The Paper's reporter Huang Xiaofeng
Mr. Qian Bocheng, former deputy leader of the Shanghai Ancient Books Collation and Publication Planning Group, consultant of the National Leading Group for the Collation and Publication planning of ancient books, former chief editor, editor and senior publisher of Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, died at the age of 100 at 10:05 on November 3, 2021 at the Sixth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University due to ineffective medical treatment. The Shanghai Review of Books, which interviewed Mr. Qian Bocheng in 2010, is now republishing this interview in memory of Mr. Qian Bocheng.
Chamber City
In the 1980s, after the end of the Cultural Revolution, a reading fever arose in society, and almost any new book published would cause a rush to buy. It is said that when the Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House published the "Biography of Yue Quan", it printed for the first time a figure that was considered very conservative at the time - 900,000 copies! This phenomenon, which now seems almost mythical, is certainly not the norm in the publishing industry. Mr. Qian Bocheng, who was the editor-in-chief of the Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House in the 1980s, was a participant in that publishing boom. Although he is nearly ninety years old, he can not only hear and see, read books and newspapers extensively, and care about the academic dynamics of publishing information, but also "Avatar", "Inception" and other film blockbusters have not fallen, and even during this year's World Cup, they still get up at two o'clock in the morning to cheer for the Spanish team. Mr. Qian has always said that editors are miscellaneous and should be interested in everything. Perhaps for him, today's full life is the added benefit of decades of editing.
There was a book famine in China in the early 1980s, which was related to the stagnation of publishing during the "Cultural Revolution", so what about publishing before the "Cultural Revolution"?
Qian Bocheng: Before the Cultural Revolution, there were movements of one kind or another. When I was "anti-rightist," I was branded as a rightist, and now I'm calling it "wrong demarcation." At that time, there were six rightists in the whole society, accounting for exactly one-tenth of the staff of the whole society, which was in line with the upper limit of the proportion of rightists at that time. At that time, all units were grasping the right wing according to the proportional ceiling. There was also a small group of "counter-revolutionaries" in our company, I was the commander-in-chief, Mr. He Manzi was a military division, and Chen Wenjian, a young man at that time, was the vanguard. Now that the military division and the vanguard have passed away one after another, only I am the commander.
After the end of the "Anti-Rightism", there was a brief spring in the publishing industry, and in 1962, the publishing house (then known as the Shanghai Editorial Office of the Zhonghua Bookstore) founded the "Chinese Literature and History Series", and as a rightist who had just taken off my hat, I was responsible for editing this academic journal and also had an assistant. However, by 1966, the "Cultural Revolution" had begun, and the seventh series of the "Chinese Literature and History Series" had been arranged, but it did not dare to come out, because it contained an article by Mr. Li Pingxin, a professor in the History Department of East China Normal University. At the beginning of the "Cultural Revolution", the then Shanghai Municipal Party Committee held a mobilization meeting in the Cultural Square, throwing out eight counter-revolutionary academic authorities such as Zhou Gucheng and Zhou Yu, and Li Pingxin was one of them. In his critical article, Yao Wenyuan called him a "counter-revolutionary clown who jumped out of his own way", and he committed suicide without being humiliated.
After the end of the "Cultural Revolution", there was a reading fever and a publishing fever, can you talk about the specific performance at that time?
Qian Bocheng: The reading fever after the Cultural Revolution was caused by the shortage of books and knowledge. If you look at our 1979 Treatise on Chinese Literature and History, the highest print run reached 45,000 copies (because of Hu Shi's articles), and the lowest was 25,000 copies. We sent out the new book preview, and the number of orders returned by Xinhua Bookstore was our print number. At that time, readers who bought "Dream of the Red Chamber" and "Water Margin" had to queue up all night. At that time, wood was very valuable, and some people took "Water Margin" and "Dream of the Red Chamber" and could go directly to the countryside to buy wood. We published a copy of Mr. Wang Peijiang's "Tang Dynasty Novels", because the title of the book has the word "novel", and it also sells very well, and many people actually do not know that this is a literary novel. At that time, employees in the company still had the privilege of buying books internally, but this kind of popular book could only be limited to two copies per person.
In the name of the supplement of the "Chinese Literature and History Series", we have published many collections of papers, such as the collections of academic conferences such as Language and Writing, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and so on. It also sorted out and published diaries and letters collected by the Shanghai Library, among which "The Diary of Forgotten Mountain Lulu", "The Book of Teachers and Friends of Wang Kangnian", and "The Book of Friends and Friends of YifengTang" are all materials related to the study of modern history. At that time, it was not easy to see these materials, and later in the study of modern history, many people quoted. These are all punctuation that we editors do amateurs, mainly so that everyone can have more work to do, and of course, there is also a little bit of writing income. I do the responsible editor's check, mainly for everyone to change the punctuation.
At that time, many scholars did not rehabilitate or restore their reputations, was there any resistance to publishing their works?
Chamber city: There is still resistance, but it is mainly reflected in the publishing house itself. At that time, the superior did not have any specific notice, depending on whether the publishing house itself had courage and eyesight. At that time, there was no first-level review panel, and books did not need to be submitted for review. Publishing in the 1980s was mainly self-discipline, and everyone felt that it was a responsibility to guard the land.
In 1978, I returned to the Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House from the factory "War High Temperature" to the editorial office of the Literature and History Theory Series, and there was a "To the Reader" in the reissue number, and the original manuscript was written by me. The reissue issue published Mr. Li Pingxin's article, which was the one compiled before the "Cultural Revolution", but this time the word "posthumous manuscript" was added. There is also Mr. Chen Yinke's "On the Origin of Regeneration", which was not published in the mainland before, and before Mr. Zhang Shizhao was ordered to go to Hong Kong, when he went to Sun Yat-sen University to meet Mr. Chen Yinke, Chen gave him a mimeographed draft, and it was circulated in Hong Kong. We later published it in 1979 on the basis of mimeographs.
Mr. Chen Yinke's article starts a separate paragraph after the quotation, "YinKe Press" is written in the top grid. At that time, there was an editor in the newsroom who came out of the newspaper, and according to the rules of the newspaper, he insisted that "Yin Ke Press" could not be top-notch. I fought with him and went all the way to Luo Zhufeng (Luo had just implemented the policy at that time, and was put on standby at the publishing house, asking him to serve as one of the editors-in-chief of the "Chinese Literature and History Series"). He paid little attention to these details and did not give specific advice. Finally, at my insistence, I finally typeset according to the format of Mr. Chen Yinke's writing.
Of course, not every book can be published. Scholars who are not rehabilitated cannot publish articles or publish works, and to publish them, they need to be approved from above. When we published Hu Shi's posthumous manuscript, "School-based Research on the Notes on the Water Classics," it was stressful. We took the report to the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee and asked the deputy minister in charge for instructions in person before publishing it.
The work of the publishing house has also been helped by many scholars, which ones do you have a deep impression on?
Qian Bocheng: There are many, such as Mr. Zhu Dongrun. In 1978, when the "Chinese Literature and History Series" was resumed, President Li Junmin suggested that Mr. Zhu Dongrun be invited to serve as the editor-in-chief. He said that Mr. Zhu was his English teacher when he was studying at Nantong Middle School, had the friendship between teachers and students, knew his academic ethics, and asked him to be the most suitable. We asked Mr. Zhu to be the editor-in-chief, and there was no penny of the editor-in-chief fee. He never interferes in the selection of each issue and fully respects our opinions.
Mr. Gu Tinglong also helped us a lot, he is the director of the Shanghai Library, and he has a good relationship with us. In the United Public Library, there were many things hidden, mr. Gu was the director, and later they all became the collection of the Shanghai Library. The modern history research materials that we punctuated and published were lent to us free of charge by Mr. Gu from the library collection. If you lend it out now, the base fee will not be available. Mr. Hu Shi's letters and manuscripts were also obtained from him. The titles of many of our books are also signed by Mr. Gu.
There is also Mr. Wang Yuanhua, who was rehabilitated after the "Cultural Revolution" and was first transferred to the Encyclopedia Publishing House as deputy editor-in-chief. He has always been interested in the collation of ancient books and is familiar with us. He studied the Wenxin Carved Dragon, and "Dragon Science" became the xianxue of that time. Later, he promoted the establishment of an ancient book planning and sorting group, and the office was placed in the Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House, with an annual fund of 200,000 yuan, which he personally led Wei Tongxian and me to apply for in the city. At the end of the 1980s, we planned to publish a series of overseas Sinology books and asked Mr. Wang Yuanhua to be the editor-in-chief, but the editors-in-chief at that time were all pseudonyms, and even the editing fee was not given. This set of books had a great influence, and it was the first time after the "Cultural Revolution" that overseas sinology works were translated and published on a relatively large scale.
Can you talk about the composition and interaction with scholars at that time?
Qian Bocheng: I have been to Beijing many times, including two times as an assistant to Mr. Wang Yuanhua, and held a symposium on the drafting of articles for the Chinese literature volume of the "Great Encyclopedia" edited by him. For the publishing house, he mainly visited Yang Xiangkui, Luo Ergang, Qian Zhongshu, Yang Dai, Lin Geng, Ji Zhenhuai and other gentlemen. At that time, the policy was implemented, and some of them had already lived in the residence of the vice minister, and the floor of the room was paved with marble. I remember visiting Mr. Qian Zhongshu once, he was preparing a speech in the living room for attending the Pan Pacific Academic Conference, writing an outline in English in a notebook. When he saw us coming, he immediately put down his work, received us warmly, and invited Mr. Yang Dai to come out to meet with him. Mr. Yang Also gave me a copy of her Spanish masterpiece "The Little Leper", which she had just translated and published.
Several publishing houses in Beijing are our peers, of course, close relations, the People's Publishing House, the People's Literature Publishing House, the Zhonghua Bookstore, sanlian bookstore, etc., I am a must-go to Beijing every time I go, I have also met many friends, and through them, I have expanded the exchanges with the academic community for our publishing house.
We feel that the focus of publishing at that time was on the collection and collation of materials, the republishment of old works by well-known scholars, and the translation and introduction of foreign academic works, and there were relatively few original academic works in China.
Qian Bocheng: After the Cultural Revolution, intellectuals were encouraged by the phrase "there is no forbidden area for reading.". I remember that this sentence was first said by Zhou Yang after he experienced the pain of the catastrophe of the "Cultural Revolution." As everyone knows, there are still forbidden areas for thought, and there are forbidden areas for publishing, and all kinds of tangible and invisible rules and regulations restrict the minds of publishing house bosses. Until the National Book Fair hosted by Shanghai in 2005, the "Top Ten Good Books" were selected and recommended to readers. I did a statistic once and wrote a review that was published in the Beijing Daily. Of these "Ten Good Books," seven of them are translated from abroad, only three are from China, and one is from Central Taiwan in China, and all of them are reprints of old works. This basically reflects the situation in academia for a long time, and I am afraid that there has not been much improvement at present. Although the responsibility cannot be attributed to the academic community or publishing house, it cannot be assumed that there is no responsibility at all. Although the academic stagnation during the Cultural Revolution is a fact, it has actually been around for a long time.
According to today's standards, publishing at that time was not very standardized, such as not signing a publishing contract with the author, not paying attention to the publicity and marketing of books, and the income of employees had nothing to do with the quality of the publishing house's operation, but many people felt that the quality of books published in the 1980s was relatively high. So can the publishing industry in the 1980s be considered prosperous? What is the reason for the prosperity?
Qian Bocheng: At that time, it was really not very standardized, usually it was to write a letter to the author, and the author agreed to it and did not sign the contract. Nor does much emphasis is placed on book advertising. I once went to Beijing to organize a manuscript and went to the People's Publishing House to meet Mr. Fan Yong, the president of the company. I told him that the book ads of the thirties were so well written, so short and concise, that people wanted to buy them at first glance, and now they can't see book ads. Mr. Fan Yong immediately turned over a stack of copies of the advertisements of the 1930s and asked me to write an article, which I wrote in the guest house where I lived, and published it in "Reading" under the pseudonym "Xin Yu". Later, at the first publishing work conference in Changsha after the reform and opening up, Mr. Fan Yong also took this article as an introduction, and printed it into a pamphlet together with many pictures of books advertised in the 1930s and distributed it at the meeting.
At that time, there were really not many books advertising, and it cost one or two thousand yuan to publish a book, and many editors felt that it didn't matter whether the book was advertised or not. Our company still insisted, and published an advertisement in Guangming Daily every month to introduce new books, which has not been interrupted so far. Nowadays, many publishing houses have attached importance to book advertising, and there are often large book advertisements in the China Reading News. But do not pay much attention to the text and points, some only have the title of the book without the name of the author, some of the translated books only have the name of the author without the name of the translator, and some of them are the president or editor-in-chief of how to "rate all the staff", condescending, and even a little polite language does not care.
As for the boom in publishing in the 1980s, I think it can only be relative. Just after ten years of catastrophe, everything recovered, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, there was a momentum, and the publication went up.
Many publishing houses were in trouble in the 1990s, but what were the main reasons for the decline compared to the 1980s?
Qian Bocheng: In my opinion, there are two main points: First, in the process of transforming the general trend of the socialist market economy, publishing houses have been unable to meet the requirements of stressing both social and economic benefits. To put it bluntly, in the past, China's publishing houses, in the name of the state and the government, made a call for the selfless dedication of intellectuals, low fees, and low remuneration, and published large books one after another. Now, although the state also has a lot of subsidies and support for large publications, a lot of money is spent on conference fees and travel expenses, and the base cost is getting higher and higher, and the author's real manuscript fee is still relatively low. The second is that it seems that the CEOs of publishing houses should also strengthen their publishing philosophy a little. Taking the publishing houses of the 1930s as an example, the Commercial Press, the Enlightened Bookstore and the Life Bookstore are the representatives of the publishing houses of that era, each with the mission of opening up a generation of learning styles and leading the academic trend. There are 20 or 30 branches and branches in major provinces and cities across the country, and the Commercial Press is called for a new book to be published every day, and a large piece of "Daily Book" advertisement recommended by famous artists is published in several large newspapers such as "Declaration" and "News News", which truly achieves the combination of social benefits and economic benefits. We have such a good environment and conditions for our publishing house today, and we must also have such ambitions. Of course, some problems cannot all be blamed on the publishing house, and the competent departments should give the publishing house a relaxed and tolerant environment, and the publishing house should be loosened and less stipulated. I don't think it's good that books are being censored more tightly, more densely, more rigorously. If publishers are given full autonomy and initiative, they can make many large and good books. For example, the Zhonghua Bookstore's "Twenty-Four Histories" and the Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House's "Cihai" are revised every ten years, and the Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House's basic series of classical literature has been published in a hundred kinds, and these large-scale books are all made by the publishing house little by little by its own strength.
You have been the editor-in-chief of the publishing house for nearly ten years, and after retiring, you still care about the publishing business, there will always be some feelings, can you please talk about it?
Qian Bocheng: I am ashamed to say that I am very ambitious and small, and I have almost no sense of accomplishment, leaving only a lot of regrets. I have the greatest admiration for Mr. Chen Yuan, who, after retiring from his post as editor-in-chief of the Commercial Press, published a series of articles in internal newspapers and periodicals listing several regrets that he wanted to do but did not achieve when he was in office. I would also like to cite a few regrets: First, although an index editing office was set up, it was abandoned halfway in an atmosphere of general contempt for indexing work (especially the four-corner number). Second, at the beginning, it advocated photocopying work, but it led the whole company to mistakenly enter a "photocopying universal" publishing shortcut, and finally wanted to reverse it. Third, the original idea of producing a set of new four series of periodicals with editions as the Commercial Press and a new four-part preparation with a practical focus like China have not been realized.
Editor-in-Charge: Han Shaohua