Chapter 14 Section 2 Reading, Collection and Preservation

Books are rid of insects and rats, natural aging, and damage in the process of reading and collecting.No matter how good the paper is, if readers don’t know how to love books, they can fold and flip at will, grasp with five claws, and turn pages with their fingers; place them at will, regardless of dampness, exposure to the sun, and dust in cobwebs, then no matter how good the paper is, the books will be very good. Almost moldy and damaged.Therefore, there is also a problem of book protection in the process of reading and collecting.In this regard, the ancient Chinese also set many models, accumulated rich experience, and summarized and proposed many effective methods.

Jia Sixie's "Qi Min Yao Shu Miscellaneous Theory No. 30" stated: "When reading a book, the first paper of the book should not be rolled quickly. If you are in a hurry, it will break, and if you fold it, it will crack. If you use the book tape to tie the first paper, it will be cracked. Volume. After one or two sheets, use the book tape to connect the top and bottom of the book, which is stable and not damaged. Do not use a tape to guide the book, if the non-straight tape is wet and damages the scroll, and damages the first paper hole, it should be led with a bamboo. The book tape should not be too large If you are in a hurry, you will break the waist of the book. If you ride over the book, it will also break the waist of the book." This may be the earliest and most complete record about the protection of books in the process of reading books.

This passage is difficult to understand, not because the text is difficult, but because it is difficult to understand abstractly out of thin air.During the Southern and Northern Dynasties period when Jia Sixie lived, the popular form of book binding was scroll binding.Scrolls are not unfamiliar to us modern people, because calligraphy and paintings are still mounted on scrolls, and almost every family has them, which is commonplace.At the beginning of the scroll, or in other words, before the main text, a section of empty paper must be mounted on a single piece of paper, which is exquisitely mounted with satin and silk. The purpose is to wrap the main text just after it is rolled up, so as to protect the main text.The empty paper at the beginning of this section was called the head of the head, or the head of the package, and also called the head of the protection.What Jia Sixie said in this passage is that when you open the paper for reading, you should not roll the first part of the paper too fast, too fast or too tight, otherwise creases will easily appear, and if there are creases, they will break.Ancient books on scrolls are prone to inertia after being rolled for a long time, and the pressure is not stable after opening, and the frontispiece is easy to automatically rewind, making it impossible for people to read.So the reader will use the pre-book tape to cover the head either up or down.At this time, because the number of layers rolled up is very small, it will be broken as soon as it is wound.If you don't wait until you have rolled one or two papers and then use the book to tie it, it will be stable and the book will not be destroyed.Books should not be tied with tape, as the tape will easily damage the book if it is wet, and it will easily make holes in the top of the bag.Bamboo should be used as other seeds and tied up slowly.Do not bind the books too tightly, otherwise the books will break easily.Open the paper and look at ten lines at a glance, eagerly looking for the words you are looking for, and quickly roll the scroll with your thumbs, and it is easy to cut the middle of the paper, causing it to break.This experience of reading scroll-bound books is actually a classic opinion on the protection of books during the reading process, and it still has its due value so far.

Fei Gun of the Song Dynasty recorded Sima Guang's love books in Volume 2 of "Liangxi Manzhi" and said: "The reading hall of Duke Wen's Duyuan has more than ten thousand volumes of literature and history, and those who are often read by Gong Chenxi, although they have been accumulated for decades, are all new. Untouched." Why is this happening?It's all because Sima Guang pays great attention to the careful care of books during the reading process.Every time he "opens the scroll", he must first look at the cleanliness of several cases, use them as mattresses, and then sit and look at them. Brain. Every time you look at a piece of paper, that is, the big finger of the right hand is lined with the edge, and the second finger is twisted and pressed over it, so that the paper is not cooked. Every time I see you, you often pick it up with your fingers and claws. Not my intention".This passage was spoken by Sima Guang to his son Sima Gongxiu. It was completely natural, without any sense of posturing, so it was true.Sima Guang was a well-known figure in the mid-Northern Song Dynasty.In the era he lived in, the form of book binding had already got rid of the scroll binding, and the word-for-word double-fold butterfly binding was popular.Butterfly packaging emphasizes the protection of the text in the frame, so the center of the edition is concentrated on the spine, and the rest of the surrounding panels are outward.This kind of leaflet-style binding is indeed suitable to be placed on a few cases when reading, and to sit and read.Because it is a butterfly outfit, you can see the full-page text every time you turn half a leaf.Therefore, he said that when it is necessary to turn over the leaf again, do not pick it up with the claws, but use the thumb of the right hand to lift the edge sideways, and then use the index finger to cooperate with the thumb to clamp the leaf and turn it over lightly.If you really need to read a book while walking, you should also put the book on a square wooden board and read it with your hands on the board, and you must never hold the book directly with your hands.The reason is that the hands are sweaty, it is easy to dirty the book, and it is easy to touch the spine of the book, resulting in bulk.This is the earliest and most complete example of the protection of books in the process of reading books in the stage of book engraving and printing.

More than 200 years later than him, the famous statesman, calligrapher, painter, and bibliophile Zhao Mengfu [fu Fu] once said, "It is not easy to gather books and collect books. Those who are good at reading books should calm their minds and think about them, and burn incense quietly." , don’t roll your brains, don’t bend corners, don’t use your claws to invade characters, don’t use saliva to uncover the frame, don’t use it as a pillow, and don’t use it as a pinch. Repair as it is damaged, and cover as it is opened. Those who get my book later will give this as a gift. Law." Zhao Mengfu's passage put forward ten requirements for those who are good at reading.One is to clear away distracting thoughts and concentrate; the other is to clean the books and burn incense.This is all part of the mind, not directly related to the protection of books.The third is not to roll the spine tightly, as tight rolls are easy to fall apart.Fourth, do not fold the corners of the book, as it is easy to break after a long time.Fifth, do not scratch the book leaves with your fingers and claws to turn them over. Scratching will damage the book leaves.Sixth, don't tip over the book leaves with your fingers dipped in saliva, otherwise the books will be wet, dirty, or damaged.Seventh, don't use books as pillows, as pillows will destroy books.Eighth, don't use bamboo clips to flip books with leaves. Bamboo clips are hard and will stab the book if you are not careful.Ninth, the book should be repaired as soon as it is damaged, do not make a small damage into a big one, and repair it when a big damage becomes a broken one.Tenth, open the book when reading, and close the book after reading.Don't leave it open for a long time without covering it. If you leave it open for a long time without covering it, the book will foam, which is not good for the book.The Ten Books of Reading can also be said to be a model for protecting books during the reading process.

Since then, such as Gao Lian in the Ming Dynasty, Sun Congtian, Huang Pilie, Chen Zhongyu, Ding Bing, Ding Shen and other bibliophiles in the Qing Dynasty have discussed the aspects of reading, collecting and protecting books.Together with their predecessors, they set an example for the protection of books in the reading process in ancient China, put forward requirements, accumulated experience, formulated norms, and provided reference.Although our modern scholars don't need to be old-fashioned, we can't rest on books, sit on books, even sleep on books, tear books; we can't break books, fold books, grab books, or scratch books; In the process of borrowing, you should not forcefully break, fold, circle, or even tear up intentionally, and take it as your own.If you read books and destroy them, you are an unworthy descendant of the Chinese nation.

There is a tradition of public and private book collections in ancient China.Since there is a collection, there is a problem of preservation.Moreover, China has a vast territory, and there is a huge difference between the north and the south, the east, the west, the cold, the warm, the dry and the wet.How to take corresponding measures according to the local climate characteristics to protect the collection of books is a practical problem faced by the ancient Chinese.Facts have proved that the ancient Chinese answered this question correctly with their own successful practice.To sum up, the protection of books in the process of ancient book collection generally includes several methods such as warehouse ventilation; timely drying;If these methods can be used simultaneously and complement each other, the effect will be very significant.

It seems to be common sense that the library should be ventilated.Ventilation will remove moisture, and moisture will prevent insects from growing mold.Therefore, Xie Zhaozhe said in "Wuzazu" that "the place where the book is placed should be ventilated."Ye Dehui's "Ten Book Collections" says that the library "It is advisable to open windows in all directions to ventilate, and to introduce the sun into the room...Windows and cabinets should be kept open, and the buildings are especially expensive and open. The rain tiles are wet in the sky, and the tide is even worse than the air. Column The method of the cupboard is like the Tianyi Pavilion of the Fan family in Ningbo. The Wenyuan Pavilion of the Siku and the Wenlan Pavilion of Zhejiang are imitations. The houses are all empty, and the couplets are bookcases. That is to say, for ventilation, not only should the house be tall and bright, but also the shelf space should be wide, and the books should also be loose, so as to ventilate everywhere and keep the library dry.But the ventilation also depends on the wind and the season, not all winds.Ye Dehui said: "When the east wind breeds insects, close the east window." Because the east wind produces all things, and all things depend on the east wind.Therefore, ventilation in the library is an effective way to protect the collection of books.

The ancients also had many good words about hanging books.Jia Sixie's "Qi Min Yao Shu" said: "May is hot and humid, silverfish will grow, and those who don't stretch the book in summer will surely grow insects. After May 15th and before July 20th, you must stretch out three times. When it needs to be sunny, in the cool place under the big house, where the sun is not visible. The sun exposes the book, making the book color [yeye]. The hot scroll, the insects grow faster." This passage means that from May to July, The heat is so hot that silverfish are easy to grow, and the leaves must be stretched to ventilate and remove moisture.On sunny days, the books are also hung in a cool place under the big house. The purpose is also to ventilate and remove moisture, and prevent insects and mold.And avoid exposure to the sun, once exposed to the sun, the book will fade after being exposed to ultraviolet light.In particular, books that have been exposed to heat will be rolled up, and insects will grow faster.

Sima Guang also said: "When I am old and above, I lie down in the Double Ninth Festival. Depending on the weather, I will set up a few cases on that day and write a group of books on them to expose my brain. Therefore, although the years are deep, they will not be damaged in the end. move." As we said earlier, Sima Guang lived in an era when butterfly outfits were popular.Butterflies are sewn together in the center of the edition on the right side to form the spine, so each leaf has to be glued to each other.Adhesive things are most afraid of being damp. Once damp, they are prone to worms and easy to fall apart. Therefore, Sima Guang will dry his books on sunny days every year between the first day of the first month and September 9th to ensure that the spines of the books are free from moisture and worms. , Do not open glue spalling.After the Song Dynasty, bibliophiles talked about the generation who exposed the books and hung them.It provides another valuable experience for how to protect books in the process of book collection.

Regarding placing insect repellents or insecticides in the library to prevent insects from damaging books, the ancient Chinese also had a good recipe for a long time. "Qi Min Yao Shu Miscellaneous Theory No. 30" said: "In the bookcase, you want to get musk and papaya so that silverfish will not grow." This is the practical experience of the ancients 1500 years ago, but musk is too precious, and it may not be enough to use it on a large scale. .Papaya belongs to Rosaceae, deciduous shrub or tree.Its bark can be used as medicine.It is light yellow in color, bitter in taste, has aroma, removes dampness and heat, and its properties and functions are very similar to that of Phellodendron amurense, so it can also prevent insects when placed in a bookcase. Song Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan" records: "The ancients collected books and used Yun to avoid beetles. Yun, vanilla, is also called Qilixiang by people today. The leaves are peas, which grow in small clusters. The leaves are very fragrant. After autumn, the leaves are slightly fragrant. It is as white as powder juice, and it is very effective in avoiding beetles." This is another herbal medicine that the ancients put in the library. Because of its good effect, rue is still used to prevent beetles in the Yuan, Ming, Qing, and even today.There are two ways to avoid beetles with rue: one is to put rue in a bookcase, and the other is to ignite rue to smoke the library and kill adult beetle eggs.According to legend, Tianyige believed in this thing so much that it sandwiched rue among the leaves.Legend has it that there was a girl named Qian in Yinxian County, Zhejiang Province, named Xiuyun.Born to love books, whenever I hear that there are no strange books, I will try to buy them.Her uncle Qiu Tieqing once told her that Fan's Tianyi Pavilion has a very rich collection of books, and many of them are rare in the world.At the same time, there is a weed grass, which is light green but not dry.She was very envious when she heard about it, so she embroidered hundreds of rue trees with her own hands and couldn't stop, so she got the name Xiuyun.The parents speculated about her feelings and did not want to violate her deep meaning, so they married her to Fan Bangzhu, the owner of Tianyi Pavilion.After marriage, she asked to see the Yuncao, but her husband refused her request because she was forbidden to be a woman. Xiuyun felt lost and couldn't afford to be ill.Beside the pavilion where weeping and begging for burial before death, I am satisfied with my eyes.It shows how wonderful the grass is in the library. Of course, some people put lotus, mugwort leaves, tobacco leaves, artemisia, orchids, mustard greens, etc. into the bookcase later.Later, there were also those who threw camphor.There is also roasted eel smoked library.But they are not as influential as Yuncao.The ancients named the book collections as Yunju, Yunge, Yuntai, and Yunshu, and the titles of books as Yunbian and Yunzhi, which is the reputation of protecting books by Ruxiang. As for the cover made of leather, the book cover is the same as human clothing, not only to keep warm from the cold, but also to be beautiful, so the ancients also called the book cover a book jacket.The book jacket has the function of protecting the text of the book, but it also pays attention to the status and taste.In the Qing Dynasty, Sun Yitian made the following comments in the "Binding" section of his "Book Collection Minutes": "Those who use Song Jian for writing, also use ink and sprinkle gold to write... Until the Ming Dynasty, few people paid attention to binding when collecting books. Cotton patina is always used, and most of them use Chuan Lian for written table paper. Qian Zunwang Shu Gutang bound it, and used self-made five-color paper for writing, or foreign paper for writing. Although the binding is gorgeous, it is not perfect. It is not as good as Mao axe The Jiji ancient pavilion uses Song paper, Buddhist scripture paper, and Xuande paper for binding, dyed elegant colors. Self-made ancient paper is even better. As for Songjiang yellow and green paper, add Changjin sets, and gold paper is the most vulgar." A very wonderful comment reveals the different tastes of the Ming and Qing dynasties in binding book jackets.Books have clothes but no clothes, so naturally they have no protective cover.But the clothes are good or bad, naturally there are also differences in the degree of protection and the difference in taste.Just like the modern hardcover, ordinary books, ordinary book covers, are naturally easy to be torn at the corners and damage the content.The hardcover and protective cover will naturally not wear the corners of the book, and it is beautiful, dignified and generous.For the rare books in the Beijing Library, the covers are very particular.The academic works that are serious, official and historical are mostly made of Kuciqing. The paper is thick and elegant, and the color is elegant. When you read it, you can read it solemnly.If it is a book or an art book, the edition value is high, use wax paper, sprinkle gold paper, hair paper, make the skin and content consistent, combine book protection with beauty, and combine beauty with use stand up.Therefore, the rare book reading room of the Beijing Library not only has exquisite rooms, tables and chairs, but also has special mahogany reading shelves. Readers are never allowed to fold the book covers to death.If the book cover is broken to death, the staff will be negligent and the reader will be punished for making mistakes.It can be seen that from ancient times to the present, there is a tradition of encapsulating elegant book jackets, protecting books, and improving grades. In addition to book jackets, the ancients also had the tradition of making letter covers and boxes for books in order to further protect them from dust, moisture, sun, and keep them flat for a long time.This wind already existed during the Northern and Southern Dynasties.The letter means to be closed. The letter cover and the letter box are to seal the book with a cloth cover, a brocade cover, or a wooden box, so as to protect it from dust, moisture, sun and sun. Cloth letter, or cloth cover, evolved from Jian Ceshi's bag, which was also called Zhi.When the Jian Ce was popular, the edited slips were rolled up from the tail forward, tied up and put into cloth bags or baskets for safekeeping.Later, the paper book replaced Jian Ce, but the scroll packaging directly inherited Jian Ce's packaging, so it was still packed in a bag.When the book binding was dominated by leaflets, letter covers and book boxes gradually emerged.In fact, it still does not lose its purpose.There are roughly two types of cloth letter and brocade sets, one is a four-in-one set and the other is a six-in-one set.The so-called four-in-one set is to cut the cursive paper to match the thickness, width, and height of the book, stick it with cloth strips, and then wrap it with cloth or brocade, and add a book on the left side of the book, The top, bottom, left, and right sides of the book are all wrapped, only the top and bottom of the book are exposed, so it is called a combined set.If the head and the feet are also wrapped, it will cover six sides, so it is called Liuhe set.Whether it is a four-fold set or a six-fold set, after folding up, down, left, and right, there will always be a surplus of folds that meet on the front of the jacket of a book.How the intersecting straw paper forms a plane here, the ancients were ingenious in this square inch, cutting them into crescents and cloud heads, so as to intersect and connect with each other.Therefore, it is also called crescent cover and cloud cover. Those who are more particular than letter sets are wooden boxes.Volume 4 of Su Yi Bamboo Books of the Song Dynasty said: "Li Yang Bingyun: 'Papers are often read, and it is advisable to hide the box deeply, so as not to let the wind and sun invade.'" The "box" here refers to the bookcase, book box.The ancients made book boxes with particular attention to the materials used. Sandalwood, nanmu, camphor wood, catalpa wood, dense wood, ginkgo wood, neem wood, etc. have all been used.But it is better to use nanmu and camphor wood together.Phoebe is not too hard and not too heavy.But the wood pattern is beautiful, the wood color is elegant, and the book is very strong.And it is moisture-proof and waterproof.It is said that nanmu is soaked in water and cannot be invaded by water, so nanmu is often used as pillars in royal palaces, and its stigmas are not easy to be damp and decay.Using camphor wood as the board, the book is clamped up and down to make the book flat.And camphor wood is fragrant, prevents insects and beetles, and protects books.The combination of the two is elegant, fragrant, insect-proof and moisture-proof, and it is a combination of beauty and use.So far, the special and first-class rare books in the Beijing Library are still in such letter boxes, and their preciousness matches the book. Of course, China has a vast territory and great differences in climate, so the use of cloth covers and letter boxes cannot be stereotyped, and the glue pillars are pleasing to the eye.Different forms must be adopted according to different climates in different regions.Sun Congtian's "Book Collection Minutes" said that there is a lot of rainfall in the south and the air is humid. "It is better not to use the book cover, but it will be eaten. Even if it is stored in a red sandalwood box, it will inevitably end up."Therefore, he pointed out that for the collection of books in the south, "the plywood is the most suitable. The splints are made of catalpa and nanmu, which do not breed insects and lose their properties. They are firm and light in quality. Huali and jujube are next, and they are slightly too heavy."In the north, there is less rain and more wind and sand, and the task of dust prevention is heavy, so four-in-one sets, six-in-one sets, and even letter boxes of various woods can be used.It can be seen that whether to make a box or not depends on local conditions.