Equal edition cover image
Picture of the first copyright page
Three editions of copyright page images
Enlightened edition cover image
Modern edition cover image
Open-label copyright page image
Declaration published on September 25, 1929
On February 22, 1930, the "Declaration" entitled "Legal Problems Caused by No War on the Western Front" was published.
One
Han Zhai has a copy of "No War on the Western Front", written by Remarck in Germany, co-translated by Hong Shen and Ma Yanxiang, and republished by the Shanghai Pingping Book Company in March 1930, "This book is written about eight ordinary infantrymen--Kött, Kloeb, Jaden, Lyle, Muller, Tai Tuolin, Cayman Litch, and the protagonist of the book, Paul himself—the suffering in the trenches of the Western Front, the life they experienced in the rear and their feelings about the fortunes of this era..." (Ma Yanxiang's preface), the novel reflects the war experience of an ordinary soldier, with a somber, The calm pen celebrates the humanitarian sentiments that were born on the battlefield and grew up under the fire of artillery.
Recently read Wu Xiaodong's "No War in the Western <> and the "Non-War Novel" of the 1930s" (published in Reading, No. 10, 2014), which talks about the modern and equal version of "No War on the Western Front", "... A joint translation by Hong Shen and Ma Yanxiang... It was published by modern books in October 1929, and this translation was also printed by Shanghai Pingping Bookstore in October 1929." The author believes that there are both modern and equal editions, which were printed simultaneously in October 1929.
The author wrote to Zhu Jinshun, an expert in modern literature and history at Beijing Normal University, for advice on the issue of the edition of this book, and Professor Zhu replied with several historical materials, and concluded: "According to the relevant materials, there are two versions of "No War on the Western Front" published in Shanghai by The Equality Bookstore and the Modern Bookstore, and I cannot tell the relationship between the two. ”
After combing through many parties, the author found that in addition to the modern bookstore edition and the equal bookstore edition, there is also the enlightened bookstore edition. The relevant information of the copyright pages and title pages of each edition that we have seen so far are listed as follows:
First Edition: Copyright Page: October 1929 First Edition, Printed 3,000 Copies, Priced at One Yuan and Five Corners, Distributor: Shanghai Pingping Bookstore (1151 North Sichuan Road), General Sales Office: Warwick Trading Company (No. 35 Renji Road, Shanghai), "Copyright" in the upper middle box, Title Page: Lower left vertical line "Shanghai Pingping Bookstore Printing Line", cover text vertical traditional characters, upper right "HongShen Ma Yanxiang Co-translation", middle book title "No War on the Western Front". ”
Reprint: Copyright page: October 1929 first edition, reprinted in March 1930, priced at one yuan and five corners, distributor: Shanghai Pingping Bookstore (1151 North Sichuan Road), general sales office: Warwick Trading Company (No. 35 Renji Road, Shanghai), the four words "copyright" in the box at the top of the copyright page; the title page: signed "Shanghai Equality Bookstore Printed", the cover style is the same as the first edition.
Third edition: Copyright Page: First Edition October 1929, Reprinted March 1930, Third Edition August 1930, Publisher: Shanghai Modern Book Company, Real-priced Ocean One Yuan Two Corners, Eight Characters Under the Title of the Book Above", "Copyright, No Reprinting" Under the Title Page: Signed "Shanghai Modern Book Company Printing Line"; Cover Text Horizontally Arranged in Traditional Chinese from Left to Right, Top Title "No War on the Western Front", Followed by a Thick Horizontal Line, Two Lines Under the Horizontal Line, "German Remack" on the top, "Translated by Hongshen Ma Yanxiang" At the bottom right are the six characters "Printed by modern bookstores", and the left side of the word is in the shape of a hat. The cover style is different from the Equal Edition.
Fourth edition: Copyright page: first edition October 1929, re-edition March 1930, third edition August 1930, fourth edition December 1930, Shanghai Modern Bookstore, real-priced ocean one yuan two corners, cover style with the third edition;
Sixth edition: Copyright page: March 1931, Shanghai Modern Bookstore, real-priced Ocean One Yuan Two Corners, cover style with the third edition.
Ninth edition: Copyright page: November 1932, priced at one yuan and two corners, distributor: Hong Xuefan, printer: Modern Printing Company, publisher: Modern Bookstore, general distributor: Shanghai Sima Road Modern Bookstore, bottom right "Copyright not allowed to reprint", cover style with the third edition;
Enlightened Bookstore Edition, the author has seen the fourth edition: Copyright Page: October 18th Year of the Republic of China Modern First Edition, December 25th Year of the Republic of China Enlightened Fourth Edition, Publisher: Shanghai Fuzhou Road Enlightened Bookstore Zhang Xichen, Pricing Of National Currency Seven Corners (Foreign Port Discretionary Plus Shipping Fee), Printer: Shanghai Wuzhou Road No. 390 Meicheng Printing Company, General Distribution Office: Enlightened Bookstore, Branch Distribution: Enlightened Bookstore Branch, the title above, the title of the book under the horizontal row "Copyright is not allowed to reprint", the lower right vertical row "This book has been filed for registration with the Ministry of the Interior in accordance with the Copyright Law", Title page: The bottom is signed "Enlightened Bookstore Printing Line", the cover is arranged horizontally from right to left in traditional Characters, the title of the book is "No War on the Western Front", the middle is "By Remak", and the bottom is "Hongshen Ma Yanxiang Translation". The cover style is different from the Equal Edition and the Modern Edition.
The above is a transcript of the various versions of the actual text seen.
Two
On September 25, 1929, the "Declaration" published an appointment advertisement for "No War on the Western Front": the original work was published in Germany this spring, less than four months, all countries have translations, according to the survey in mid-July this year, Germany, Britain, the United States and France sold the number of copies as follows - Germany 700,000 copies, Britain 150,000 copies, the United States 170,000 copies, France 185,000 copies. And "excerpts from the criticism of this book by various countries", reservation office: Shanghai 4th Road Guanghua Bookstore Beixin Bookstore, priced ocean one yuan and five corners, reservation 60% off, each volume ocean nine corners.
On November 10, 1929, the "Declaration" published "Equal Bookstore, < No War on the Western Front> Published Today", saying that the book "is accompanied by a portrait of the original author, a biography, and a nearly 10,000-word preface by Ma Yanxiang, a sincere discussion of the confusion about the value of the translation of this book, and accompanied by Hongshen's nearly 20,000-word post-preface With many quotations and explanations on the war", the price is one yuan and five corners, the temporary sale is 20% off, one yuan and two corners, "The local port sales office: The new bookstore in the north of the four roads, the Guanghua Bookstore, the modern bookstore Dadong Bookstore, General Sales Office: Shanghai Renji Road 35 Warwick Trading Company Publishing Department, Tel 15873", "Foreign port direct book purchase method, please send the 10% discount book price from the postal exchange as a registered mail (stamps are not accepted), foreign port cash wholesale - discount is particularly fair". There was no publishing unit in the first advertisement, this time it was "Equal Bookstore", the appointment at the time of the first advertisement was only Guanghua Bookstore and Beixin Bookstore, and this time the Modern Bookstore and Dadong Bookstore were added, a total of four bookstores, and the General Sales Office Warwick Trading Company. On November 16, 1929, the publication information and sales advertisement of the book were again published in the "Declaration", which was similar to that of November 10.
Regarding The Equality Bookstore and the Equality Bookstore, Ma Simeng mentioned in "My Father Ma Yanxiang and HongShen" (in Archives Spring and Autumn, No. 11, 2008): "My father left Fudan University to start an independent life, the family cut off his financial support, he had no fixed career, and earned a living by writing for newspapers and magazines. When his life was difficult, Hong Shen collaborated with his father in translating the famous anti-war novel "No War on the Western Front" by Remarck, which was published by The EqualIty Bookstore. (Note: Pingping Bookstore was printed at HongShen's own expense, and the name of the bookstore hanging when this book was published did not actually exist in this bookstore).) The novel "No War on the Western Front" was a hit, and the book sold well and was reprinted seven times (author's note: seven reprints were wrong, according to what has been seen so far, the modern bookstore has been republished at least nine times, and the copyright has been republished at least four times after the copyright was transferred to the Enlightened Bookstore), which not only increased my father's popularity in the literary world, but also alleviated the economic difficulties. In order to help his first-year protégé out of trouble, Mr. Hong Shen gave his share of the profit from the sale of books to his father." From Ma Simeng's article, ma Yanxiang's memories of his later years, the Equality Bookstore is a fiction. No wonder Professor Zhu Jinshun replied to me: "In the Shanghai Publishing Journal... Pages 249 to 264 are "A List of Shanghai Publishing Institutions from 1873 to 1949", which introduces more than 300 bookstores in Shanghai, but there is not a single 'equal bookstore', somehow! As for the two titles of Equality Bookstore and Equal Bookstore, this translation is on the first and second editions, and the title page of the same book is signed "Equal Bookstore" and the copyright page is signed "Equal Bookstore", according to which it can be considered that Equal Bookstore is an Equal Bookstore.
Regarding the Warwick Trading Company, first of all, one of the translators, Hong Shen (1894-1955), Jiangsu Wujinren, a pioneer of Chinese films and dramas, a playwright, a director artist, a literary and art theorist, created more than 90 films and drama scripts in his lifetime, wrote China's first relatively complete film and literary script "Shen Tushi", went to the United States to buy back the first sound film machine, directed China's first sound film script "Singer Red Peony", and served as a director of the Star Film Company from 1925 to 1937. Warwick Trading Company published a notice in the "Declaration" on July 1, 1929:
The company to promote domestic products, to support the Chinese film industry for the purpose, the film companies and theaters such as the sale of copyright, agency distribution, promotion and business, supply of films, agency advertising, agency transportation and other things, see the committee should be wholeheartedly accepted, wholeheartedly handled, simple procedures, commission self-denial, driving to contact or correspondence consultation can be. Bian Yuying Wang Mengping Tongqi Address: The third floor of No. 35 Renji Road.
Hong Shen worked as a choreographer at the Star Film Company, and the Warwick Trading Company was affiliated with the Star Film Company, so it is not difficult to understand that Hong and Ma's translation of "No War on the Western Front" was sold by the Warwick Trading Company.
Regarding the Modern Bookstore, it was founded in 1927 and was joined by Hong Xuefan, Zhang Jinglu, Shen Songquan, Lu Fang, etc. It was closed in 1935 for business reasons. Lu Fang wrote an article entitled "The Shanghai Modern Bookstore I Know", mentioning Hong Shen's translation of "No War on the Western Front": "In addition to publishing revolutionary literary and art magazines, the Modern Bookstore also published many world famous works, a large number of novellas and literary works in the form of scripts that bookstores at that time were reluctant to publish... Guo Moruo's "Epoch-making Transformation" ("Before and After Anyway") ... Hong Shen's translation of "No War on the Western Front", Zhou Qiying's (Zhou Yang)'s translation of "Men and Women in New Russian Literature", etc... At that time, Shanghai's Fuzhou Road Cultural Street was once recognized as the first progressive bookstore."
About enlightened bookstores. Founded in August 1926, the founder Zhang Xichen (1889-1969), the character Xuecun, also known as Junshi, pen name Fang Ke, Gao Fang, Zhejiang Shaoxing people. In 1928, it was changed to a joint-stock company, and in 1950, it was implemented as a public-private partnership, and merged with the Youth Publishing House of China Youth Publishing House. He has published the magazine "Middle School Students", the Enlightened Youth Series, the Enlightened Literature New Journal, the World Juvenile Literature Series, the Enlightened Loose-Leaf Anthology, the Enlightened English Textbook, the Enlightened Chinese Textbook, etc.
Three
On December 31, 1929, the "Declaration" published a commentary on "No War on the Western Front", "Now its Chinese translation has been published, one is "Calm and Trouble on the Western Front" of Shuibu Bookstore, and the other is "No War on the Western Front" of Pingping Bookstore, which in addition to referring to the original, also has the translator's preface and post-preface, explaining the background of the content of the novel, etc., which can help readers understand the value of this book, but the first half of the translation is quite fluent, but at the end it is a bit jerky. ”
At that time, there was a copyright dispute over the book. One is abroad: On February 22, 1930, the "Declaration" published "Legal Problems Caused by No War on the Western Front", and the author signed Lei Lujun:
In October last year, Hongshen Ma Yanxiang and the two juns translated the original book into Chinese, published by the Equal Bookstore, the translation is unusually faithful and fluent, a rare work in the translation industry in recent years, since the publication of the book, it has attracted the attention of the domestic literary circles, the criticism of the translation of the song is far from the emotion, the rare and valuable, do not praise, the translation is close and reprinted, but recently equal bookstore overheard the German original printing of the book Ullestien Bookstore (Germany's Urstein Bookstore, mostly written as Ullstein), claiming that the book did not get its permission, How to hastily translate and publish, as deep as refutation, and finally ask for ten percent of the profit, to the other bookstore, equal bookstore has replied, according to China did not join the International Publishing Association at the beginning, no matter what country the book, whether it is approved by the original author or the original printing bureau, as long as there is a book in hand, the person who can translate can translate it, the bookstore can publish it hastily, this convenience, China and Japan enjoy it together, and the indiscriminate translation of the book has not begun to have this, just recall the former commercial press, to reprint a certain book in Britain, As for London, the defendant's lawyer Ding Rong won the final victory based on the principle of spreading wisdom, and the matter was purely a moral issue rather than a legal issue.
One is domestic: "Modern Literary Review" published an article in 1931, Vol. 2, No. 2, "No War on the Western Front of the <> Caused By War", which quoted the news report at the time: A bookstore in Guangdong was actually confused by profit, stole the copy, and was known to modern times, and had hired a lawyer to go to Guangzhou to conduct a lawsuit.
Four
In summary, the context of the version of "No War on the Western Front" translated by Hong and Ma is as follows: "It took two people three months to translate the book, and at that time, for the sake of convenience, it was translated according to the English translation, and after the translation was completed, Mr. Hong Shen proofread the original German text, and it took almost a month" (Ma Yanxiang's preface, the date of payment was 28, 10, before leaving Shanghai, that is, October 1929), on September 25, 1929, a pre-sale advertisement was published in the "Declaration", only the pre-sale office, no publishing unit, after the book was published, On November 10, 1929, an advertisement was published by The Equal Bookstore (Bookstore), in August 1930, from the third edition onwards, the copyright was transferred to the Modern Bookstore, published and distributed under the name of the Shanghai Modern Bookstore, and in 1935, the Modern Bookstore was dissolved and the copyright was transferred to the Enlightened Bookstore (from the copyright page of the Enlightened Bookstore edition, it can be confirmed that the copyright comes from the Modern Bookstore). It is not that Professor Wu Xiaodong believes that there are equal editions and modern editions published at the same time in the opening narrative. Why is it that from the third edition onwards, the copyright of the Equal Bookstore (Bookstore) is transferred to the Modern Bookstore, rather than the first edition and re-edition of the Modern Bookstore? After the publication of the Equal Bookstore (Book Office) edition, one of the advertising agencies published on November 10 had a Modern Bookstore, and if the Modern Bookstore published the book, it would not be possible to sell the Equal Bookstore (Bookstore) edition on behalf of the Bookshop. Moreover, the content of the book, except for the relevant information on the cover page, title page, and copyright page, the layout format, punctuation, and page number of the rest of the books are exactly the same, and if it is not equal - modern - enlightened copyright transfer, it will not occur in the book where the layout format, punctuation, page number, etc. of the chapters in the book are exactly the same (if it is strong, it can only be pirated, reprinted, etc.). As for the exact time when the copyright of modern bookstores was transferred to enlightened bookstores, whether modern bookstores have published them after the ninth edition in 1932, and whether enlightened bookstores have published them after the fourth edition in 1936, to be examined.
In my collection of "No War on the Western Front", after Ma Yanxiang's preface before the main text, the original holder of the book, "Lu Hanyu", wrote his own list of chapter titles and pages with a brush, and the words "Hanyu Nineteen Years In the Zhizhi Academy" (the nineteenth year of the Republic of China, that is, in 1930), this person should be an employee or student of the school. The cover and back cover of the book are the paper packaging of the printed materials of Wuchang Yaxindi Society, and the cover covers are "The main catalogue of the festival of the society (professor class, application class, zero-frame class, hanging class, city class, history class, etc.) and price", and the back cover is "Map of Chinese National Shame, printed by Wuchang Yaxindi Society, Don't Forget the National Shame" and so on.
An old book from more than ninety years ago, after Lu Hanyu, I don't know how many people have passed through the hands, and now it has reached the author's hands. The author tried to make a rough connection around the publication of this book, and in the process of writing, I received great help from Mr. Liu Hecheng and Xue Bing, and I would like to express my gratitude.
◎ Hu Chunhui, book reviewer