Riding the wind of rebirth

"Among these books, the most valuable ones include more than 20 Ming and Qing dynasty printed and copied editions of "Zhenguan Zhengyao", "Huangji Jingshi", and "Jinshui Jing".

"In addition, there is a fragment of the Jiuguge edition of the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, which was annotated by Duke Wen Gong himself, a handwritten edition of the Donghualu by Duke Bin Sun, a manuscript of the Huzhai Diary, and several manuscripts of the Weng family members of the Imperial Dynasty Military System by Duke Tongjue."

After several disasters, the Weng family's books have been reduced from tens of thousands of volumes to only a few thousand volumes, which is a cause for regret.

"Mr. Weng just said that these books were sent to two places, one in Changshu and the other in Tianjin. These more than 6,000 volumes are all stored in the old house in Changshu, right? What about the part in Tianjin?" Zhou Zhi asked.

"I brought all of this part of Tianjin to the United States with me." Weng Wange smiled and said, "Now... it's time for them to go back."

"Really?" Zhou Zhi's heart was pounding.

"Over the years, I have been organizing these ancient books for my uncle." Weng Yijun said, "This collection contains more than 80 kinds of books, including 11 Song Dynasty editions, 4 Yuan Dynasty editions, 12 Ming Dynasty editions, 26 Qing Dynasty editions, and 27 manuscripts by famous scholars."

"There are many rare and secret copies here, such as the "Long and Short Classics", which the academic community has never known whether it really exists, Chen Hongshou's "Water Margin Bogu Leaves", and the Song Dynasty version of "Jiyun"..."

"Jiyun?!" Zhou Zhi jumped up from his chair. "Is it the Qingli edition, the Tanzhou edition, the Mingzhou edition, the Jinzhou edition, or the Shu edition?"

Everyone looked at Zhou Zhi as if he were a monster, especially Weng Wange, who had studied the Weng family collection for his entire life and had specialized in it, which was why he came to know something about Jiyun.

This kid is really unbelievable. From the moment he arrived here, I found that he is quite proficient in poetry, calligraphy, painting, and mounting. He has a high level of knowledge in Chinese studies. Now he even knows a lot about rhyme books which are very obscure to ordinary people. This is a bit too much.

Is this the same kind of person as Duke Wen Gong, a natural genius in Chinese studies?

“Uh…” Zhou Zhi saw that people around him were looking at him like a monster, and scratched his head awkwardly: “This is my major, the study of ancient Chinese characters and rhymes, so when I heard the word ‘Jiyun’, I couldn’t help but get excited.”

"Are there so many versions of "Jiyun"? " Weng Yijun was quite surprised.

Weng Wange was curious and said with a smile, "Then George, guess which version of the Weng family's "Jiyun" is it?"

Zhou Zhi paced a few steps in the study room. "In the fourth year of Emperor Renzong's Jingyou reign, Song Qi and Zheng Jian wrote to the emperor to criticize the Guangyun compiled during Emperor Zhenzong's reign for using too many old words. Jia Changchao also wrote to the emperor to criticize the Yunlue compiled during the Jingde reign for "mostly lacking explanations, suspected mixed sounds and repeated words, leading to misuse by candidates."

"So Emperor Renzong of Song ordered Ding Du and others to revise these two phonological works, and finally combined them into Jiyun, which was completed in the second year of Emperor Renzong's Baoyuan reign and published in the third year of Emperor Renzong's Qingli reign. This is the earliest 'Qingli edition'."

"The Qingli edition has not reappeared since then. Today, there are only three known Song editions. The first is the Southern Song Tanzhou edition that was formerly in the Tianlu Linlang collection of the Qing Palace and is now kept in the National Library. The second is the Southern Song Mingzhou edition, of which there are few scattered copies in the private sector. The third is the Ankang Jinzhou military edition published by Tian Shiqing in the 14th year of Chunxi during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty, which is now kept in the Imperial Household Agency's Book and Mausoleum Department on the island country."

"The Jinzhou version is said to be copied from the Shu version. The Tanzhou version has many similarities with the Jinzhou version, and it is estimated that they are from the same source. From the Mingzhou version that we have seen so far, the printed version is quite blurred and has a distant relationship with the other two versions."

"During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, due to the lack of rhyme studies, there was no printed version of Jiyun, and it was only circulated through handwritten copies. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, three more copies of the Song Dynasty were handed down from the Song Dynasty version." "The first was the Mao Jin Jiuguge copy from the Tanzhou version, which was later obtained by Cao Yin and engraved in the Lianting Five Types. All the subsequent printed versions of Jiyun in the Qing Dynasty came from this source."

"Later, Mao Jinjiuguge and Qian Zengshugutang copied the Mingzhou version respectively, namely Mao's copy of the Mingzhou version and Qian's copy of the Mingzhou version. Compared with the two, Qian's copy is more faithful to the original, but the engraving of the original is missing and not copied;"

"Mao copied the original copy exactly, but after copying it, he used white powder to change some of the content according to the Tanzhou version, which lost the authenticity of the original Mingzhou version."

"There are very few Song Dynasty Mingzhou editions left today, and those that still exist are severely damaged. Fortunately, there are two manuscripts left. The three must be combined to restore the true appearance, especially the engraving part of the Qian edition, which is very important."

"Let me ask a question." Weng Yijun coughed lightly: "The engraver was the engraver at that time, right? Is this part of the information important?"

"This is a new direction for our ancient books digital library research," Zhou Zhi explained. "Previously, scholars lacked tools like computers and had to rely on their own memory to build academic systems. They often ignored the engraving part of ancient books because there are so many things to remember in Chinese studies."

"But in the process of building the ancient books digital library, we discovered an interesting phenomenon," Zhou Zhi said, "that is, the names of many engravers of authentic and rare books of every era will appear in various ancient books."

"In addition to having superb engraving skills, engravers also need to be proficient in writing and its meaning. In ancient times when 80 to 90 percent of people were illiterate, this was an extremely demanding job. Such talents were rare, so bookshops competed to hire them."

"Through their names, we can get a new clue to the age, and know which ancient books came from the same period, and compare them with each other."

"In addition, these engravers are often passed down through family memory. Several generations have been engaged in the engraving business. Their fathers and sons or the same clan take on the business together, so the order of their ranking also contains the family generation order."

"This is also a kind of chronological information, which can be used to determine the order of various printed books."

Weng Yijun was stunned. What on earth were these people thinking of? How could they think of playing like this?!

"Another point is that the names of these engravers often contain 'taboo characters'. They may have encountered situations where they needed to replace certain characters in their names in different dynasties. The relationship between this change and the taboo characters of each dynasty also provides a time clue, which can also be used to determine the age of the engraved book."

"You are doing real work." Weng Wange nodded repeatedly. They all said that computer technology is an accelerator for all walks of life. He could not think of these uses and was very satisfied.

"In modern times, the Chinese bookstore reprinted the Yangzhou Mission's reprint in 1983. The Jinzhou edition was reprinted in the "Photocopy Series of Song and Yuan Chinese Books in the Imperial Household Agency's Books and Mausoleums Department"; the Tanzhou edition was reprinted in the "Ancient Rare Books Collection Three Volumes."

"At present, my uncle is working on the Jiyun in the capital. He is collating five Song editions and photocopied Song editions of the Jiyun, as well as more than 30 notes of Qing dynasty scholars on the Jiyun. He is also collating the most widely circulated Qing dynasty edition of the Jiyun revised by Gu Guangqi and Cao Lianting, and will finally compile it into a book, which may be tentatively named the Jiyun Collated Edition."

"Your teacher uncle? Who is he?" Weng Wange asked.

"Gu Zhenduo, the editor-in-chief of the Chinese Dictionary, has now retired and has been rehired by the state as the leader of the Jiyun Collation Group." (End of this chapter)