Mark Twain once said, "Classics are books that everyone thinks they should read but haven't read." Although this is a joke, it also tells part of the truth: although classics are good, there is a threshold for reading classics. of.
For example, a tome like "Zizhitongjian" and a mysterious and mysterious philosophical work like "Laozi" are really like a mountain for non-professionals, and it is insurmountable.
Therefore, it is very necessary to invite competent experts and scholars to interpret and restate the classics in the face of public readers.
Zhonghua Book Company is recognized as an important academic publishing center of ancient books in China, and has made great contributions to the inheritance and dissemination of classics.
In recent years, Zhonghua Book Company, while still attaching importance to academic publishing, has also increased the pace of mass publishing by combining its own advantages, and has begun to transform academic resources.
On August 15, "Chinese Classics General Knowledge" published by Zhonghua Book Company held a new book launch conference in Shanghai, and held a seminar on the combination of online and offline with the theme of "Classics Become General Knowledge".
"General Knowledge of Chinese Classics" is published by Zhonghua Book Company. It is a set of "Little Books" by contemporary famous masters to interpret traditional classics. .
The authors of the series include scholars who have made outstanding achievements in this field from various universities across the country, including Fudan University, Tsinghua University, Peking University, East China Normal University, Tongji University, and Shanghai Normal University.
This series is open-ended, and the first batch of five works are published - "General Knowledge of Zizhi", "General Knowledge of Lao Tzu", "General Knowledge of Zhuangzi", "Journey to the West" and "A Dream of Red Mansions" General Knowledge, and two to three more books are expected to be published this year.
Using readers as interlocutors to balance popularity with academics
"Zizhitongjian" is too large for ordinary readers to read directly.
How to convey the essence of "Zizhi Tongjian" through a general knowledge book with only 100,000 words is the key question of Mr. Zhang Guogang, the author of "Zizhi Tongjian" and a senior professor of liberal arts at Tsinghua University. .
At the seminar, he introduced the position of thinking about the book "General Knowledge of Zizhi Tongjian" from the standpoint of readers.
He said that when he received a writing invitation, he considered how to present a 100,000-word book that was thoughtful, academic, and easy to understand, and imagined what readers expect from the book from the standpoint of readers.
He pointed out that the general education courses in various universities across the country are currently being highly valued, and this set of books will provide a good reference text for general education.
There are various books of the introductory nature of Lao Tzu, and there are too many annotations and anthologies of Lao Tzu.
How to write a different general book for Laozi?
After a series of reflections, Guo Yongbing, a professor at Fudan University and the author of "General Knowledge of Lao Tzu", decided to write based on the early manuscripts unearthed, in pursuit of a balance between new knowledge and old knowledge.
It is not a simple reconciliation, but there is a spiral improvement in understanding, and what he thinks is the real "general knowledge" about Lao Tzu, "Lao Tzu" book and Lao Tzu's thought, and provide it to young people who are willing to read "Lao Tzu".
For example, the book focuses on the era of Lao Tzu and its relationship with famous figures (Confucius, Peng Zu), the origin of ideas, the position of writing, the nature of Lao Tzu and the characteristics of compilation. The analysis of traditional documents is not open, but to a large extent it also relies on the new knowledge brought by the unearthed early manuscripts and related information.
The interpretation and analysis of Lao Tzu's main ideas, core terms, and some key chapters (such as doing nothing but doing everything, Chang, Shang Shan is like water, and being flattered) are also studied through new knowledge in ancient manuscripts and various Lao Tzu annotations in history. , mainly written in the philological method.
Guo Yongbing mentioned that we should let our readers, especially young people, get really close to the classics and be willing to appreciate them. Rigorous and cutting-edge, don't go astray. My little book was conceived from the beginning: never take some common sense out of the box, and then write something casually to please or even flatter the reader. In this regard, Oxford General knowledge should be the object of our pursuit. The trade-off between popularization and academics is torn, and readers should be treated as interlocutors or even opponents, and the attitude of writing should be serious.”
In order to let readers appreciate the classics, Guo Yongbing used a lot of color pictures of the text of Lao Tzu in the book, so as to perceive the evolution process of the text of Lao Tzu over the past dynasties.
I hope to let readers return to the historical scene to touch this ancient classic.
Zhu Hongbo, a professor at East China Normal University and deputy director of the Academic Committee of the Chinese "Journey to the West" Culture Research Association, is the author of "Journey to the West" General Knowledge.
Zhan Dan, professor of Shanghai Normal University and vice president of the Chinese Society of Dream of Red Mansions, is responsible for the writing work of "A Dream of Red Mansions".
They also separately shared the importance of the popularization of the classics.
Classics are "landmarks" rising from knowledge to wisdom
Professor Chen Yinchi, Director of the Center for International Studies of Chinese Civilization at Fudan University and Director of Fudan University Libraries, is both the editor-in-chief of "General Knowledge of Chinese Classics" and the author of one of the volumes, "General Knowledge of Zhuangzi".
He believes that the status of classics in culture is beyond doubt.
For example, the older generation of historians believe that the "First Four Histories" ("Historical Records", "Han Shu", "Later Han Shu" and "Three Kingdoms") are historical classics and must be read by historians, even scholars who specialize in Ming and Qing history. Read, because only after reading through these four books, will the later history books be "powerful".
This is the positioning function of the classics, and the classics are the "landmarks".
As the editor-in-chief of "General Knowledge of Chinese Classics", Chen Yinchi's requirement is that the author must first provide the most basic and important knowledge about this classic, and then rise to the so-called "wisdom" issue.
"How to write about wisdom is also very important. For example, in the book "General Knowledge of Zhuangzi" I wrote, when it comes to wisdom, it does not only focus on "Zhuangzi" itself, but from the comparison of Lao Zhuang, Confucianism and Taoism, Even in the comparison with other cultures in the world, we can talk about the 'wisdom' embodied in the book Zhuangzi." Secondly, Chen Yinchi also mentioned that there is another requirement for the writing of this set of "general knowledge" that there must be evidence. "I said in my lecture that "Zhuangzi" was not written by Zhuangzi, and many readers expressed surprise. I also talked about this issue in "General Knowledge of Zhuangzi". ” Talking about the formation process of this book, in fact, the thirty-three works of Guo Xiang in today’s general edition are an anthology, and the sources of each chapter are different. Only in this way can the relationship between “Zhuangzi” and Zhuangzi be clearly explained.”
As the planner of "General Knowledge of Chinese Classics", the publisher Jia Xuefei said when introducing the original intention of publishing this set of books, how to interpret Chinese classics with new ideas, new horizons, and new academic heights and pass them on to the public, so as to condense the centripetal force of Chinese culture. The question they have been thinking about, "Based on our successful experience in building a bridge between academic research and public reading for many years, after two years of market research and visits to target readers in various fields, we decided to make a set of traditional Chinese classics. Knowledge must read, and build a knowledge framework for the majority of readers, especially contemporary young people, to recognize traditional culture."
Zhou Xuanlong, executive director and party secretary of Zhonghua Book Company, mentioned in his online speech that 2022 is the 110th anniversary of Zhonghua Book Company, and they have held a series of celebration activities one after another.
At the beginning of the establishment of Zhonghua Bookstore, the founder, Mr. Lu Feikui, said that education should be used to open up people's wisdom and inherit civilization.
"As a publisher, I have been thinking, what is the function of our publishing house? Publishing as an industry, the purpose of publishing in Chinese history is to solve the problem of communication. In the past few years, Zhonghua Book Company, in addition to publishing ancient books for academic services In addition, he has been thinking about how to serve the public, how to turn academic achievements into public knowledge, and express academic achievements in a popular way, so that more people can accept and understand. A set of books is a result." Cover reporter Zhang Jie