【Guangming Shushu】
Author: Yao Yiming
One afternoon during the rainy season in June, I thought I hadn't been out for a long time to look for old books, so I braved the rain to go to the Rhino Bookstore in Fuxingfang. This old bookstore in the old bungalow has an excellent reputation among Shanghai book lovers, and it will be unexpected to visit often. By the time I got to the Rhino Bookstore, the rain had subsided, and I walked through the aisle full of book boxes, and the owner Xiaozhuang sat in it and immersed himself in the Internet. When I was picking books on the shelves, I came to a phone call, I went to the back of the bookstore, suddenly found that there was a small warehouse behind the rhinoceros, after making a call, I went to look inside, Xiaozhuang in addition to saying "the price of the books inside is high", let me choose at will.
Dai Wangshu (1905.11.15-1950.2.28)
Overjoyed, I found a copy of "Shopping for Old Books in Used Bookstores" edited by Wang Xiaojian from a small warehouse (China Literature and History Publishing House, September 1994 edition). In fact, I have a re-edition of this book, and this time I bought another one for the first edition because I have an unforgettable memory of this book, and it was this book that brought me into the world of old books. "Visiting the Used Bookstore to Find Old Books" begins with two articles by Shi Jingcun, of which the article "Buying Old Books" was written in February 1934, originally published in the "Modern" magazine he edited, and later selected into Shi Jingcun's prose anthology, which is written about Shi Jingcun's early experience of buying Western books, which mentions a French version of "Weilen's Poetry Collection":
"The owner of Tim Fu Bookstore at PengluKou is a Cantonese who once served as a Ding ding on a foreign soldier's ship, and he doesn't know much about books. So he won't ask for a very expensive price. My friend Dai Wangshu once bought a tricolor illustrated picture book of Wei Erlun's poems from him for ten yuan, and the five giant volumes were printed in leather, which was a cheap deal. Speaking of this collection of Verlaine poems, there is a good story. One day after Wangshu bought this book, a foreigner came, claiming to be the manager of the Aipro Film Theater, he also took a picture of this book at Tianfu Bookstore the previous day, and the next day he went to buy it, only to know that it had been sold, he asked wangshu's address from the bookstore owner, so he came to ask for appreciation. We only learned that this man was also a 'book whore', and now he has opened an old book shop with his wife on Yuyuan Road..."
This "Wei Erlun Poetry Collection" was originally purchased by Dai Wangshu, and later in the hands of Shi Jiecun, and later in the hands of Lu Hao. So, how wonderful is this "Weerlun Poetry Collection"? Lu Hao described in detail in the article "Picking Up Pieces of Tibetan And Western Texts in Beishan Lou":
This collection of painted leather hardprints of poems consists of six volumes, namely: Poemessaturmiens (1914), Labonnechanson (1914), Fetesgalantes (1915), Parallelement (1921), Jadisnaguere (1921) and Love Collection (amour, 1922), published by The Paris librairiealbert messein. Each book is preceded by a 'Printing Instructions', which I have asked Mr. Shi Kangqiang to help translate: 'Fifty volumes printed on Japanese paper, containing a set of one-line illustrations, signed by the art binder Renekieffer, 18 Rue Seguier, Paris, nos. 1-50; and the calfskin edition printed five hundred copies, no. 51-550. This Deluxe Edition will never be printed again. 'Each volume is numbered, the six books of poetry are numbered differently, and each book has a different author of painted illustrations..."
Paul Verlaine was a famous French poet, born in 1844 in Metz, who moved to Paris with his father at the age of five. After graduating from high school, he was admitted to law school, and then worked for an insurance company and the city of Paris, and began to publish poems in the publications of the Bana school. During the Paris Commune, he served as director of the Commune's information office. After the defeat of the Revolution, he went to England and Belgium with the poet Rimbaud and was imprisoned for two years for shooting Rimbaud drunk. After his release from prison, he worked as a middle school teacher and conducted farming experiments. In his later years, his family was ruined and he wandered in all directions. In 1896, he died of illness. Verlen is the author of more than ten collections of poems, such as The Saturn Man's Poetry (1866), Amusement Chart (1869), Untitled Romance (1874), and Wisdom Collection (1880). His poetic treatise, Poetic Art, is considered to be the program of the Symbolist poetic school. With his rebellious poetic style, which did not lose the traditional poetry, the poetry of sorrow and sorrow, Verlaine earned him a high reputation on the French poetry scene.
So when did Dai Wangshu give this "Wei Erlun Poetry Collection" to Shi Jiecun? In "Beishan Lou Tibetan Western Literature Collection", Lu Hao described it this way: "Mr. Shi and Dai Wangshu were classmates and friends, and when they were studying at Aurora, they shared a room and studied French with French priests, and in their early years they were fascinated by French symbolist poetry, Wei Erlun was a poet they liked together, and Dai Wangshu also translated many of Weierlun's poems." Dai Wangshu later gave this set of books to Mr. Shi, which was a memorial to the friendship between the two..."
According to Dai Wangshu's daughter Dai Yongsu, after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Dai Wangshu returned to Shanghai from Hong Kong with his whole family, got in touch with his old friend Shi Jingcun, and was introduced by the famous translator Zhou Xuliang, who was hired as a professor of the Department of Chinese at Shanghai Normal College, and at the same time served as a Spanish teacher at Jinan University, living at No. 11 Xinlu Village. In July 1947, Dai Wangshu was dismissed by the school authorities for supporting the patriotic democratic movement of Jinan University students; in May 1948, Dai Wangshu participated in the professor's strike, and the president of the Shanghai Normal College reported to the authorities on the grounds that he had contacts with the Communist Party. At this time, Dai Wangshu gave the "Wei Erlun Poetry Collection" to Shi Jingcun.
50 years later, Shi Jiecun gave the "Wei Erlun Poetry Collection" to Lu Hao, who was then the editor of wen wei po and had forgotten his friendship with Shi Ji Cun. For Shi Jiecun's "Collected Poems of Wei Erlun", Lu Hao's record is quite detailed:
"Since the 1990s, Mr. Shi Jingcun has begun to do the final work, and one of the tasks is to scatter books before he dies... At that time, I ran a small bookstore with a few friends, and Mr. Shi once said that he wanted to dispose of all the Western books, so I had to choose them and put the leftovers in the small bookstore for consignment... That afternoon, Mr. Shi introduced his old books in Spanish to me one by one, and it was the turn of this set of books to appear, although I did not know a word in French, but each poem in the book had a color inscription, which was very beautiful, and I fell in love with it at first sight. But Mr. Shi touched the book and said, "This set of books is still reluctant to send you for the time being, and I will definitely fulfill the contract in a year or two." Sure enough, two years later, I received a letter from Mr. Shi. The letter said: 'The Collected Poems of Verlen can be sent to you, and when the sky is clear, bring a bag to take it.' When I delivered the book, I asked Mr. Shi to write a few words on the book as a souvenir, and he said that he would write a paragraph in a few days, but he never wrote it out later. ”
Shi Jingcun (1905.12.3—2003.11.19)
Shi Jicun's book was scattered after he was over 90 years old, when he was deaf in the ear and had to rely on a magnifying glass to read, at that time Shi Jicun's interest had shifted to gold stone tablets and antique small pieces. He sent some rare old books either to consignment or gifts to friends and students, such as most of the lexicography books to the Taiwan Academia sinensis, Chen Yangong's engraving of "BaoyanTang" to the library of Hua Normal University, some English books to Li Oufan and other young scholars, French books to Shi Kangqiang, and Yale University Sun Kangyi's "Xiaotanle Room Hui Carved Hundred Family Boudoir Words", "Zhongxiang Words", "Famous Poetry Boudoir" and so on.
Reminiscing about the past, the story of the deceased, has not faded.
Guangming Daily (16/16/2019)