Riding the wind of rebirth

In fact, as Zhou Zhi's authority in ancient books and paintings has grown, he would not usually utter such words casually. However, the characteristics of this set of books are too obvious. In addition to what was just mentioned, there are countless other pieces of evidence, including paper, printing, and mounting.

However, these supporting evidences are too technical, and it would probably take several classes to explain them clearly. Therefore, Zhou Zhi skipped them and only explained the evidence from classical texts.

This era was not like later times when classic texts could be easily searched online. Therefore, various materials had their own specializations. Zhouzhi had a great advantage in this respect, as it could systematically retrieve and read materials, and further form a systematic memory.

Ancient book collection and restoration has always been his focus. Although it is not among his many "professions", it is a direction he has been studying seriously. With digital libraries and search engines at his disposal, his learning progress has been rapid, and now his expertise is no less than that of many experts.

"The library must have a copy of 'Ying Shu Yu Lu' annotated by Zangyuan Jushi, right?"

"Yes, what's wrong?" a staff member asked. "Fu Zengxiang is also a famous book collector in Sichuan. We have his works in our collection."

"The 'Ying Shu Yu Lu' is a work by Yang Shaohe, a bibliophile in the late Qing Dynasty. He inherited the collection of books from Haiyuan Pavilion, organized and introduced them, and compiled them into the ten-volume 'Ying Shu Yu Lu,' which provides valuable historical materials for the study of Qing Dynasty book collections."

“Yes,” Zhou Zhi nodded, “The most fortunate thing about this book is that although the information on the collected editions, the collation and textual research, and the collector’s mark are relatively obscure, the annotations by Fu Zengxiang, a collector from Sichuan, make the information it contains more detailed and richer.”

“Fu Zengxiang named his work ‘Zangyuan Annotated Couplets’. As a senior book collector in Sichuan, I guessed that you must have collected his work.”

“I remember that he mentioned the seals and annotations of the Song edition of Huainanzi in his works. I don’t remember the others very clearly, but there is one that he described together with the seal of Baisong Yichan: ‘This is a Northern Song edition. It was formerly in the collection of Baisong Yichan in Huangraopu, Wuxian County, and later came into the possession of Wang Langyuan, a fellow townsman.’”

"Wang Langyuan is Wang Shizhong. His family were wealthy cloth merchants. His hobby was collecting ancient books from the Song and Yuan dynasties and ancient books that were not included in the Siku Quanshu at the time. This eventually led to works such as Yiyun Shushe Song and Yuan Book Catalogue."

"Due to war and other reasons, many of the books in Yiyun Bookstore were later lost to Haiyuan Pavilion and Tieqin Tongjian Tower. Based on this, we should be able to find a clue to verify the authenticity and order of circulation again."

"Xiao Li, hurry up and go find it," Liu Yijie quickly called out, "Xiao Wang, have you guys systematically collected the seals on this set of books?"

"Yes, yes." The seal is important information for the collection, and as a provincial library, of course we would collect it: "But it's in the system, I'll print it out later."

A short while later, the two returned: "Director, the 'Zangyuan Annotated Couplets' has arrived, and we've also found the sentence that Teacher Zhou mentioned; it's right here."

"Curator, these are the seals currently in the collection of the Huainanzi."

Liu Yijie took the book and looked at it. Sure enough, the quote that Zhou Zhi had just quoted was right there in front of him.

Zhou Zhi then took the printed photos of the seals: "Bai Song Yi Chan, Fu Weng, these two seals are Huang Pilie's. Here, Wang Shizhong's seal, Langyuan, owner of the Thirty-Five Peaks Garden, these three seals are Wang Shizhong's." "Oh, and there's also the Lian Ting Cao family's book collection seal. Everyone knows who this is, right?"

“I know that, Lianting was Cao Xueqin’s pen name,” the staff member called Xiao Li immediately said.

"Does Teacher Zhou know who this Wang Yanzhao is?"

"I'm not sure about that, but we can try to check. Xiao Miao, get your notebook out, and we'll search the database."

Mai Xiaomiao took out her notebook from her backpack, connected to the satellite network, logged into the digital library system, and switched to Zhou Zhi to operate it. She quickly got the results.

After operating for a while, Zhou Zhi called everyone to see the results: "Due to insufficient historical records, we can currently find through historical research that there are four people in history since the Song Dynasty who fit the title 'Wang Yanzhao': Academician Wang Hanzhi, born and died 1054-1123, courtesy name Yanzhao; Monk Wang Yanzhao, born and died unknown; Famous Physician Wang Keming, born and died 1128-1194, courtesy name Yanzhao; and Imperial Censor Wang Jian, born and died 1427-1471, courtesy name Yanzhao."

"In terms of biographical information, among these four people, Wang Hanzhi and Wang Keming are the most likely to have collected the Huainanzi."

"Wang Hanzhi is mentioned in the 'Reprinted Wenyuange Siku Quanshu' and the 'History of Song'. He was from Changshan, Quzhou, and came from a scholarly family. His father, Wang Jie, was a famous poet at the time and once served as a compiler in the Imperial Library. He himself was also well-versed in the classics and history and had profound knowledge. He was promoted by the court to Academician of the Longtu Pavilion and Academician of the Yankang Hall. The Northern Song edition was published during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song and was collected by Wang Hanzhi. It is also reasonable that it was collected by his father and passed down to him."

The monk Wang Yanzhao is mentioned in Volume 401 of the "Complete Library of the Four Treasuries" published by the Southern Song Dynasty monk Zuxiu. In Volume 4 of "The Continued Biographies of Monks Baozheng", the record about Zen Master Zhenjue states: "After leaving his guest room, he would always light a torch and open a book. He read all kinds of religious books. When he was in Jinling, Master Wang Yanzhao once asked Xuedou for his opinion on the saying, 'Of the three officials who have nothing to do, which one is better, the Daoist?' Since Zen Master Zhenjue died in the fifth year of Shaoxing, which is 1135, it can be known that the monk Wang Yanzhao mainly lived around this time."

"The epitaph of Wang Jian, the Imperial Censor, is found in Volume 1249 of the Siku Quanshu (Complete Library of the Four Treasuries) and Volume 30 of He Qiaoxin's Jiaoqiu Wenji (Collected Works of Jiaoqiu), titled 'Epitaph for Wang Jian, Prefect of Yan'an, Grand Master of the Imperial Secretariat.' It reads: 'My friend, Wang Yanzhao of Taiyuan, was renowned throughout the land for his strong character and upright integrity. Since becoming an Imperial Censor, he was outspoken and fearless, even after being demoted to county magistrate and later promoted to prefect. His integrity in serving his superiors and governing his subordinates never wavered… In the seventeenth year of the Chenghua reign (1481), I was appointed Imperial Censor to pacify Shanxi. He had already passed away and been buried for over ten years. His son, Gang, knowing that I was his friend from the same year, came to request an epitaph… In the Xinmao year of the Chenghua reign (1481), he requested to resign due to illness. Several thousand people from the prefecture wanted to go to the capital to plead for his stay. He strongly dissuaded them, and he was finally allowed to return home. He passed away at home on the nineteenth day of the twelfth month of that year.' Based on this, Wang Jian's birth and death dates, name, and other details can be deduced."

There are also many records about the famous doctor Wang Yanzhao. His original name was Wang Keming. He was originally from Leping, Raozhou, and later moved to Wucheng County, Huzhou. Because he was weak in his childhood, he was determined to study medical books on his own. He became proficient in medicine and served as a court physician, becoming a famous doctor at that time.

“Huh? His birth and death dates are a bit strange.” Liu Yijie pointed at the screen and asked, “The official history of the Song Dynasty says that he died in the fifth year of Shaoxing, but how come the records also say that he was a famous doctor during the Shaoxing and Qiandao periods? How is that possible?”

“Let’s do some more data mining and see what’s going on.” Zhou Zhi started typing on the keyboard again; he also found Liu Yijie’s question very interesting.

As for the others, they hadn't even thought about this question. Professor Gu was already used to search engines, and Liu Yijie's question showed that the curator was very sensitive to the concept of era names.

More detailed results came out quickly. Zhou Zhi said to the screen: "If we take the biography in the History of Song as the basis, Wang Keming's birth and death years are 1069-1135. However, Shaoxing was the reign title of Emperor Gaozong of Song, and Qiandao was the reign title of his successor, Emperor Xiaozong of Song. The statement in the History of Song that he died in the fifth year of Shaoxing is obviously contradictory to the above and should be wrong."

"Are you so sure?" (End of Chapter)