Chapter 14 4. The Scroll System of Books

After the emergence of paper as a writing material, the book history of our country entered the period of writing books.After the Eastern Jin Dynasty, paper replaced bamboo slips and silk as the only material for books, and the book system entered the age of scrolls. The scroll system originated from silk scripts.The silk script unearthed at Mawangdui uses a bamboo pole or wooden stick as a scroll, which is the earliest form of scroll that we can see now.When people use paper to write books, because of the similarity between paper and silk, people use the same method to glue the paper into a long length, stick the shaft to one end of the paper, and roll it into a bundle from left to right with this as the center. It is a scroll book.Books are written mainly in the form of scrolls, so books written on paper are also called scrolls.

Paper book scrolls are generally about one foot high, and the length of each roll is not fixed. According to the length of the article, the paper is glued to a certain length. The longest can reach two or three feet, and the short is only a few feet.The middle of the scroll is drawn in straight grids with ink and ink, and divided into many lines. These lines are called boundaries, which were called "Bian Zhun" in Tang Dynasty and "Xie Xing" in Song Dynasty.Since the scrolls originated from silk scripts, the circles are also called columns, the red ones are called "Zhusi columns", the black ones are called "Wusi columns", and the columns around the top, bottom, left, and right sides are called "side columns".The writing format of the scroll book is two blank lines at the beginning of each volume. Write the title first, and write the main text on another line. The main text is usually written in ink. If a book has the main text and annotations, the main text is often written in Zhu, and the annotations are written in ink. ; Or a single line of large characters for the text, and double lines of small characters for comments.After the main text, there is a blank line at the end of the volume, which is used as a question paper to count the number of chapters and words.When writing, the number of characters per line is usually around 20 characters, and some are as short as about 17 characters or as long as 25 or 6 characters.

The scroll book is the main form of writing a book, and its structure mainly consists of five parts: scroll, shaft, mounting, tape, and signature. The roll of the scroll is a banner made of paper glued together, some are long and some are short.The ancient books in our country are straight scripts, written from right to left, and the right end is the beginning.In order to facilitate reading, people glue the left end, that is, the last paper of a book, to the shaft, and roll the paper book from left to right, so that as long as the right end is pulled, it is the beginning of the book. The shaft of the roll can be made of various materials.There are ordinary bamboo and wood, but also glass, ivory and other things.The shaft is generally longer than the vertical height of the roll, and both ends protrude out of the roll for unrolling.

The left end of the paper book is rolled into the scroll, and the right end is exposed outside the scroll, which is easy to be stained, so people leave a blank space in front of the right end, or stick a piece of white paper to protect the scroll. This is called "mounting", also known as "Yuchi". ", commonly known as "Baotou". In the middle of the mounting, a silk belt is also tied to bind the scrolls, which is called a "belt". A large book often includes many volumes, and in order to prevent it from being mixed with other books, it is also wrapped in cloth or other silk fabrics, which is called "Zhi".When the scroll books are arranged on the bookshelf, in order to facilitate extraction and insertion, one end of the shaft head is laid flat on the bookshelf outwards, which is called a "insert".At the same time, in order to facilitate identification and access, a brand is attached to the shaft head, simply marking the title of the book, volume number, etc., which is the "sign".Picks are made of various materials such as tooth, bone, and jade, and sometimes colors are used to distinguish different categories.For example, in the collection of Tang Jixian Academy, red toothpicks are used to represent scriptures, green toothpicks are used to represent historical books, green toothpicks are used to represent sub-books, and white toothpicks are used to represent anthologies.

The writing paper is usually dyed with yellow tiller juice.The dyed paper turns yellow, so the paper is yellow paper.The reason why it is soaked with yellow tiller juice is to protect the books and keep the paper from being eaten by insects.This method is also known as "into Huang".At the end of the second century, Liu Xi interpreted "Huang" as "dyed paper" in "Shi Ming".In the Northern Wei Dynasty, Jia Sixie's "Qi Min Yao Shu" described in detail the method of entering the palace.Yellow paper is better than white paper.Most of the Buddhist scriptures discovered in Dunhuang were written on yellow paper. After being preserved for more than a thousand years, although the paper was damaged, the paper was intact and free of insects.

Scroll books had been perfected by the Tang Dynasty, but with the increase of tomes, the scrolls became very long. When reading, one had to unfold them while reading, and at the same time had to roll up the parts that had been read, and had to return them after reading. It is very difficult and troublesome to re-roll it before putting it on the shelves.Especially with the prosperity and development of social economy in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the cultural and academic development is increasing day by day, and the number of literature and classics is increasing. There are reference books such as "Beginners", "Baishi Liutie", "Beitang Shuchao" and so on. , as well as certain calligraphy and rhyme books.Since they are only for people to consult, one can imagine how difficult it is to check a word or an allusion in such a long scroll, so people feel that the scroll needs to be reformed.At this time, the Indian Buddhist Beiye Sutra was introduced, that is, the Buddhist scriptures were copied on the leaves of the Beiduoluo tree, and the upper and lower sides were clamped with wooden boards, which was called "Beiye Sutra". Repeatedly folding a rectangular book, and then adding two pieces of cardboard to the front and back respectively as the cover and back cover to protect the book, this creates a book that is "folded by the scriptures", or called "Vatican folder".Although the folding of the warp can avoid the trouble of unrolling the roll, it is still inconvenient for a thick stack to be easily scattered and torn when checking or reading. ".The folded and whirlwind form of writing this book is the form of transition from scroll book to leaf book. After the invention of printing, the form of book has completely changed to leaf style, and the development of books in our country has entered a new era—printing. The age of this book.