As for what is a book, there is almost a clear image in the concept of modern people, and there seems to be no problem.But if you call Zhen'er, the formation and evolution of the word "book" really needs a simple explanation. Books were also called classics and recorded books in ancient times. "Mencius Gao Zixia" said: "The place of the princes is hundreds of miles; if it is not a hundred miles, it is not enough to keep the classics of the ancestral temple." Zhao Qi of the Eastern Han Dynasty commented on this sentence, saying that it is "the text of the ancestors' regular records. "That is to log in the text of the relevant procedures. "Shangshu" pseudo-Confucius "Preface" said: "Qin Shihuang destroyed the ancient books, burned books and buried Confucianism." Here "classics" and "books" are synonymous.

"Historical Records·Biography of Boyi" said: "Scholars who have recorded books are extremely rich, and they still believe in the six arts." Look into it.” Here “zaiji” is obviously also a synonym for “book”.However, the continuous reading of the two characters "Book" developed into a word, and its origin seems to be later than "Classical Records" and "Zaiji". In the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a famous philologist named Xu Shen.He has a famous book on philology called "Shuowen Jiezi".Xu Shen said in "Shuowen Jiezi·Xu" that according to legend, there was a historian named Cangjie during the time of the Yellow Emperor, who first created writing.There are two types of characters: one is based on pictograms, which is called composition;Attaching text to a certain form of material is called a book.It can be seen that the ancient people's concept of books is that anyone with writing can be called a book.

Regarding "Ji", "Jade Pian" quoted "Shang Shu" pseudo-Confucian "Preface" and said "Ji" means borrowing, which means borrowing bamboo slips to record political affairs in words, which has the meaning of registration and recording, so Called Ji.This is not much different from the concept of "book", so later generations connected the two characters together to form the term "book". "Book of the Later Han Dynasty" records that Ma Rong became the school secretary in the fourth year of Yongchu (AD 110) in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and was ordered to be the secretary of the Dongguan Dian School.In the second year of Yuanchu (AD 115), he wrote an "Ode to Guangcheng".In the preface of this eulogy, he humbly calls himself an ant, incompetent, and works as a "book".This is probably the earliest record of the word "book".

"Three Kingdoms · Wei Zhi · Wang Can Biography" records that Cai Wenji's father, Cai Yong (yong Yong), was a famous writer in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and was deeply respected by the court.His house is often full of cars and horses, full of guests and friends.Once when he was having a banquet, he suddenly heard that Wang can had come to the door. He was so panicked that he put on his shoes and came out to greet him.After entering the door, everyone was surprised to see that it was only a short and thin young scholar.Cai Yong saw through everyone's thoughts, and told everyone that Wang Can came from a famous family and had special talents and learning. I am not as good as him, and all the "books" and "articles" of my family should be given to him.To show that he is willing to bow down.This is probably the second earliest record of the word "book".It can be seen that the concept of the word "book" in the late Eastern Han Dynasty is almost the same as it is now.Compared with the era when "anyone with writing can be called a book" mentioned earlier, it is obviously a great progress.Therefore, there should be two concepts of "books": one is archival materials in the nature of written records, which can be called early books; , Works written, engraved, and printed on certain forms of materials in words can be called regular books.All these show that books have their own history of development, and the concept of books also has a process of evolution.