Beijing, March 3 (Zhongxin Net) -- In ancient documents, "notes" are a very important part; they do not have a certain style, but they contain rich information, and have always been valued by researchers.

In the recently published "Notes on the Golden Yuan of Quanliao" (first series), many interesting stories of ancient literati were recorded. Zha Hongde, editor-in-chief of the "Quanliao Jinyuan Notes" and professor of the School of Literature of Nankai University, mentioned in an exclusive interview with a reporter from Chinanews.com that in the "Liaojinyuan Notes", there are quite a few records of foreign regions and northwest travels, most of which were not available in previous generations.

In addition, in ancient times, some people mistakenly believed that the god and demon novel "Journey to the West" was written by Qiu Shuji. Cha Hongde said that the author of "Journey to the West" is not Qiu Zhiji, but "Journey to the West" is closely related to Quanzhenjiao in its creation and circulation.

The author of "Journey to the West" is Qiu Zhiji?

Open the table of contents of the first series of "Notes on the Golden Yuan of Liao", and you can see that it contains 43 kinds of notes and documents of the Liaojin Yuan period such as "Burning Pepper Record" and "Journey to the West of Changchun Real People". Whether "Changchun Real Journey to the West" and "Journey to the West" are related is an interesting and complex question.

Screenshot of the 82nd edition of "Journey to the West" video

"Changchun Zhenren was a famous Quanzhen Taoist priest Qiu Zhiji at the time of Jin Yuan, who was summoned to the Great Snow Mountain of the Western Regions to meet Genghis Khan and preach, and his accompanying disciple Li Zhichang recorded his experience in detail and compiled it into a travel record, that is, "Changchun Zhenren Journey to the West". "Journey to the West" is a novel of gods and demons, which is now generally believed to have been written by Wu Chengen. Chahonde said.

The two books were originally incompatible, but they once inexplicably climbed into a relationship. For a long time, some people said that the author of "Journey to the West" was Qiu Shuji. Cha Hongde believes that this stems from a "forgery" in the early years of the Qing Dynasty, and the counterfeiter was Wang Qi, who cooperated with Huang Zhouxing to name the "Journey to the West" as "Journey to the West" (full name "Ancient Book of Journey to the West"), commented on and published it, and forged a Yuan Dynasty poetry and text master's "Preface to the West" at the front of the volume.

In the preface, it is said that a Hengyue Ziqiong Taoist took a manuscript and asked Yu Ji to write the preface, saying that the book was "Journey to the West compiled by Qiu Changchun in the early years of the country." Written in the Ming Dynasty, "Journey to the West", the author became Qiu Zhiji. In fact, not only the author of "Journey to the West" is not Qiu Zhiji, but the author of "Changchun Real Journey to the West" is not Qiu Zhiji.

So, is "Journey to the West" and Qiu Zhiji unrelated? Chahonde said that indirect, deep relationships can really be found. The famous scholar Chen Hong has conducted research and examined the relationship between Journey to the West and the Taoist Quanzhen School in general.

"For example, the novel quotes a number of poems written by the True Believers; A large number of Neidan cultivation terms were used and so on. He explained, "All this shows that 'Journey to the West' is closely related to Quanzhen Sect in its creation and circulation. ”

Take notes on good stories in stories

The number of "Liao Jinyuan Notes" is relatively large, which can be called a treasure trove of information. Most of the notes of the Yuan Dynasty were deliberately written by literati, and the books were not hidden, and rich historical and cultural information was scattered in between. For example, the "Records of Helin Guang" has been lost, but some non-texts are still preserved in other documents.

"Notes of Quan Liao Jinyuan" (first series). Photo courtesy of Elephant Press

Song Lian's "Luoshan Collection" said: "According to the "Records of Helin Guang": The country of the extreme northwest is known as the detractor, the land is lowly and wet, the near sea, the day is not gone, there is no night, and the sun only turns north and dawns. "Presumably, this should be a valuable record of the Arctic "white nights."

In addition, the world style and morale style of the Yuan Dynasty were close to the "Wei and Jin Wind Flow", and the literati either entertained themselves with poetry and wine, or met in the mountains and forests, and some interesting stories were also passed down as good stories.

Tao Zongyi recorded a story related to the article Grandmaster Yao Xiao in the "Nancun Leaving Cultivation Record", entitled "Yutang Marrying a Prostitute". At that time, Yao Xiao was a Hanlin bachelor, and once held a banquet in the Hanlin Academy, and the singers were listed.

"One of them was a singer who was beautiful and graceful. Yao Xiao called her to inquire about her origins, only to learn that she was a descendant of the Song Dynasty Great Ru Zhendexiu and was unfortunately sold into a prostitute. Cha Hongde said that after learning the inside story, Yao Xiao sent someone to intercede with Cheng Xiang, hoping to restore her status as a good person.

Cheng agreed, and immediately ordered the priest to remove her. Yao Xiao told Huang Yu, a small official next to him, that he would marry this woman to him as his wife, "I am her father." Huang gladly complied. This incident spread in the capital, and for a while it became a major event in the literary circle, and some people wrote poems to praise it.

Which papers can be selected?

"Quanliao Jinyuan Notes" is a large-scale series of broken notes with unique value. For example, through these notes, people can observe from multiple perspectives, and it is possible to obtain a more objective and comprehensive understanding of the relationship between Song Liao, Song Jin, and Song Yuan at that time.

"Individual notes also have characteristics. Reading Wang Xingbu Zhi of Liaodong and Records of the Travels of Yajiang in the middle of the Jin Dynasty, I felt the elegance of Confucianism. This may greatly change people's perception of the society and culture of the Jin Dynasty. Chahonde said.

In addition, there are quite a few records of foreign regions and northwest travels, most of which were not available in previous generations. Yuan people travel to places that no one has traveled before, and enter a place that no one has ever entered, and the exotic feelings and exotic imagination in it are novel and special.

In his specific work, Chahonde found that the first problem encountered in the compilation of this series was how to define the concept of "notes" and the scope of collection.

"It can be said that notes are random records, random records or excerpts, and do not have strict style, are not systematic, and are not tightly systematic." He said: Although there is a basic consensus in the academic circles on this, there are often considerable differences when it comes to a certain book, and we can only see different opinions and hold their own opinions.

"Notes of Quan Liao Jinyuan" (first series). Photo courtesy of Elephant Press

Because it was difficult to draw absolutely clear boundaries for the "notes", Cha Hongde and the compilation team could only determine the selected books according to the specific conditions of the notes of the three generations of Liaojin Yuan and their own understanding of the notes. All these issues are willing to accept criticism and suggestions from academic colleagues. ”

Future or continued revisions

In terms of the overall scale, the "Quan Liao Jinyuan Notes" plans to compile and proofread all the existing notes of the three generations of Liaojinyuan, compiled according to the author's birth year, and published in 4 series, each series of 10 volumes, and its work complexity can be imagined.

In addition, for all the notes collected in the book of a certain scale, the collator writes a summary point proofreading description, including the author's short biography, the completion of the book, the basic book used and the proofreading overview, and other information that needs to be introduced, and collects valuable documents such as prefaces, inscriptions, and narratives of scholars of previous generations for the academic community to study.

Not long ago, seeing the successful publication of the first series of "Quanliao Jinyuan Notes", Cha Hongde was mixed with a trace of nervousness, "During the entire editing process, the project team and the editorial team took every note and every problem seriously, and did their best to do their best. ”

He said that the exchanges during the compilation of the manuscript were even more frequent and meticulous, sometimes just a word, a punctuation, a proofreading note, and repeated discussions, finding evidence, and jointly determining.

"But taking notes is so hard that problems and mistakes are almost inevitable." Chahonde said, "We are willing to continue to revise after publication, hoping to get criticism from the academic community." (End)