China News Agency, Beijing, July 21, Question: Du Weisheng: What role does ancient books play in inheriting Chinese civilization?
Author Tao Siyuan
The vast ancient Chinese books are an important carrier for recording Chinese civilization and a precious cultural heritage that has been passed down to the present day.
Today, the protection, inheritance and development of ancient Chinese books are of great significance to continuing the Chinese culture, promoting the national spirit, and enhancing the country's cultural soft power.
How do ancient Chinese books connect with Chinese civilization?
How to make ancient books "live" and even "pass on"?
Du Weisheng, a research librarian of the National Library of China, the inheritor of the representative project of national intangible cultural heritage, and an expert in ancient book restoration, recently accepted an exclusive interview with the "East and West Questions" column of China News Agency and made an in-depth analysis of this.
China News Service: When did China begin to pay attention to the restoration of ancient books? What are the principles and concepts of ancient book restoration today? Which technologies are borrowed from the West?
Du Weisheng:
China's awareness of book restoration originated very early.
"Historical Records: The Family of Confucius" mentioned: "Reading "Yi", Wei compiled the three musts", which should be the bud of Chinese book restoration consciousness.
The Northern Wei Dynasty Jia Sixie's "Qi Min Yao Shu" has the earliest record of the restoration of books: "... Since I don't look at it from the Ming Dynasty, I don't realize it." From the Tang Dynasty to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the central government has set up a collection of books and repair books. Specialized Agencies.
The Beijing Library (the predecessor of the National Library) established the Restoration Unit in 1950, and there was no separate restoration department before.
Since ancient times, Chinese people have paid attention to "repairing the old as the old", and its standard is the "slightly unaware" advocated by Jia Sixie.
In recent years, with the increasing exchanges with the West, China has also borrowed some new concepts, such as "minimal intervention" that is more focused on security.
But what China needs to learn from is not technology, but theoretical research and the compilation of restoration history.
There are two reasons for the huge gap in these aspects. One is that there are too few documents, and the other is that the practitioners have generally been craftsmen since ancient times, and their cultural level is not enough.
In 2021, visitors will take pictures of ancient Chinese books on the display wall at the exhibition "Chefu Qianhua: China and Asia - Chinese and Foreign Rare Books and Books Collected by Zhejiang University".
Photo by China News Agency Fa Zhuojing
China News Agency reporter: You have devoted yourself to the restoration of ancient books for more than 40 years, and have witnessed the development of contemporary Chinese ancient book restoration techniques and concepts. Can you give an example to talk about the greatest value and significance of ancient book restoration?
Du Weisheng:
In 1990, I went to the British Library to help him restore the Dunhuang suicide note.
In a fragment, I revealed a very precious Tang Dynasty "勑". The British staff did not know what it meant. When they learned that it was equivalent to "the will of the king", they were greatly surprised.
Later, the logo used by the British Library's "Dunhuang International Project" was the word "勑" on this "勑".
This is one of the very successful cases of cultural exchange and cooperation between the East and the West.
Du Weisheng's restoration work photo.
China News Agency issued Tao Siyuan's photo
Dunhuang posthumous writings were collected in the then Jingshi Library around 1910, but they were not restored.
Until around 1990, the Beijing Library decided to establish a project for restoration. After many discussions, experts in various fields jointly set four principles: First, "saving lives first, then treating diseases", giving priority to repairing the parts that are damaged at the first touch, and ensuring later repairs It can be operated at any time; the second is "do not add or expose", try to ensure that the original "does not move"; the third is "reversible", any process that is not suitable can be overturned and redone; the fourth is "minimum intervention", which can be repaired Just patch it, stick it if you can, and don't mount it if you can.
In 1992, the International Symposium on Dunhuang Posthumous Notes was held in Xiangshan, Beijing.
After the meeting, several nuns from Fo Guang Shan, Taiwan visited the Beijing library and saluted me as soon as they saw me.
This incident touched me deeply, and I had never thought about it like this before.
If it is extended, restoring ancient books is actually inheriting the context.
As the old saying goes, "one hundred books save one" is actually less than 1%, and most of them are lost.
Today, we are talking about improving cultural self-confidence. The precious ancient books left behind are the best proof of cultural self-confidence, and cultivating books is doing our best to prolong the life of the ancient Chinese civilization.
China News Service reporter: In a sense, the purpose of the restoration industry in the cultural field is to continue the Chinese civilization. How is the restoration of ancient books different from other restoration industries?
Du Weisheng:
Ancient book restoration and other restoration industries are of the same nature but have different meanings.
In the restoration of cultural relics, any object symbolizes only a point in history, but ancient books are a line of history.
Subdivided, the restoration of ancient books can be divided into five aspects.
First, from the "Records of the Grand Historian" to the "Twenty-Four Histories", the cultivators of the scriptures and histories of all dynasties and dynasties have to revise them.
Second, the development of Chinese ancient books is also the development of comprehensive technologies such as printing, papermaking and binding.
Taking paper books as an example, the books before the Five Dynasties were all scroll-shaped, and the Five Dynasties began to transform into album paper. After the Song Dynasty, it was changed to "butterfly packaging". In the Yuan Dynasty, "backpacking" that could be quickly produced appeared. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was suitable for Large-scale production of wire-bound books is the main ... The improvement of this series of binding technology actually stems from the improvement of printing and papermaking technology.
In 2019, the "Conservation and Inheritance of Chinese Traditional Culture and Books Exhibition" held at the National Library attracted visitors.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Du Yang
Third, Chinese ancient books have linked the shift of cultural focus in different historical periods.
The works of the pre-Qin scholars were the main content of books in the Han Dynasty, and during the Sui, Tang and Song dynasties, Buddhist scriptures became the main content of the books.
However, during the Song Dynasty, the culture represented by poetry reached its peak, especially after the appearance of the Pinghua script, the demand for books other than religious content increased sharply, and most of the "jibu" books appeared at this time.
After the popularity of novels in the Ming Dynasty, the people's demand for book content became more diverse.
On June 8, 2013, the unveiling ceremony of the "National Center for the Study of Ancient Books Restoration Skills" was held in the National Library of Ancient Books.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Guanguan
Fourth, the expansion route of ancient book content is actually the development route of ancient education.
In ancient times, "paper" was always a luxury, so books initially only served the literati class, and the content was mostly "academic" and "religious", and this has lasted for more than a thousand years.
It was not until the opera and novels were completely popularized in the Ming Dynasty that books sank to the bottom of the society, and the readership group expanded to the homes of ordinary people.
The "Cao Jue Bai Yun Ge" and "Agricultural Miscellaneous Characters" commonly used in later generations were all popular after the Ming Dynasty. The reason was that the common people began to learn basic culture, which was a huge progress in the process of Chinese civilization.
Finally, the circulation and inheritance of ancient books alludes to the succession of the management systems of the feudal dynasties.
For political reasons, the Buddhist scriptures and Confucian classics of all dynasties were provided by the government with "original copies" before they could be printed and circulated.
The Jingchang is an authorized government agency. They strictly review the content of Buddhist scriptures, and configure Feihua paintings for them, and finally print them for circulation.
Such a rigorous system has been passed down from generation to generation and has never changed.
From a management point of view, Beijing has Liuli Factory, Nanjing and Beijing have Bianfu Hutong, and the printing, binding and trading of books are often operated in a cluster, which is a manifestation of the convenience of centralized tax management by the ruling class.
To sum up, Chinese ancient books have connected 5,000 years of Chinese civilization from many aspects, which is the greatest charm of ancient books themselves and the restoration of ancient books.
China News Agency reporter: Ancient books are far from today's life, but ancient books must be "lived" in order to be "passed down". How to strengthen the connection between ancient books and the public?
Du Weisheng:
Primary and secondary education is very important.
In recent years, calligraphy, Chinese painting, folk music, etc. have entered the classrooms of primary and secondary schools one after another. The introduction of ancient books into the classroom can also be an attempt. It is necessary to let the next generation know that it is a great cultural carrier through contact with ancient books.
First of all, two of the four ancient inventions (paper making and printing) are related to it.
Secondly, one of the most important manifestations of the 5,000-year-old Chinese civilization is Chinese characters. Compared with other civilizations, the development of Chinese characters has never stopped since oracle bone inscriptions.
If the basic education of ancient books cannot keep up, the context may be cut off after a few years.
Therefore, it is necessary to cultivate young people's interest in ancient books from an early age, but it is necessary to understand the source and composition of ancient books through interesting learning, and even guide young people to make paper and carve books by themselves.
Ancient books can not only "live" among scholars, but also "live" in the hearts of ordinary people.
On April 22, 2022, volunteers from the Suining City Library taught the students of Suining Yangdu Experimental School to bind ancient books on the spot.
Photo by Zhong Min issued by China News Agency
China News Service reporter: "Strengthening foreign exchanges and cooperation in ancient book work" is one of the key tasks of ancient book protection work in the new era. Do you have any suggestions for promoting Chinese ancient books abroad?
Du Weisheng:
The greatest significance of "going out" of ancient books is to let overseas people understand ancient China.
Today, the root cause of the differences in how the East and the West view certain things is the difference in cultural values.
Many ancient Western religious books record and even sing praises of war, while Confucianism began to pursue the ultimate return of "benevolence" more than 2,000 years ago - "Great Harmony of the World". This is a fundamental difference.
Only when the West understands the ancient Chinese view of the nature of the universe can it understand the Chinese view of the world today.
Ancient books are one of the best channels to learn about Chinese people.
It should be emphasized that the most urgent task for the foreign exchange and cooperation of ancient books is to clearly count the resources of overseas Chinese ancient books, and collect their digital resources into the Chinese ancient books database to enrich the content of existing ancient books.
In the future, digital communication will be the main channel for promoting Chinese ancient books.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Du Weisheng, male, expert in ancient book restoration, research librarian of the National Library of China, and inheritor of the representative project of national intangible cultural heritage. He has been engaged in the restoration of ancient books for more than 40 years, and has a comprehensive grasp of the restoration technology of various ancient book binding forms in China and the traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting mounting technology. , and familiar with the binding and restoration techniques of old European hardcover books.
The ancient books he has restored include Dunhuang posthumous writings, Song "Wenyuan Yinghua", Western Xia documents, Ming "Yongle Dadian" and other rare ancient books, totaling thousands of copies.