Hu Shi (1891-1962), born in Jixi, Anhui, is a famous scholar, thinker, educator and social activist in modern China. Hu Shi has always had a "book addiction". He loves visiting bookstores and libraries all his life, buying and collecting books, especially collecting ancient, rare and rare books.His collection is not purely for collection, but for textual research. Hu Shi read, studied, discussed and wrote books all his life.The books he talked about are wide-ranging and numerous. Only a small part of them is selected here, all thirty-nine articles are compiled into four series: 1. Fourteen articles of "Books and Shadows of the Past", respectively sorting out the book-making process and edition origin of several classical literary works, poems, novels, operas, etc. All of them are covered; 2. The nine articles of "Small Collections of Literature and History", which deal with the Spring and Autumn Period, philosophers, and Buddhism, are mostly topics of concern to traditional scholars, and also belong to the issue of cultural inheritance; The prefaces and book reviews written by contemporaries reflect the author's high sensitivity to new trends of thought and his broad vision of building a new culture; 4. The three articles "Yuzhi's book addiction", talks about the experience of searching for books and reading, The bookman's addiction can be seen to have its own interest.The titles of each series are added by the editors.

Hu Shi talked about books in various forms.There are reading experiences, textual research on books, reviews of new books, and prefaces for new or reprinted books at the request of others. Hu Shi's calligraphy has a foundation of deep research and extensive knowledge, so some of his calligraphy are academic papers with detailed information, rigorous arguments, and unique insights, while others are fresh and lively prose with clear narration, thorough reasoning, and unique features. Highly informative, academic and very readable. Hu Shi talked about traditional Chinese novels, focusing on the textual research of authors and versions, and the tracking research of the evolution process of historical stories.He placed the traditional novels, which had always been regarded as "small ways", on the same footing as traditional Confucian classics and scholars, and did the same research, creating a new generation of research on traditional novels with scientific spirit and textual research methods.He researched and talked all his life, and founded the "New Red Studies", which made the research break through the model of penetrating and attaching, and embarked on the road of modern empirical science.At the same time, Hu Shi also attached great importance to the appreciation and analysis of art. Just read his "Preface to "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness", "Preface to "Lao Can's Travels", "Preface to "Biography of Heroes", "Biography of Shanghai Flowers" "Preface" and "Preface to "The Appearance of Officialdom" can be understood.

When Hu Shi talked about old and new poems, words, songs, and scripts, he always focused on the general trend of literary development, and argued that vernacular literature, civilian literature, and living literature would inevitably replace ancient literature, aristocratic literature, and dead literature as "orthodox literature."He asked people to get rid of old ideas and look at "Chu Ci" with scientific spirit and methods.He highly praised "Song, Jin and Yuan People's Ci", "Song People's Eight Variations" and "Zui Baiqiu", which he spent a lot of time collecting and publishing, and fully affirmed that those newly published poetry collections, novels and plays are the foundation for the creation and development of new literature. contribution made.

In his early years, Hu Shi, based on the forefront of the times, analyzed and evaluated books with a scientific and democratic spirit. Especially books on politics, philosophy, history, education, etc.He wrote a preface to "Wu Yu Wenlu" and said unequivocally: "Because the 2000-year-old man-eating rituals and laws all have the signboard of Confucius, so this signboard of Confucius-whether it is an old store or a counterfeit ——I have to take it down, crush it, and burn it!" Warmly praised Wu Yu as "a scavenger in the Chinese ideological circle" and "an old hero who punched holes in every store with one hand".

He looked at the collation and publication of all ancient books with the thoughts of "spirit of doubting the ancients" and "organizing the country's heritage and rebuilding civilization".He believes that there are about three ways to sort out the history of the country: "One is index sorting; the other is general ledger sorting; the other is special history sorting." "<Huinan Honglie> Collected Explanations" says that Liu wrote this book as "the most rigorous and lawful" and "its unique achievements". Hu Shi advocated the writing of biographies and memoirs throughout his life, in order to leave authentic and reliable first-hand information for future research on history.Therefore, he admired Zhang Xiaoruo's "Biography of Mr. Zhang Jizhi" written for his father very much, and he happily wrote a preface for it. He also said that there are many people in modern Chinese history, "should have a vivid sketch to record their lives, and embroidered They searched and verified their facts with the precision of a needle, and judged their status in history with bold and far-reaching insight.”

In short, Hu Shi's writings reflect the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty and value orientation of that era.His analysis and evaluation of some books often stand higher than the author, see farther, and analyze deeper and wider. He often states the original works in a concise and concise manner, so that readers can grasp the clues and see the overall situation clearly in the fog.He either clearly reveals the deep meaning of the original work, or even the meaning that the author has not yet realized, so that readers can understand the meaning in the text, or even the meaning behind the words; In addition to the original book, readers can gain a lot of valuable knowledge; or while making a general introduction to the original book, they can extract the most typical and exciting plots and combine them skillfully so that people can directly experience the novel. See the subtlety of the original work; or comment on the original material selection, tailoring, structure, soul-stirring description, and superb artistic language to make people feel that it is so wonderful!

However, Hu Shi "has hated the abuse of names in society the most" in his life.Therefore, whether he was invited to write prefaces for other people's books or write book reviews in general, he "swears not to favor favoritism, not to say entertainment words against his will", and he does not say empty words without research, let alone use his own words. The name goes to participate in "fry" or something.He has always clearly put forward his own opinions and criticisms on the problems or shortcomings in the original works. His criticism is objective and calm, but often harsh.

As a leader in the early modern new culture of China, Hu Shi left a very rich and precious cultural heritage to future generations.In this regard, we need to conduct in-depth research with a scientific attitude and method. Only in this way can we have a rational understanding of the development of Chinese academic culture throughout the 20th century. Cao Boyan Cao Yang February 10, 1997 ① See Diary of May 19, 1921.The 1985 edition of Zhonghua Book Company "Hu Shi's Diary" (Part 1).The same below.