Chapter 12 Collector of printmaking books

Collector of printmaking books -- Mourning Mr. Zheng Zhenfeng Mr. Zheng Zhenfeng made many contributions to my country's New Culture Movement: he is one of the founders of the Literature Research Association 1. Editor-in-chief of "Novel Monthly" for many years, engaged in the introduction and translation of Western literature in his early years; when he went abroad in middle age, Began to pay attention to the collection and arrangement of operas and popular literature in Yuan and Ming Dynasties in my country.During this time, he discovered and published He wrote many rare novels and scripts of Ming and Qing Dynasties. After the "September 18th" and "January 28th" incidents, he learned

As the enemy destroyed our country's culture and plundered cultural relics, I was horrified, so I noticed the looting of our country's ancient cultural relics. rescue and protection work, so the focus of his research is on archeology again, and he exiled our country Famous paintings, books, bronzes, ceramics and other works of art from outside the region have been compiled into various maps to arouse everyone's attention. During the Anti-Japanese War, he still stayed in the occupied Shanghai to work, changed his name and surname, and snapped up the Public and private book collection, he has gained a lot in the past few years, and has preserved a lot of cultural treasures for the country.

In particular, the discovery of more than 200 Yuan and Ming dramas in the old collection of the Maiwang Museum is an event that can only be encountered but cannot be sought after. Because of this batch of Yuan and Ming dramas that have been proofread by famous authors, they have been considered lost by bibliophiles for many years. He died, and now, thanks to his efforts, he was discovered and returned to the country.After the liberation of the whole country, he was more able to With great ambitions, he is responsible for the protection and arrangement of cultural relics and archaeological research in our country, with great achievements.There are many generals

The art treasures of our country that have fallen into the hands of outsiders were able to return to the treasure house of the motherland because of his efforts. Mr. Zheng Zhenduo also made great efforts to collect ancient Chinese woodblock prints and book illustrations.He has filmed Printed and reproduced several rare woodblock paintings, such as "Gu's Ancient and Modern Paintings", and cooperated with Mr. Lu Xun He hired workers to re-engrave "Shizhuzhai Jianpu" in Beijing, and collected all kinds of woodblock water popular in Beijing at that time. Printed letter paper, compiled into "Peking Jianpu".This is epoch-making in advocating the inherent woodblock art of our country

grand event.Today, Beijing Rongbaozhai woodblock reproductions are well-known at home and abroad, of course because of the woodblock art of our country. The long and glorious tradition has been carried forward with the strong support of the country, but the first to promote it back then, In fact, I have to attribute it to Mr. Lu Xun and Mr. Zheng Zhenduo.Because in the environment at that time, no one really noticed And this, if there is, it is just regarded as a study room.Nobody takes them seriously, and I think it will be helpful to the emerging art of printmaking in our country.How about Mr. Zhenduo and Mr. Lu Xun?

The process of round-trip consultations and fundraising for the publication of "Beiping Jianpu" and "Shizhuzhai Jianpu" can be found in the From Mr. Lu Xun's letter in "Lu Xun's Letters", we can see that if we have the opportunity to read Mr. Zheng Zhenduo's The last letter written to Mr. Lu Xun during this period of his life should enable us to better understand their painstaking efforts in planning this move I passed by alone. Mr. Zheng Zhenfeng is not a rich man.In addition to using public money for the collection of books purchased by the public, he

In addition, his personal collection of rare novels, operas, prints and pictures is all based on his own teaching and selling of literature. Yes, sometimes even on loan, or by selling another part of the collection to acquire this part.these passages, We only need to read his "Secretary in the Tribulation" to know it clearly.And he is so frugal, Even the motivation to borrow money to buy books is not "for the sake of collecting books" except for one's own hobbies. Book collection" is really because this is the precious cultural heritage of the ancestors. In the time of war and chaos, if it is not as good as

If they are rescued in time, they will not only be exiled abroad, but may even be lost forever. His publishing of engraving books also adopts the method of temporary credit to the printer and the method of making an appointment. To carry out, such as those several sets of ancient Chinese paintings, artifacts and other atlases seen outside the region, historical reference atlases, As well as the most famous "Illustrated Catalog of the History of Chinese Printmaking", they were all carried out in this way.these precious pictures Most of the records were published when Shanghai had already fallen to the Japanese, or when the legal currency was depreciating wildly

At the time, he suffered many unexpected difficulties and losses in his business, but he was still working hard with tenacity. Go down and keep going.Except for the "History of Chinese Printmaking" which is not complete, the other kinds of maps are almost the same. Most of them were completed on schedule. Among the catalogs printed by Zheng Zhenduo, I think the most worthy of attention is the history of Chinese prints.although Although he has not completed the textual description of this history, but in the arrangement of the plates, it can be said that It's mostly done.This is something that has never been done before, all relying on their own strength from thousands of heads

The work of searching and sorting among the thousands of threads is also the most rare.His history of Chinese prints, in the article In terms of word description and graphic selection, the scale is very large, and a total of twenty-four volumes in sextuple will be printed into thread-bound editions. Among them, the text part is not typesetting with lead type, but is all printed with woodblock engraving, and the pictures are all Printed in collotype and color-overprinted wood: the text occupies four volumes, including the history of prints in the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties, and the early Ming edition

History of Painting, History of Hui School Printmaking, and History of Modern Printmaking. The remaining 20 volumes are all pictures. There are more than 1,700 prints in my country in the past dynasties, including illustrations of various books, embroidered portraits of novels and operas, and folk paintings. New Year paintings, genre paintings, letterheads, religious and sacrificial supplies, and so on.He himself wrote in the "Compilation" of this book: "In the catalog of this book, there are more than 1,700 pieces collected by everyone, except for the ones in my own collection, almost all of them are collected by me. The essence of national bibliophiles, all the rare copies of secret books obtained by public and private libraries, must be recorded when they are seen, and can be read at any time False seals, long feelings and friendship, will never be forgotten.In the meantime, there are those who have been killed by soldiers, and those who have fallen to the old capital Those who have hidden the key and cannot see it again, and those who have gone to several houses and lived overseas, fortunately Saving pieces of feathers, sinking in pain! " The color printing part of the catalog, especially this history of printmaking, is the essence of it, because it is all made of wood according to the The original painting was reproduced, and then printed in ink and color, and some of them had to be overprinted more than ten times to complete.This not only makes the current The oblivion of Beijing's woodblock color printing art has been revived, and it is precisely because of the active advocacy that Today's famous Beijing woodblock watermark painting has opened up a new path. Today, our woodblock prints are getting rid of the influence of Western woodcuts, and we are trying our best to adapt to the original folk woodblock prints. Engraving to learn, this "History of Chinese Prints" edited by Mr. Zheng Zhenduo provides us with a The richest reference available. Mr. Zheng's achievements in collecting and arranging our country's rare books and books and protecting cultural relics are multi-faceted.but I I have always liked the art of printmaking, and I think it is only from this aspect that for this person who suddenly left us The cultural heroes who have gone, I really regret it! Hong Kong, November 1958