Zhongwei Law Book
More than ten years ago, the National Library and the National Center for the Protection of Ancient Books jointly formulated a new standard for the grading of rare books, which was divided into six groups according to categories, one of which was the stele group, which was presided over by Mr. Shi Chang'an and Meng Xianjun, and the following two years the relevant personnel reviewed the grading standards of each category together, one of which invited Mr. Zhongwei, an expert in the inscription of the Shanghai Library, at this meeting we met, and since then we have seen him participate in many activities related to the stele from various news.
In the spring of 2021, Beijing Zhongmao Shengjia Auction Company held an exhibition for the rare books and inscriptions collected by Mr. Meng Xianjun, and saw a number of friends who had not seen each other for a long time, including Mr. Zhongwei. In recent years, I have seen the inscription mounting, often can see Mr. Zhongwei's ink, because of this, I took the liberty of asking him for ink treasure when I met, Mr. Zhong was very serious, after half a year sent this painting "reading is good", and this is my favorite sentence, so I miss the friendship of friends.
Notes of a Bankrupt Bookseller, translated by William Daling by Wang Qiang
Published by Oxford University Press in 2021
Half a year ago, through the arrangement of Caolu Company, Mr. Wang Qiang and I held a dialogue at Duoyunxuan in Shanghai, the theme of which was the comparison of Chinese and Western concepts. After the event, a group of friends ran to the beer hall to have a drink, and Mr. Wang Qiang told me during the chat that he was translating the "Notes of a Bankrupt Bookseller". I hadn't read the original book, thinking the author was a bookseller, and it was about his struggles until he went bankrupt. In the bad Chinese customs, there is always a good way to talk, and most of the people who gathered that night were booksellers, and I think they must not be very happy to run the book. But when Mr. Wang heard what I said, he just smiled gracefully and said that the content of the book was different from what I thought.
Once I saw the launch ceremony of the book held at the Hong Kong Book Fair, I learned that the book had been officially launched, and a few days later I received a gift from Mr. Wang, so I eagerly read it and wanted to know what kind of story the book was told. In front of this book, there is a "Translator's Word" written by Wang Qiang, entitled "Even if the world comes to an end tonight...", and the words I added are - then I will also run the old book industry to the end.
I have never experienced the joy of running a bookstore, especially a used bookstore. Judging from the situation in recent years, a large number of bookstores have closed every year, but there are also many new bookstores that have emerged, and some people say that the operation of bookstores is because of feelings, only young people will be addicted to death, in fact, fine tasting, not all of this. For example, the bookstore complex has haunted my heart decades ago, but I have never been able to take this step, I think that turning hobbies into careers is a painful choice, and a person's ideal is always in the silly and sweet stage, which is not a kind of happiness.
However, I really think too much about the contents of the Notes of the Bankrupt Bookseller, because this is not a painful history of the profession. The author, Sir Darling, has never run a used bookstore, he has joined the army, and after retiring from the army, he managed the family's textile company, and this book is his fiction. But the book does talk about everything about bookstores in the first person from the perspective of a bookseller. Mr. Wang Qiang is a collector of Western books, and I guess the reason why he translated this book is also because it is a book about books, and he opposes fast-food books about books, and the content of the original book obviously does not belong to this category.
Because of the epidemic, Mr. Wang Qiang could not fly around like the migratory birds in the past, so he put aside all kinds of distractions and translated the book with a calm and westernized tone. Wang Qiang said in front of the book that this translation is not the full translation of the original book, but it also exceeds two-thirds of the original book, and he believes that a large number of quotations in the original book are inseparable organic parts of the original book, and in order to maintain the coordination and unity of the context, most of the quotations are translated by the translator. Flipping through the book, there are large footnotes at the bottom of almost every page, and Daling can write a story in the shape of an academic paper, thinking that this is his intention. His first expression in the book is the bookseller's recognition of his profession: "It's a wonderful business, and as far as I've heard or known, it has never provoked malicious jealousy." Envy comes from time to time. ”
Does anyone who runs a bookstore for the first time have this mentality? Fortunately, this bookseller "I" has not experienced the Internet age. Perhaps because of the standard pricing, there are several Internet giants in China that start from selling books, but the way they sell books is desperately discounted, and sometimes in order to attract traffic, the price of selling books is even lower than the purchase price, which makes independent bookstore owners feel bad. Sometimes feelings really can't be eaten as a meal. However, feelings can always be in the heart.
This is as the title of a subsection in the book, "A Noble Cause." The bookseller felt sorry for his neighbor's shop, because the neighbor was in the business of women's clothing, and in the eyes of the bookseller, the people who pursued dressing would go to the clothing store, and the other side of him was selling meat, which also made him feel sorry, so he could not help but chant a paragraph:
I'm proud of the industry I'm selling books in
It's soul-crushing
It's romantic
It is as wonderful as the world, as vast as the universe
It makes cute women even more cute
It turned the most common diet into food for the gods to enjoy
It is a noble cause
So are the people who buy books elegant? At least Darling didn't see it that way. In one of the verses, he wrote that when someone came to a bookstore to buy a set of blue books, the owner asked him what he wanted and what theme he needed, and the rich man who came to buy the book said that the theme was not important because he bought a set of blue books to match the carpet and curtains in his home. Maybe it's because I'm older, I feel a lot more tolerant than ever, even if I buy a book to decorate, why not? After all, someone also thought of books when decorating. What is the difference between decorating the mind and decorating the room? The line between the two, I am more and more blurred.
Through the words in the book, I felt that William Darling was a man who understood books, because he could talk about many details, such as the shop window of the bookstore, the door of the bookstore, and even the cat in the bookstore, how could he understand so many details, until the end of the book I did not find the answer. But when Mr. Wang Qiang talks about Daling in front of the book, he mentions that the author often went to a bookstore called "Grant Father and Son Co., Ltd." when the bookstore declared bankruptcy, Andra bought it, but this was already after he wrote "Notes on Bankrupt Booksellers". I thought that when I finished reading this book, I would be completely dead set on running a used bookstore, but the truth is not what I expected, and the days ahead will be long, who knows.
"Living and Reading", by Ai Junchuan
Guangxi Normal University Publishing House, July 2021, the first printing of the first edition
This book is a collection of articles related to Mr. Ai Toshikawa's research on bibliography, which, according to his afterword, are "mostly notes of a contrived nature", and he mentions an interesting point by the Japanese scholar Takao Mori Yasugi: historical treatises can be divided into three categories: science history, liberal arts history, and historical novels. Science history is based on the original historical materials to develop a precise inference, can withstand the test of others, in line with the pursuit of science can be "reproduced and realized" academic treatises, so Ai Junchuan believes that philology can be counted as "engineering in the liberal arts", and it is with this concept that he studies and writes philological works.
The first article received in this book is "Two Lines for the Identification of Ancient Books Editions", and those who have lived in a special period can best understand the great significance of the struggle between the two lines. Mr. Ai uses a figurative metaphor to illustrate his views with an example. He cited the problem of Yan Fu's "Treatise on the Evolution of Heaven" having a lithograph and then an engraving, which obviously violates the objective law of things, because the vast majority of Chinese classics have an engraved version and then a lithograph, and this book is just the opposite. What's even more interesting is that the woodcut version of the book is completely photocopied with lithographs, and even the lithograph tablets are exactly the same.
More than twenty years ago, I received a copy of "Four Kinds of An Wu", and when I showed it to Mr. Yang Chengkai, he told me that the book was first a lithographic copy and then an engraved copy, and I asked him why the publisher should "act perversely"? Mr. Yang said that when scholars and literati of that era were struggling with money, they first made up lithographs and then produced woodcuts when they had money, because the latter was much more expensive because people thought that lithographs were not serious publications. However, why did the woodcut version of the "Heavenly Speech" mentioned by Mr. Ai be reproduced in the form of photocopying? The fact that even the tablets were reprinted shows that the author or publisher is not ashamed of the lithograph, and it seems that some historical issues are far more complicated than later generations imagined.
Judging from Mr. Ai's article, he agrees more with Mr. Huang Yongnian's proposal in the book "Ancient Book Versionology" to establish a disciplinary system that combines version identification methods and version historical materials, and Mr. Huang proposed that the version identification method can be summarized as "three looks", that is, looking at fonts, looking at typography and looking at paper.
Mr. Ai said that in the identification process, it is mainly necessary to rely on eyesight and wait and see to solve the problem. In the case of "Heavenly Speech", if you only engage in identification from the content, there is no difference between the lithograph and the woodcut, and the difference between the two is how to not be confused by the tablet, and rely on your own experience, or your eyesight, to determine whether a book is a lithograph or a woodcut.
Some of the articles included in this book are not about editions, but are also archaeological falsifications. For example, in the past few years, the authenticity of Cao Cao's tomb, which has caused great controversy in the society, Mr. Ai's focus is on several Gui-shaped stone tablets excavated from the tomb engraved with the words "Gehu Euphorbia often used by King Wei Wu", and the three words that are hotly discussed in society are also "King of Wei Wu", and some people think that Cao Cao cannot have the title of "King of Wei Wu", and Mr. Ai is from this to start the discussion. He thought that the title of "King wu of Wei" was reasonable, but whether it was Cao Cao who was buried in this tomb, Mr. Ai did not know a word, which was exactly the attitude that Yan Qi knew.
I have always admired Mr. Ai's carefulness, and a few years ago, I asked him to review the "Zhilan Zhai Shuba" that I wrote, and Mr. Ai pointed out that I had many mistakes, and I have been difficult to change my rough habits. Reading this book, you can better appreciate Mr. Ai's small-scale approach to breaking through the conclusion of a seemingly huge system, which not only allows readers to learn knowledge, but also feel Mr. Ai's way of governing.
"Dun Intersection", (Yuan) Wei Shou Yanji, Zhang Yiqing supplement, Xia Junbo school
2021 Planting Melon Mountain House Print
This book line is bound in a volume, the plate frame is a photocopy of the ancient book, and the content typography is in the Kangxi dictionary style. Mr. Meng Ruan Jiangen was kind and helped me to get a signed book, he told me that this is two young people self-prepared and printed, the number is 200 copies, printing this book is only a gift of the same good, he praised these two young people "piano, chess, calligraphy and painting are skilled", at the same time told me: "My Shangyu friends Zhang Baobi and Xia Junbo cooperated to sort out and photocopy the township literature "Dun Junction", they have been mailed by the wind, and they will not arrive in Beijing in the near future. Zhang and Xia Liangjun are young talents in Shaoxing, who have made great efforts in local literature and history, accumulated for many years, and sometimes presented excellent works, and in time, they have achieved extraordinary achievements. The so-called scholars in every place have paid attention to local humanities for a while, and only then have they been endlessly stranded, and Sven has been inherited. Judging from the inscription in front of the book, Mr. Zhang Baobi really has the ability.
In order to let me understand the background of the book, Mr. Ruan forwarded this book with a copy of the "Shaoxing College of Arts and Sciences Newspaper" dated April 25, 2020, with a long article written by Xia Junbo and Zhang Baokuan entitled "Yuan Wei Zhongyuan 'Intersection' Examination Strategy". I am ashamed to say that I did not know the Yuanren Wei Shouyan before, and it was after reading this article that I knew some deeds related to it. Wei Shouyan is a Shangyu person, the word Zhongyuan, the love of qi good ancient, especially proficient in poetry, his father Wei Wenbing once built the Fuyuan Jingshe in Fuqi Shanyang, the Shouyan brothers continued to build on this basis, forming a garden landscape, a time when the scholar and doctor passed on The Yu, they would all visit, for this poem was stacked, Wei Yanshou compiled these singing works as "The Intersection of The Two"
However, the original collection of "The Intersection of The Two" is now scattered, and the survivors are all fragments, and this article written by Xia Junbo and Zhang Baoku describes the surviving version of the "Intersection of The Two" at a larger page, and from the narrative point of view, the two are very familiar with the study of the catalogue version. For example, when the article talks about the old manuscript in the BaojingLou, first describe the form of the version, then say the corresponding line, then mention how many poets are included in the manuscript, how many poems are in total, etc., and then briefly describe the approximate transmission process of the manuscript through the seal in the book, and finally comment on the handwriting of the scribe and what clerical errors there are in the process of copying. Later, the text also talked about different versions of Zhu Yizun's Tibetan Ming Codex, Yifengtang's Old Manuscript, Xiling Printing Society Movable Type, and so on, and each version was correspondingly examined. The next large paragraph examines the biographies of the authors of each poem in the "Intersection of The Two", and then counts a total of 45 people who have friendships with Wei Zhongyuan, and then concludes: "So many literati participated in the singing remuneration, which is unprecedented in the cultural history of Shangyu. "I think this is the reason why Mr. Xia and Mr. Zhang systematically combed, collected, and sorted out, and reprinted this book."
The book is preceded by two prefaces by Huang Xiyun and Li Zhai, followed by a small portrait of Wei Shouyan, followed by Song Lian's "Genealogical Sequence of the Shangyu Wei Clan", followed by the main text of the original collection, followed by addenda, appendices, and posthumous works. The sayings are written by Mr. Baoku, who gave a general account of Wei Zhongyuan's process of compiling this collection, and then said: "To this day, the book is not exhausted, the name is obscure, and the book is not the same as when it is encountered. So the fans and so on are all worried about this. In the middle of winter, he stole the Qing manuscript from the national map, but he was worried about the re-compilation, and he was afraid that he would not be able to read the poetry collection of the Yuanren for several months, but he was worried, and he was afraid that he had not gone through, so he invited Songcheng Xia Jing'an jun to join him in the matter. Xia Junzhi was prudent in his studies, and he accumulated for a long time, but he was a marginal yuanshao, and he published a mistake to add, so it was the success of the book that relied on Xia Jun's great strength to help, and Yu Shi plundered his beauty. ”
This passage is highly general about the reasons for the compilation, the origin of the book, and the process of inviting friends to join in the grand event, and the words are concise and humble, and it is admirable to read.
"Wuxi Wenbo Gengzi Shuying", edited by Wuxi Museum
Gu Wuxuan Publishing House, December 2020, 1st edition, first printing
A while ago, the Wuxi Museum compiled a set of large books, in which I helped a little, and Mr. Cai Weidong, the vice president of the institute, was very happy and gave me two books, one of which is one. The book is a large 16 folio, paperback, full-color printing, but in the form of a book, up to 300 pages thick, divided into archaeology, history, museums, art and other columns, of which the archaeological part is too professional, the content of the publication is basically archaeological reports, the history part is a lot of stories, such as Zhu Wenjie's "Zhu Yuanzhang Ping Wu, Zhang Shicheng Defeat and Death Brief Description", quite detailed about the process of Zhu Yuanzhang's defeat of Zhang Shicheng. At that time, Zhang Shicheng was defending the Suzhou area, known as "Eastern Wu", Zhu Yuanzhang divided Jinling, known as "Western Wu", the two were originally evenly matched, but why Zhang Shicheng was defeated by Zhu Yuanzhang, there are many analyses in the text.
Liao Zhangrong's article is devoted to the way of life of the students in Wuxi and Jinkui counties at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and the article summarizes that the main ways of making a living are training, traveling, practicing medicine and doing business. The Qing Dynasty attached great importance to Mongolian education, for this reason, righteous learning, private schools throughout the urban and rural areas, the author of the late Qing Dynasty two counties of 83 students of the self-report analysis, found that all of them have the experience of training Mongolian teachers, so it is believed that the school teacher is the most common occupation for students to make a living. The way in which the school teachers are trained can be summarized into three types: opening their own schools, sitting at the owner's house, and sitting in the village school, clan school, or yoshi school.
Regarding entering the curtain as a guest, the article mentions that the curtain guest system was indiscriminately coveted by the pre-Qin and formed in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and after more than two thousand years of development and evolution, it has become a common phenomenon in society in the Qing Dynasty. However, the author said that the profession of the curtain was not optimistic at that time, because the duties of the curtain guests, in addition to ghostwriting and providing consultation, were mainly to assist the curtain master in handling various government affairs, and in the process, it was easy to engage in favoritism and fraud, so people at that time thought that this was a matter of moral damage.
The article cites the famous figure Wang Huizu, who said that he was a little lonely and poor, and that he occasionally saw people enter the curtain, and that he was very old, so he was envious and wanted to emulate it, but he was unanimously opposed by his mother-in-law and birth mother. Wang Huizu thought that he had no other strengths, and if he did not swim in the curtain, he had no way to live, and he swore that he would never do anything negative and evil, and the second mother allowed him to travel to the curtain. It can be seen that the tour curtain is not the most ideal occupation in the minds of the people in the Qing Dynasty, and it is often a helpless choice. For example, Sang Tiaoyuan warned his descendants in the "Sang Family Training": "Do not be a guest of the curtain, do not be an official." However, the income of the tour curtain is much higher than that of a school master, which is the main reason why many scholars choose the tour curtain, such as when Zou Yingyuan was transferred to the prefect of Taiwan, he hired Wang Huizu as a guest of honor, and the age was as high as 1600 taels, but in the end Wang Huizu did not make the trip because of his mother's opposition.
The author believes that Zou Yingyuan gave such a high age because Wang Huizu has been touring the curtain for many years and has already had a certain reputation in the industry, because when he first visited the curtain, the age repair was only 36 taels. In the traditional concept, Confucians do not say profit, merchants were placed at the end of the Four Peoples, but at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the concept has undergone a great change, Guangxu twenty years, Zhang Xiao took the examination for the title, and soon began to set up industry, it can be seen that the change of concept and the change of the environment have a major impact on the world.
Mr. Cai Weidong's article "Several People Hear the Crane Language" is dedicated to the study of the Zheng Wenzhuo to Cheng Chun's letter book in the Wuxi Museum. Cai Weidong first introduced the general outline of this letter book, mentioning that the cover of this volume has the words "Crane Language" in Luo Zhenyu's seal book, and this "Crane Language" album was donated by Mr. Tao Xinhua, a collector of Calligraphy and Painting in Wuxi, in 1987, and a total of 38 letters from Zheng Wenzhuo to Cheng Wei were collected in the album.
Cai Weidong said that the latest of these letters was on the sixteenth day of the first month of the fifth month, at this time only a little more than a month after Zheng Wenzhuo's death, and there are also Kang Youwei's notes in this volume, which shows that the "Crane Language" was compiled by Cheng Zhuo after Zheng Wenzhuo's death, which shows the importance he attaches to his friend's handwriting.
In this article, Cai Weidong first examines the main codex written by the Daheshan people, and then talks about the relationship between the characters mentioned in the letter and Yi Shunding, as well as the background index of the things mentioned. For example, Zheng Wenzhuo's first correspondence to Cheng Kun wrote:
Hereby earnestly, eavesdropping on the fact that Prince Hanyun had arrived in Shanghai yesterday, the newspaper reported that when he got off the bus, Qian Baoqi and his people greeted him, but he did not judge his residence, and the traces were very narrow. However, on the eve of going to the covenant of his friend Gu Yuxuan, some people did see it. If you want to be fair and old, you should be able to detail its actions. Ask for intraday design to visit on your behalf, and you can be near but forward. The price list of its monuments has been shown around last year, and the degree has not been forgotten. If He Hongji wins Yucheng, he will definitely take the second "Manjiang Hong" as a reward, and will not renege on his word.
Zheng Wenzhuo went to the Beijing Division to participate in the examination in the first year of Guangxu, repeatedly failed to try, and did not sell for the ninth time in guangxu in the 24th year, so he was desperate to make a career, and then lived in Suzhou. Cai Weidong said that in his later years, he mainly relied on the use of medicine, paintings and the sale of old collections to make a living, often precarious, and sold several books to Yuan Kewen. Zheng Wenzhuo's list in the second correspondence is as follows:
Western Zhou Dynasty Jizi Pan Chu Tuoben, Zhongjiang Li Mei Sheng Title, Tattoo Silver Wu Pick Two. Sui Yuan Gong Ji Clan Erzhiyuan Tuojing Ben, Lu Shaowen Tibetan Seal, One Hundred Wu Pick Two Zheng. The Tang Dynasty wrote "Luoshenfu" small character ink, Zhang Detianzang, one hundred and two positive. Wu Gu people hand-approved six volumes of shi Hanwen old banknotes, Tongcheng Yao's red goose museum collection seal, Wu Shi two.
Zheng Wenzhuo said in this note that these four treasures were brought by Yi Shunding into the Beijing Division and handed over to Cheng Wei, and then asked Cheng Zhuo to transfer them to Yuan Kewen. However, for some reason, Yuan Kewen accepted the things, but he never paid, and Zheng Wenzhuo had no choice but to let Cheng Zhuo urge him. There are seven codexes in the "Crane Language" that Zheng Wenzhuo asked Cheng Zhuo to collect debts for him. I read in the Seventh Codex:
To the former to sell the monuments of the four things, its value is the most inexpensive. For example, the Sui Yuan Gong Ji Clan Erzhi Complete Tuo, which was collected by Lu Shaowen, the Western Zhou Dynasty Pan Chu Tuo Ben, there was Zhongjiang Li Mei Lao Bao, Xi Yu Zhai Shangshu was willing to get a hundred gold, and borrowed five hundred pieces of paper, the Tang people wrote the "Luoshen Endowment" inkblot, the "Guoguang Collection" has been printed in the sixth episode, and the Wugu people hand-approved the six volumes of the old banknotes of Shi Han for the old collection of the Yao Red Goose Museum in Tongcheng. If the four traces of Si Si are worth thousands of gold if they ask for a good price, they are only sold for three hundred and fifty today, although the quality is pure, can they give up everything?
Zheng Wenzhuo said that these four antiquities are very valuable, and some of them have been published, and their true value can be worth more than 1,000 taels, but now they only sell for 350 taels because of lack of money. He explained to Cheng Wei: "To be fair, I would like to have nothing to do, lead for two years, and be tired of nothing." Life and people swim in the absence of flaws, and a choice between one, did not try to do anything. It is not to say that it is poor to the point, si su is hidden, Ji Su is in a hurry, and even if it is a step, it is regrettable. ”
Mr. Cheng said he wouldn't have sold his treasures cheaply if he hadn't been poor enough to do so. However, he did not directly collect debts from Yuan Kewen, but looked for Cheng Wei over and over again. After the matter dragged on for two years, I don't know how many times Cheng Wei urged Yuan Kewen during this period, perhaps Cheng Wei really did not want to come back, so he paid his own money to settle the arrears on behalf of Yuan Kewen. Zheng Wenzhuo wrote in the letter: "Last winter, he not only undertook to transfer Yuan's money on behalf of yuan, but also received the subsidy of the diagnosis fund before, so he died without worry. It can be seen that Zheng Wenzhuo knows that this money is paid by Cheng Chun on behalf of Yuan Kewen.
It is difficult to know how much economic strength Cheng Wei really has, but he once served as a Chinese secretary for the British missionary Timothy Lee for more than twenty years, and he wanted to have a wide network of contacts, so Cai Weidong said in the text: "It is precisely because Timothy Lee and Cheng Wei directly rescued each other that Kang Youwei was able to escape the disaster after the failure of the change. It is conceivable that with Timothy Lee's relationship, Cheng Also has a network of upper-class officials and intellectuals, and he has strong social skills. ”
Mr. Cai also mentioned that after the ninetieth opening of the "Crane Language" book, there is Yi Shunding's language, and coincidentally, Han Zhai has Yi Shunding's manuscript "Qin zhilou Chronicle of Poetry", which is Yi Shunding's self-knowledge before his death, afraid of his life's scattered works, so he forced his sick body to sort out the old works. During this period, Cheng Wei and Tao Beiming came to see the disease, and witnessing this situation, Cheng Wei immediately asked him to be the governor of the battle of the hand people, and two months later, he published the "Chronicle of Qin Zhilou", so that Yi Shunding could see that it was the completion of the book before his death. Yi Shunding's manuscript is preceded by four cheng shu long poems and a poem, which details the beginning and end of the Si incident, and his sincerity in his treatment of others and the rigor of keeping promises are admirable and regrettable. Such a person with great affection and righteousness, and now after Mr. Cai's revelation, reappeared in front of the world, it is also a cause.
"Ningbo Ancient Bridge Inscription Collection", edited by Zhu Yongning
Ningbo Publishing House, July 2021, the first printing of the first edition
The book was a gift from Mr. Mercury, and the preface to the book was also written by Mercury. From the preface, it is learned that Zhu Yongning's "Thousands of Yuhong: Fieldwork and Research on Ningbo Ancient Bridge" published in June last year was self-funded, and this year's "Ningbo Ancient Bridge Inscription Collection" was also self-funded. The book is small eight open, 610 pages, hardcover black and white printing, such a large tome, it is conceivable that Mr. Zhu in order to investigate these ancient monuments to pay a huge amount of energy and financial resources, he not only visited these ancient bridge monuments one by one, but also to do rubbings, interpretations, and introduce the general history of the stele and today's current situation, etc., these are first-hand living materials, such a valuable book, but rely on their own efforts to complete, how strong psychological support is needed.
This book includes a total of 193 kinds of inscriptions related to ancient bridges in various counties, cities and districts of Ningbo City, and the author divides chapters by administrative districts, such as Haishu District and Beilun District, and each district is further divided by streets. The ancient bridge inscriptions included in the book include bridge construction monuments, donated monuments, public forbidden monuments, and tea party monuments and lantern monuments attached to bridges, with a time limit of October 1, 1949.
Mercury talks about Zhu Yongning's process of making rubbings in the preface, and it turns out that Zhu Yongning fell in love with the ancient bridge more than twenty years ago, and gradually upgraded from the admiration of tourists to the consciousness of researchers. More than ten years ago, Zhu Yongning visited Yong'an Bridge in Yinzhou District, where he saw three stone tablets, he took a picture and went home to identify the inscription, but the stone surface of one of the stele stones was very coarse, coupled with the shallow text engraved, so he could not see the text clearly through the photo, just this year he met the young stele master Li Benjun, so he worshiped him as a teacher, studied hard, and the level of rubbing improved rapidly. However, when he returned to the former site of Yong'an Bridge and wanted to expand the monument again, the Yong'an Bridge had been demolished, and the three stele stones did not know where to go, which made Zhu Yongning deeply regretful, and since then, he has had a rescue-like urgency for these stone carvings, and expanded the local known bridge stele all over the place.
When I read this passage, I also thought with emotion, Mr. Zhu has such an expert consciousness, and such a good stele technology, why not expand all the local ancient monuments, because at the same time that the bridge stele disappears, other stele stones are also dying. Mercury is not explained in the preface, nor is It mentioned by Mr. Zhu in the overview of the book. And I also thought that Zhang Xuecheng, a zhejiang native, said that Zhejiang Donggui expert, Zhejiang West Shang Boya, Mr. Zhu is a zhejiang east native, it seems that he is deeply rooted in Mr. Zhang's true essence.
Mr. Zhu belongs to the positivist school, and his conclusions are based on fieldwork. In its overview, it is said that the bridge inscriptions in the Ningbo area, none of the bridge stele physical objects before the Ming Dynasty have survived, so the text of the bridge stele before the Ming Dynasty is from Fang Zhi, and he found that ningbo has seen a total of 68 bridge inscriptions in full text, and the earlier one is Song Jiayou's eight-year "Tongshan Bridge Stele". As for why the ancients made bridge monuments, Mr. Zhu said:
In the old days, folk mentioned that to do good deeds, they must first build bridges, pave roads, and build pavilions, and the ancient bridges in Ningbo are basically built by the people. After the bridge is built, in order to persuade people to be good, erect a stele, or write a stele to praise the merits of the bridge builder, or directly engrave the name of the donor, so as to save it for a long time and look forward to future generations following suit.
It is precisely for this reason that almost all the bridges in the local area have inscriptions, so that the "Yinxian Tongzhi" published during the Republic of China can only choose to give up. Ningbo is a water town, the number of ancient bridges is large, in recent decades of rapid social and economic development, ancient bridges have disappeared, so a large number of bridge monuments can not be recorded, which is the reason why Mr. Zhu worked hard to rescue the bridge monuments. And it is precisely because of such people of insight that some valuable historical materials can be preserved.