Text / Zhang Mingyang

  Published on 2020.6.29 total issue 953 "China News Weekly"

  In the past two days, I was really surprised to organize the bookshelves. Suddenly found that there are a lot of "classic interpretation" books added in the past two years. Interpreting two books of "Historical Records", three books of "Zi Zhi Tong Jian", as well as those of "Book of Songs" and "Chu Ci", reading "The Analects of Confucius", "Mencius" and "Laozi"... There are as many as 19 classics in China. This is not yet a huge IP of Tang poetry, and there are more than ten books in total.

  In my opinion, compared with the past, the biggest feature of the classic publishing fever in the past two years is that it has a strong knowledge popularization characteristic. The traditional classic publishing is basically the original text annotations of ancient books. In my list above, strictly speaking, there is only "Analects of Analects". The so-called popularization of knowledge is highly related to the "knowledge pay fever" in the past two years. Both of Chen Zhenghong's "Time and Space" and Yang Zhao's "Reading of Historical Records" are derived from audio programs.

  The alliance between audio and publishing is not really a new phenomenon. Didn't hundreds of forums more than ten years ago spawn many classic bestsellers? In the final analysis, it is difficult to provide sufficient economic stimulus and flow (fame) stimulus to domestic first-line authors for new creations based on the publication itself. This extra stimulus used to rely on a collection of programs such as 100 forums and print media columns. Now it is paid for audio-based knowledge.

  The fundamental driving force for this round of classic publishing is still the market. I try to analyze the reason.

  First, the classic interpretation itself is part of this fragmented reading era. The interpretation of classics is not to reread classics, but mostly to split classics into knowledge points, which can help you get familiar with the "essence" of classics in a short time. If you do not intend to read the original book, reading can help you achieve the so-called "cognitive upgrade"; if you intend to read the original book, it can be a good warm-up before reading.

  The reading threshold for classical interpretation is low. Chen Zhenghong is a professional scholar at the Institute of Ancient Books Sorting at Fudan University, but he admits that "Time and Space" is just "a popular book with a little academicity." It is very common for top scholars to write popular and popular books abroad, but due to obstacles such as academic evaluation systems, it is a new phenomenon in China in recent years. In my opinion, the entry of top scholars will be a beautiful new world with great imagination in the future of the domestic publishing market.

  I have to admit that most readers will not read most of the original Chinese classics. It is a good thing to let the public know more about the classics. In the classic interpretation and publication of the past few years, in addition to professional scholars in literature and history, some cross-border intellectual elites have also joined in. For example, writer Zhang Wei interpreted "Chu Ci" and "Book of Songs", and writer Ge Fei interpreted "Jin Ping Mei". The writer Tang Nuo interprets the notes of Zuo Zhuan, and the poet Zhang Dinghao interprets Mencius. These cross-border interpretations add more richness and dimension to classic publishing. The personal writing style also expands the readership from literary and historical lovers to literary and art lovers.

  "Guoxue fever" has been surging for countless years, but with the rise of readers' awareness and various analysis of the media, some inferior Guoxue practitioners and publications have gradually lost their aura. All authors are relatively reliable and academically secure. Readers slowly began to discover that classic reading books may be the most reliable "third path" between the unpredictable original reading and the pseudo-nationalist soul chicken soup with traps everywhere and the absurd wild fox Zen. To put it bluntly, you want to obtain relevant knowledge and aesthetics, but you have no intention and determination to read the original book. Reading classics is a relatively best choice.

  With the escalation of education competition in primary and secondary schools, "big language" is becoming a new competition outlet. Both students and parents who want to have the ability to tutor are the target readers of classic reading books. I have also encountered such a situation. Parents who originally went to school with a strong sense of utilitarianism really became interested in the process of reading.

  Reading the original is certainly very good, but if you think you are at the top of the chain of contempt, and you can’t look down on classic interpretation books, then the original may also be read in vain.

  "China News Weekly" No. 23, 2020

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