Chapter 58 Sikuquanshu Rare Books

Abundance In addition to military disputes, political disputes, etc., there is also a dispute over the "rare copies" of the "Siku Quanshu" that people do not pay much attention to if they are not idlers.Officials and businessmen must follow the original format and print it as soon as possible, but the academic circles think that there are deletions, revisions and errors in the library version. If there are other copies available, other "rare books" should be used instead. However, the propositions of the academic circles will not be passed, and the result must always be in accordance with the "Imperial Siku Quanshu".The reason for this is very clear, because there is a need to hurry.The four provinces are gone, and the nine islands have escaped [3], let alone the fact that the Yellow River's derailment [4] alone makes people feel that they are in dire straits, and they must hurry up if they want to do business.What's more, the word "imperial order" still has a little prestige, and "imperial doctor" and "tribute satin" mean something different.Even in France, which has long been a republic, Napoleon’s [5] collection is still more valuable than that of ordinary people at auction; It is a game that Chinese textual scholars are unwilling to play.However, it can also be seen that "rare books" that have been "imperially designated" are printed. In foreign countries, business can always be better than "rare books".

Even in China, I am afraid that the business is still good for "rare books".Because it can be used for decoration, but "rare books" can only be used for practical purposes.Those who can buy such a book are definitely not poor, and it is also known that after buying it, it will be placed on the living room.This kind of buyer will buy an ancient tripod from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties and put it on display; if he has to, he may buy a fake ancient tripod and put it on display; but he will never buy a casserole or iron wok and put it on a red sandalwood table.Because his purpose is "precious" rather than "good", let alone whether it can be practical.

People in the late Ming Dynasty had a good reputation, and engraving ancient books was also a custom, but they often couldn't understand them, thought they were typos, and changed them randomly.It is okay not to change it, but once it is changed, it will be corrected wrong, so later textual research scholars shook their heads and sighed, saying that "Ming people were fond of engraving ancient books, but ancient books died" [7].This time, the "rare editions" in "Siku Quanshu" are photocopied, and there is absolutely no disadvantage of correcting mistakes. However, there were unintentional typos and deliberate deletions, and because of the circulation of new editions, the rare editions can be obliterated. Going on, if serious readers in the future get such a book by chance, they will inevitably shake their heads and sigh a second time.

However, the result must always be in accordance with the "Imperial Siku Quanshu".Because the "future" has nothing to do with the current government and business. August twenty-fourth. [1] This article was originally published on August 31, 1933 in "Shenbao·Free Talk". 〔2〕The dispute over "rare editions" in the photocopying of "Siku Quanshu" "Siku Quanshu" is a series of books compiled under the order of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty.In order to maintain the feudal rule of the Qing regime, some books were destroyed or tampered with.In June 1933, the Ministry of Education of the Kuomintang government ordered the Preparatory Office of the Central Library at that time to sign a contract with the Commercial Press to photocopy the unpublished version of the Wenyuange copy of "Siku Quanshu" in the Beijing Palace Museum; the director of the Beijing Library Cai Yuanpei advocated the use of old engravings or old manuscripts to replace the library copies that had been tampered with by the curators of the Siku Quanshu. Bibliophiles Fu Zengxiang, Li Shengduo, and academics Chen Yuan and Liu Fu also advocated the same as Cai Yuanpei, but for the sake of education. Minister Wang Shijie objected. At that time, Zhang Yuanji, director of the Compilation Office of the Commercial Press, also advocated printing the library version.As a result, the Commercial Press still followed the official opinion of the Kuomintang, and published the "Preliminary Collection of Rare Editions of Siku Quanshu" from 1934 to 1935, with 231 selected books.

〔3〕Four provinces not seen After the September 18th Incident in 1931, Japanese imperialism successively invaded and occupied the four provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Rehe in northeast China.After the September 18th Incident, the French colonialists took the opportunity to put forward an unreasonable request to annex my country's territory of the Xisha Islands and the Nansha Islands, and in 1933 invaded and occupied nine islands in China's Nansha Islands.In this regard, the Chinese people protested. At that time, the Chinese government also made solemn representations to the French authorities through diplomatic channels.

[4] The derailment of the Yellow River refers to the breach of the Yellow River in July 1933, flooding Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Shaanxi, Anhui and even northern Jiangsu. [5] Napoleon (Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769-1821) Napoleon Bonaparte, a military strategist and statesman during the French bourgeois revolution, and emperor of the First French Empire.Napoleon had a large collection of books, which changed hands after his death. In 1932, some of them were transported to Berlin for auction, and then the French government managed to transport them back to Paris. 〔6〕 "Imperial Book Collection" is "Ancient and Modern Book Collection", one of the large-scale books in my country.During the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods of the Qing Dynasty, Chen Menglei and Jiang Tingxi were ordered to compile it successively, and it was completed in the third year of Yongzheng (1725).The whole book is divided into six sections: Lixiang, Fangyu, Minglun, Natural History, Neo-Confucianism, and Economics, with a total of 10,000 volumes.

〔7〕"Ming people liked to engrave ancient books, but ancient books died." In Qing Dynasty Lu Xinyuan's "Yi Gu Tang Inscriptions and Postscripts", Volume 1 "Six Classics Elegant Words and Diagrams", he said the following about the Ming people's arbitrariness and disorderly engraving of ancient books: " This is probably the case with the handicrafts of the Ming Dynasty, and the so-called engraved books are also dead."