When it comes to ancient books, the keywords that come to people's minds are often cold and difficult, and bright and incomprehensible. When I saw the desk of an ancient book editor born in the 1990s, this stereotype was instantly broken——
Young people + new technologies find new “ways” to open ancient books
Checking manuscripts, dealing with variant characters, and writing collation notes... these seemingly cumbersome and boring processes, Zhou Pan Yudi, a young editor born in the 1990s at Guangdong Lingnan Ancient Books Publishing House, enjoys them. She is looking forward to this new ancient books publishing house officially settling in Baiyuan. Later, I can participate in more and more challenging ancient book publishing projects.
In recent years, the protection and inheritance of ancient books has ushered in a fresh breeze, and more and more young people have gathered here like sparks. With their love and admiration for ancient culture, they have entered the world of ancient books. These young editors and scholars devote themselves to the compilation, research, publication, and digitization of ancient books. They use their youthful enthusiasm and wisdom to guard the fire of history and shoulder the important task of promoting the essence of Chinese studies into modern society.
Only with "true love" can we "do it well, do it deeply, and do it well"
The ancient books in Zhou Panyudi's eyes are as beautiful as the cute ornaments on her table. As early as middle school, ancient poetry made her have a strong interest in traditional Chinese history, culture and ancient books. After graduating from the History Department of Lanzhou University, she entered a publishing house and became an editor. After working for more than two years, she has participated in the editing of local chronicles such as "Nanhai Chronicle" and "Xiangshan Chronicle".
"Don't you think ancient writing is beautiful? It's concise, concise, and elegant." Speaking of the beauty of ancient books, Zhou Panyudi, who was originally taciturn, suddenly became active. In her opinion, the reason why ancient books are endlessly charming is not only because of the beauty of the words, but more importantly, the living history and vivid stories behind the words. "When I think about the ancients living, reciting poems, and writing in this land, and continuing the splendid civilization for thousands of years, I feel extremely magical and great."
And these endless cultural codes are hidden in pages and pages of ancient books. Zhou Panyudi’s greatest wish is to let these cultures “come out” from ancient books and enter the lives and reading horizons of ordinary people. "I don't have great ambitions when it comes to ancient books, nor do I deliberately pursue big publishing projects. As long as the ancient books I participate in editing can be successfully published, I will be happy."
The publication of an ancient book sometimes takes more than ten years or even decades, which scares away many young people, but Zhou Panyudi felt a different kind of romance from it. "It is indeed time-consuming, but I think this itself is also one of the charms of making ancient books." Zhou Panyudi said that editing ancient books is like immersing in the long river of history. Every proofreading and annotation is like having a conversation with historical figures. This kind of The feeling is unmatched by other jobs.
She said that many people think that ancient books must be difficult to read, with millions of words to read and difficult to read. In fact, in addition to these, there are many lightweight and easy-to-read ancient books. For example, the beautifully written "Tao'an Dream Memories" and the light-hearted and entertaining novel "Youyang Zazu" made her immersed in each book.
"Ancient books can be very close to ordinary people. For example, "Suiyuan Food List" is specifically about food. Many ancient people's diaries and notes actually write about everything, including daily life, hobbies, outings, etc." Zhou Panyudi said that Chinese history There are many excellent ancient books in the world that have been handed down to this day. After thousands of years of dust and frost, they are still shining and can still be used by us.
"Ancient books are a link between the past and the future, an important part of cultural inheritance, and a precious asset of our nation." said Baifeng, executive deputy editor-in-chief of Guangdong Lingnan Ancient Books Publishing House. "We hope that through the participation of young people, The work on ancient books has taken on new vitality, perfectly combining tradition and modernity.”
According to Baifeng, most of the editorial team of the newly established Guangdong Lingnan Ancient Books Publishing House are born in the 1980s and 1990s. Last year, the school recruited 5 people born in the 2000s. The overall team is very young and energetic, and is dedicated to the compilation and publishing of ancient books. This is a very healthy and advantageous talent structure. "Among the 80 topics we submitted last year, except for one project leader who was born in the 1970s, a large number of other editorial teams were born in the 80s and 90s. This is the future of our Lingnan Ancient Books Society."
What pleased Baifeng the most was that she saw in these young people their true love for ancient books. "After all, there is a threshold for making ancient books, and it is relatively boring. If you don't really love it, it will be difficult to even get started, let alone do it well, do it deeply, and do it well."
I hope that reading ancient books will become a "daily routine" for the public
In recent years, traditional operas, national music, classical poetry, intangible cultural heritage crafts, ancient calligraphy and painting, ethnic folk dances, etc. have continuously broken through specific circles, making traditional culture no longer a "heap of old paper" or an "old antique", but becoming trendy and new. Fashionable and interesting, it has gained a wider audience and created a sensation in society.
This is also the goal of Rao Xuyuan, assistant editor of the editorial department of "Lingnan Library" of Guangdong People's Publishing House. She graduated from the History Department of Sun Yat-sen University in 2016. She has not been engaged in editing ancient books for a long time, but ancient books have long been integrated into her personality and daily life. On weekdays, she often reads ancient books such as "Collected Commentary on Chapters and Sentences of the Four Books". She hopes that this kind of daily life is not just the daily life of ancient book professionals. It is also part of the daily life and cultural life of ordinary people.
Like Zhou Panyudi, she has received professional training and is full of fun in reading ancient books. "Every time I turn a page, I seem to be able to hear the echo of history, and I am looking for the wisdom of our ancestors and bits of life between the lines."
With the rise of cultural phenomena such as the national trend, traditional culture is gradually returning to people's vision, which is both an opportunity and a challenge for ancient book publishing. How to transform the value and aesthetics in ancient books into a form that can be accepted and appreciated by modern society has become a new topic for her thinking.
Rao Xuyuan believes that although traditional culture may have faults and misunderstandings in modern society, they still have strong vitality in today's daily life and are ubiquitous in daily life. "The environment in which we grew up has both traditional and modern aspects." Rao Xuyuan's WeChat signature comes from "The Book of Songs·Daya·King Wen", which reads, "I have no thoughts about my ancestors, and I have cultivated great virtues. I always say my destiny, Seek more blessings from yourself," she interpreted humorously: "To sum it up, people still need to accumulate virtue." She believes that this sentence contains thousands of years of traditional Chinese moral concepts and has influenced today.
In Rao Xuyuan's view, ancient books can be reworked over and over again, and they will never be finished, because every time they enter, it is another activation of ancient books with new concepts and needs of the times. Currently, Rao Xuyuan is working on a new edition of "New Accounts of Guangdong", a book handed down from generation to generation by Qu Dajun in the Qing Dynasty. The content ranges from Guangdong's climate, topography, scenic spots and historic sites, to legends, myths, folk customs, poems, songs, calligraphy and paintings by famous people. , even oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, flowers, birds, fish and insects, it is all-inclusive and is called the "Encyclopedia of Guangdong".
"Compared with the previous editions of Zhonghua Book Company and Guangdong People's Publishing House, this time we will focus more on highlighting Cantonese elements and increase the annotation and interpretation of Lingnan culture." Rao Xuyuan told reporters that the new version of "Guangdong News" is expected to be released in 2024 publishing.
The publishing of ancient books is becoming more and more diverse, ranging from simplified Chinese text to excerpts and annotations or reading books performed by famous speakers, from large-character books to pocket books, which can meet the needs of readers at different levels. There are not many dozens of compiled versions of ancient books like "Historical Records" and "The Analects of Confucius".
"The format of good ancient books is important, and publicity is even more important." Meng Xiao, who is responsible for publicity and marketing at Guangdong Lingnan Ancient Books Publishing House, told reporters that the ancient books publishing house has a dedicated cultural innovation editorial department and a digital technology department. Next, they will build their own new media platform, plan topic selections according to the tonality of different platforms, and extract interesting stories and knowledge points from the ancient books. While maintaining professionalism, they will try to make the ancient books "fly" in a relaxed and lively way. Enter the homes of ordinary people."
Presenting Cantonese culture through storytelling
Nowadays, the work on ancient books has extended from traditional text compilation to research and textual research. If the life and value of ancient books are to be truly transformed, they must move from simple compilation to research, and from research to the public. This point has long become a consensus among young people when writing ancient books.
The book is there, the context is there, and so is the culture. In recent years, with the help of young editors and young authors, many publishing houses have been actively exploring feasible ways to combine professionalization with popularization and marketization of ancient book publishing, so that voluminous documents and classics can be published with knowledge and interest today. The form of popular reading materials that combines both form and content has revitalized the vitality of the new era.
"Lao Guang Xin Yu" published by Guangdong People's Publishing House is one of the representative works. The author Wang Daxin is a native of Guangzhou born in the 1980s. In 2008, he and his classmates participated in the binding design competition for the cover of the "Lingnan Library" book series and won the cover design award. This award also opened another window for him.
"Lingnan Library" is a large-scale comprehensive series that comprehensively and systematically reflects and discusses Lingnan's history and politics, economic development, social culture, natural resources, and people's achievements. It is co-edited by the Lingnan Library Editorial Committee and the Guangdong Chinese National Culture Promotion Association. Published by Guangdong People's Publishing House, more than 100 books have been published so far.
"When you open the "Lingnan Library", you will find that it contains everything, including ancient documents and modern research on the history of Lingnan. If you read it, you will find it very interesting, but the reality is that most readers are not familiar with such large books. Only a small number of researchers will read it." How can we connect the knowledge of this kind of literature and books with the general public? For Wang Daxin, who has loved painting since childhood, what he is best at is using painting to express his ideas. To this end, he formed a creative team for "Da Hua Guo". For more than ten years, he and his team have used paintbrushes to trace Lingnan culture and published hand-painted city travel books "Old Guangzhou New Tour" and "Talk about Guangfu", hand-painted city maps of Guangzhou, postcards, wall calendars and other works.
They combined watercolor paintings with text to describe places and buildings that even old Guangzhou might not know, and then dissected them in detail. Just like annotating uncommon words, it guides readers to see and hear the stories behind old buildings and the cultural meanings in the details.
According to Xie Shang, senior editor of "Lingnan Library", as more and more new forces join in, the book series of "Lingnan Library" is also constantly exploring the path of marketization. Its popular series "Lingnan Cultural Knowledge Book Series" has published 228 kind. It has also launched a derivative series "Guangfu Library", which selects typical and iconic cases and starts from a small perspective to present the cultural value and historical heritage of Guangfu in a story-telling way.
"The publishing house's exploration of the publication of popular ancient books is of great significance." Zhou Xuanlong, executive director and party secretary of Zhonghua Book Company, said that no matter how rich the publishing forms are, the most fundamental factor that determines the quality of popular ancient books is the content. It is necessary to select and refine the content and carry out creative transformation, so that the traditional spirit can be integrated into contemporary life and generate positive significance.
Make ancient books “alive” with the help of digitalization
In recent years, China's excellent traditional culture has received unprecedented attention. A series of policies and measures introduced by the state have provided a good development environment for the development of ancient books. The research, protection, compilation and publication of ancient books have attracted more and more young people. people joining. However, young people still face many difficulties and challenges when writing ancient books.
Baifeng said that this is a highly academic job, which involves the bibliography, edition, collation, and annotation of ancient books. It requires the collection, inspection, sorting, and punctuation proofreading of work materials, which requires a lot of money. of time and energy.
Engaging in ancient book publishing requires crossing a high professional threshold. For Zhou Panyudi, although he already has a solid professional background, he still needs continuous learning and accumulation in actual work. In terms of how to accurately grasp the content of ancient books and reduce mistakes, he needs the guidance and training of his seniors. "The education of our generation is definitely not as good as that of our predecessors. But even if there is a risk of making mistakes, you still need to do it and constantly polish yourself in the process. If you don't do it, you will always be afraid of difficulties."
Rao Xuyuan also said that writing ancient books is very stressful. She not only ensures that the text is consistent with the original text, but also respects the author's opinions, and on this basis, makes the layout more standardized and easier for readers to read. "It also involves my own judgment. At this time, I have to communicate with the author. But I still worry about making mistakes because my knowledge is limited and there are inevitable errors. This process will be quite stressful. Once hundreds or thousands of copies are printed, , there is no way to change it." Rao Xuyuan said.
The younger generation may not be as well-educated as their predecessors, but they have their own advantages - more technical means and a sensitivity to new things. They are using their actual actions to prove that the younger generation can also assume important responsibilities in the inheritance and development of traditional culture.
The development of digitization, Internet, big data and artificial intelligence technology has brought unprecedented convenience to young people working on ancient books: online entry and proofreading of ancient books, AI automatic sentence reading and text correction and other technologies have subverted the traditional practice of collating ancient books, and the full text of ancient books Retrieval, text mining and tagging, knowledge mapping and evidence-based, etc., will certainly greatly change the research methods and paths of ancient books.
With the help of modern digital technology, heavy classics are condensed into a small space, and long-dusted historical scrolls are slowly unfolding, becoming cultural resources at your fingertips, which can effectively assist academic research. This new way of "opening" ancient books uses the power of digitalization to make ancient books truly "alive" and continue their life and radiance in new forms.
Yangcheng Evening News reporter Sun Lei and Chen Xiaonan