Chapter 21 Jin Zutong and Chinese Bookstores

Mr. Zheng Yimei who is currently reading the supplement "Ancient and Present" of a certain newspaper: "Guo Moruo's Return to China", in which he mentioned Jin Zutong, who studied oracle bone inscriptions, and said that he had passed away before 1949, which I only know now.If so, it would be a pity, because he was still very young. When he left Japan with Mr. Guo and returned to Shanghai in 1937, he was still in his twenties.In this way, he was only about thirty years old when he died. Zheng Jun said that Jin Zutong used the pen name "Yin Chen" to write "Guo Moruo's Return to the Country Secret Notes", with a total of 70,000 to 80,000 characters. It was published by Yanxing Publishing House in Shanghai in 1945, and it was written in the style of a novel. It's a pity that I have never had the opportunity to read it, so I don't know how to write it.

Mr. Guo went to Japan in 1928 because of the "Ninghan Split" and "Nanchang Uprising". He published the article "Please Look at Today's Chiang Kai-shek". Fleeing to Japan to avoid disaster.Zheng Jun said that he went to Japan to engage in the research of ancient history oracle bone inscriptions, which should be his work after arriving in Japan, not the purpose of his trip to Japan. Jin Zutong studied oracle bone inscriptions with Mr. Guo in Japan, and he was his private disciple.Jin’s family ran a Chinese bookstore in Shanghai. This was a bookstore in Shanghai that specialized in buying and selling ancient thread-bound books at that time. It was opened in the alley opposite the New World Amusement Park on Nanjing Road. , Therefore, I also have contacts with those ancient bookstores in Japan.Books published in Japan on the study of Chinese classic editions are also entrusted to them for sale. Therefore, some of our bibliophiles are also customers of Chinese bookstores. Zheng Zhenduo, A Ying and others often visit this bookstore.

Later, the books published by Mr. Guo in Japan, such as "Compilation of Divination Ci" and "The Great Collection of Two Weeks of Jin Wenci", were also sold by Chinese bookstores. After Jin Zutong returned to China with Mr. Guo, he had very close contacts with everyone during the "August 13" period in Shanghai.This was the period when Salvation Daily was founded in Shanghai.Later, the Songhu battlefield changed, and news spread in the concession that the Japanese would be detrimental to the National Salvation Daily.In order to be prudent, we temporarily abandoned the office upstairs in the mainland shopping mall, and temporarily set up the editorial department in a Chinese bookstore, borrowing their "stove room" to publish manuscripts, and entering and exiting through the back door.Every night, under the hidden light, everyone worked there until the big sample was sent to the printing house for printing, and then a business car was hired to take everyone home.The young Jin Zutong dared to lend his bookstore to the Salvation Daily in the concession environment where the Japanese were rampant at that time. It was a very brave act.