antique city again, there is a distribution comic strip on the west end of the second floor, I do not hide comic strips, rarely enter this store, because I often turn, I know the boss's surname Li, he also knows me, the day is very hot, I went in to see Master Li's literary books stacked on the ground, there is nothing I want, when I was ready to leave, I glanced at it casually, saw a large bookcase standing in the corner, and asked Master Li: "What good books are in it?" Master Li said, "See for yourself!" "I used to open the cabinet door, there are really a lot of books inside, one of the stacks of books is sandwiched inside a book of wire-bound books, take it out to see, there is no bookmark, the book is very large, I opened the plastic bag outside, it turned out to be "Zizhi Tongjian", or the first book, the plaque impressively reads "Tongzhi Ten Years Hubei Chongwen Bureau Open Carving." After looking for so long, it turned out that she was quietly hiding inside to sleep, I suppressed the excitement in my heart, and if there was nothing, I asked: "Just one?" Master Li was very kind, and said with a smile: "There is a set, more than a hundred books, not complete, missing two books!" The first book was put on hold in the store, and the rest was kept at home? I asked, "Why sell?" He said, "8,000 yuan!" "I couldn't afford it, so I put down my book and left.
The book was put down, but the heart remained in Master Li's shop.
After that, when I had nothing to do, I ran to Master Li's shop, and slowly, I knew that he still had a set of "Continued Zizhi Tongjian" in his hand, a full set, sixty copies. After many months like this, almost the New Year, Master Li said to me: "See if you really like it, give you a bottom, if you want two sets of books together, you will give seven thousand yuan!" "Seven thousand yuan is not a big amount now, it was a big amount for me at that time, but I gritted my teeth and still promised to pay with one hand, and inspect the goods with the other hand, at that time, you must know that I only saw the first book, and I didn't see what the other looks like!"
The price is set, and the delivery time is set in the small year.
It took almost half a year from discovering the book to knocking on the pricing, but it took less than ten days to pay the money!
It suddenly snowed heavily on the day of the new year, and the unit issued a bonus of five thousand yuan, I felt that I wanted to use this money, but I did not dare to give my daughter-in-law a clear explanation, so I gave my daughter-in-law a thousand, and my daughter-in-law asked me: "Why this!" I said, "Less this year!" The daughter-in-law said, "Less! What a good civil servant! I said cautiously, "This is not to give a name, why do you want to profit?" It's not bad! The daughter-in-law returned me a thousand yuan and said, "It is not easy to work hard for a year, give it to you, don't buy books!" "I took the money, plunged headlong into the snowy sky, the snow was so big, I arrived at Master Li's house, the book was already packed in two cardboard boxes, I took out the book, one by one, the zizhi tongjian, one hundred and two books, counting two hundred and ninety-six volumes, Sima Guang's compilation, tiantai Husan provincial phonetic annotations, chongwen bureau Tongzhi ten-year journal, half a page and ten lines, line two crosses, double fish tail, right hand bilateral, in front of the book there is the Hanlin scholar Wang Panxing Cultural Bureau's new journal Zizhi Tongjian original order, the second is the Zizhi Tongjian imperial order, the second is the Husan Province's new zizhi tongjian order.
After counting, not only are six volumes missing, but also twelve volumes of interpretation and discernment, and the six volumes that are missing are volumes 275 to 276 and volumes 290 to 293.
Sixty volumes of "Continuation of Zizhi Tongjian", counting 220 volumes, bi yuan compilation, Jiangsu bookstore Tongzhi eight-year edition, half page ten lines, line twenty-one characters, single fish tail, right hand bilateral, there are tablets in front of the book, yun "Jiaxing Feng clan supplement town Yang Bi clan original board Tongzhi Ding Chun Yong Kang Ying clan received in Su Song Tai Dao Bureau supplementary journal sixty-five boards hemi summer sent back to Jiangsu Book Bureau autumn and September and then changed the nine board repair thirty board", followed by Jiaqing six years Tongxiang Feng Ji Wu order, followed by Tongzhi Ding 卯 Dushan Mo Youzhi order.
I gave five thousand yuan, and I also made an IOU, saying that I would settle it before the fifteenth day of the first month. When I went, it was snowing heavily, and when I came back, it was still snowing heavily, but it was my joyful mood. It was not yet the fifteenth day of the first month, I asked my daughter-in-law for money to settle the balance, I don't think I can let Master Li blow the loss, money can always be earned again, but in the year must not owe money to others.
As a result, these two sets of books became the collection of books in my Ming Yun Building. Now they are still quietly hiding in the bookcase, but I have copied it, which can also be regarded as a reunion for them.
Copy the book
The lack of six books makes me very headache, because the ancient books are broken, basically uncompromised, and after buying books for so many years, there are few sets of complete books. So I thought of copying books.
Copying books is one of the means of ancient literati to collect books, and when they encounter a good book, they try to get the consent of others and borrow it back to copy. But I had two problems.
First, where to find the base?
Second, why copy?
The base book is well, looking for a library, but the Henan Academy of Social Sciences does not have it, and the Henan Provincial Library has no acquaintances. Ancient books, although there are not many people who understand it, but the library is a treasure, do not let you see, do not let you touch, so you have to dispel this idea. Later, I inadvertently went to the discount area of Xinhua Bookstore to buy books, and found that there was a copy of Jiaqing Huke's book by the Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, and the two books were similar, so I bought it back and made a base book.
Copying books, not buying brushes and rice paper can be done, I want to get a book version out, brush and print and then copy. But now there are many engraved seals, not many engraved book editions, Zhuxian Town is very close, but people are engraving New Year paintings, fontSight I can't see, that time, in 2008, there was a stall in the antique city to sell prints, surnamed Wang, he sold his own carved wooden stamps. So I told him the size of the tongzhi version of the "Zizhi Tongjian" plate frame and my requirements, and asked him to be rigid. Soon he sent the carved pear wood version and told me: "It is not me who carved it, I do not have this craft, it was carved by an old man, if you feel bad, carve it again!" "I thought it was ok, so I had the bookboard."
I ran zhuxian town again, asked people why brush printing, people were very enthusiastic to demonstrate the new year painting brush printing process, but also sent me brush ink and paper brown brush, after returning, after debugging the ink thickness, began to brush, forty or fifty pieces at a time, used up and then brushed.
Copying books, busy work during the day, squeezing time at night, the progress is very slow, copying one or two pages a day, anyway, there is no hurry, this copy is several years, to 2011, it is considered to be copied, please Zeng Xi carved a seal "Wen Lei copy school rare book", covered behind the book, it is a finish.
My "Four Books of Life" story is finished, and it can be regarded as my "Zizhi Tongjian" special collection. Looking at the pages of the book, I was still so depressed and angry, and I was old. I suddenly wanted to ask myself, after so many years of collecting books, where has the time gone?
The author of this article: Wen Lei, alias Wen Lun, born in Zhengzhou. Originally have the ambition of the mountains and forests, do not love the name of red dust, hide in the public gate, to be old in this life, this I wish also. Life is happy, reading is the first, from what I like, also read.