When it comes to ancient books, the key words that come to people's minds are often cold, difficult, and poor. When I saw the desk of the post-90s ancient book editor, this stereotype was instantly broken
Text: Yangcheng Evening News reporter Sun Lei Chen Xiaonan.
Check the base book, the processing of variant characters, and the ...... of proofreading and writingZhou Panyudi, a young editor born in the 90s at Guangdong Lingnan Ancient Books Publishing House, enjoys these seemingly tedious and boring processes, and she looks forward to the fact that after the new ancient book publishing house officially settles in Baiyuan, she 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 wind, and more and more young people have gathered here like sparks, and they have entered the world of ancient books with their love and admiration for ancient culture. These young editors and scholars devote themselves to the collation, research, publication, and digitization of ancient books, guarding the flame of history with their young enthusiasm and wisdom, and undertaking the important task of promoting the essence of Chinese culture to modern society.
Only with "true love" can we "do well, deeply, and finely".
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 interested in traditional Chinese history, culture and ancient books, and after graduating from the Department of History at Lanzhou University, she joined the publishing house to become an editor. Over the past two years, she has participated in the editing of local chronicles such as "Chronicles of the South China Sea" and "Chronicles of Xiangshan".
Don't you think ancient writing is beautiful? Concise, concise and elegant. Speaking of the beauty of ancient books, Zhou Pan Yudi, who was originally silent, instantly became active. In her opinion, the reason why ancient books are so attractive 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 that the ancients once lived, chanted, and wrote in this land, and continued the splendid civilization of thousands of years, I feel extremely amazing and great. ”
And these surging deep cultural codes are hidden in page after page of ancient books. Zhou Panyudi's greatest wish is to let these cultures "come out" of ancient books and into the lives and reading horizons of the general public. "I don't have big ambitions for ancient books, and I don't deliberately pursue big publishing projects. As long as the ancient books I participated in editing can be published smoothly, I am very happy. ”
The publication of an ancient book sometimes takes more than ten years or even decades, which scares off many young people, but Zhou Pan Yudi feels a different kind of romance from it. "It's really time-consuming, but I think that's one of the charms of making ancient books. Zhou Panyudi said that editing ancient books is like being immersed in the long river of history, and every time you proofread and annotate, it is like having a dialogue with historical figures, which is a feeling that cannot be compared with other work.
She said that many people think that ancient books must be difficult tomes, and it is easy to read millions of words at every turn, but in fact, in addition to these, there are many lightweight and easy-to-read ancient books. For example, the beautiful text of "Tao'an Dream Memories", the light-hearted Zhiwei ** "Youyang Miscellaneous", every book immersed her in it.
Ancient books can be very close to ordinary people. For example, "Suiyuan Food List" is dedicated to eating. Many ancient people's diaries and notes actually wrote everything, including daily life, hobbies, outings, etc. Zhou Panyudi said that there are many excellent ancient books in Chinese history that have been handed down to this day, stepping on the dust and frost of thousands of years, still shining and still being used by us.
Ancient books are the link between the past and the future, an important part of cultural inheritance, and a precious wealth of our nation. Bai Feng, executive deputy editor-in-chief of Guangdong Lingnan Ancient Books Publishing House, said, "We hope that through the participation of young people, the work of ancient books will be revitalized, and the tradition and modernity will be perfectly combined." ”
According to Bai Feng, most of the editorial team of the newly approved Guangdong Lingnan Ancient Books Publishing House is post-80s and post-90s, and last year's school recruitment also recruited 5 post-00s, and the overall team is very young and energetic. "Among the 80 topics we reported last year, except for one project leader who was born in the 70s, a large number of other editorial teams are born in the 80s and 90s, which is the future of our Lingnan Ancient Books Society. ”
What pleases Bai Feng the most is that she sees in these young people their true love for ancient books. "After all, there is still a threshold for making ancient books, and it is relatively boring, if you don't really love it, it is difficult to even get started, let alone do it well, do it deeply, and do it fine. ”
I hope that reading ancient books will also become a "daily life" for the public
In recent years, traditional opera, national style, classical poetry, intangible cultural heritage crafts, ancient books and paintings, ethnic and folk dances, etc., have constantly broken through specific circles, so that traditional culture is no longer "old paper piles" and "old antiques", but has become trendy, fashionable and interesting, harvesting a broader audience and producing a sensational effect in society.
This is also the goal of Rao Xuyuan, assistant editor of the editorial department of Guangdong People's Publishing House's "Lingnan Library". After graduating from the Department of History of Sun Yat-sen University in 2016, she has not been working as an editor of ancient books for a long time, but ancient books have long been integrated into her personality and daily life. On weekdays, she often flips through ancient books such as "Annotations to the Four Books and Chapters and Sentences", and she hopes that this kind of daily life is not just the daily life of ancient book professionals. It is also a part of the daily life and cultural life of the general public.
Like Zhou Panyudi, she is professionally trained and has a lot of fun reading ancient books, "Every time I turn a page, I feel as if I can hear the echoes of history, looking for the wisdom of our ancestors and the bits and pieces of life between the lines." ”
With the rise of cultural phenomena such as the national tide, traditional culture is gradually returning to people's field of vision, which is both an opportunity and a challenge for ancient book publishing. How to transform the values and aesthetics of ancient books into forms 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 a strong vitality in today's daily life and are ubiquitous in daily life. "We grew up in an environment that was both traditional and modern. Rao Xuyuan's WeChat signature comes from "The Book of Songs, Daya, King Wen", which reads, "Wu Nian Erzu, Yu Xiu Jide." Yongyan is worthy of life, and he seeks more blessings", she humorously interpreted: "To sum up, people still have to accumulate virtue. She believes that this sentence contains thousands of years of traditional Chinese morality and has influenced it to this day.
In Rao Xuyuan's view, ancient books can be done again and again, and they can never be finished, because every time they enter, they are once again activated with new concepts and needs of the times. At present, Rao Xuyuan is working on a new edition of "Guangdong New Language", which is the hand-me-down work of Qu Dajun in the Qing Dynasty, and the content ranges from Guangdong's climate and terrain, scenic spots and historic sites, to legends and myths, folk customs, and then to poems and songs, celebrity calligraphy and paintings, and even oil, salt, sauce and vinegar, flowers, birds, fish and insects, all-encompassing, known as "Guangdong Encyclopedia".
Compared with the previous editions of Chung Hwa Book Company and Guangdong People's Publishing House, this time we will focus more on highlighting Guangdong elements and increasing the annotation and interpretation of Lingnan culture. Rao Xuyuan told reporters that the new edition of "Guangdong New Language" is expected to be published in 2024.
The publication of ancient books is becoming more and more abundant, ranging from simplified Chinese texts to excerpts and annotations or readings performed by famous artists, from large-character books to pocket books, which can meet the needs of readers at different levels. There are dozens of collated versions of ancient books like "Historical Records" and "Analects", which is not many.
The form of good ancient books is important, and publicity is even more important. Meng Xiao, who is responsible for publicity and marketing of Guangdong Lingnan Ancient Books Publishing House, told reporters that the Ancient Books Publishing House has a special editorial department for cultural entrepreneurship and innovation and a digital technology department. Next, they will build their own new platform, plan and select topics according to the tonality of different platforms, extract interesting stories and knowledge points in ancient books, and try to let ancient books "fly into ordinary people's homes" in a relaxed and lively form while maintaining professionalism.
Presenting Cantonese culture in the form of storytelling.
Nowadays, the work of ancient books has been extended from traditional text collation to research and evidence. If the life and value of ancient books are to be truly transformed, it is necessary to move from simple collation to research, and from research to the public. This point has long become the consensus of young people to make ancient books.
The book is there, the context is there, and the culture is also there. In recent years, with the help of young editors and young authors, many publishing houses have been actively exploring a feasible way to combine the specialization of ancient book publishing with popularization and marketization, so that the voluminous literature and classics can be revitalized in the form of popular reading materials that are both knowledgeable and interesting, and have beautiful form and content.
Published by Guangdong People's Publishing House, "Laoguang Xinyou" is one of the masterpieces. The author, Wang Daxin, is a native of Guangzhou, born and raised in the 80s. In 2008, he participated in the binding design competition for the cover of the "Lingnan Library" book series with his classmates and won the cover design award. This award also opened another window for him.
The Lingnan Library is a large-scale comprehensive series of books that comprehensively and systematically reflect and discuss the history, politics, economic development, social culture, natural resources, and achievements of Lingnan people, co-edited by the Editorial Committee of the Lingnan Library and the Guangdong Association for the Promotion of Chinese Ethnic Culture, and published by the Guangdong People's Publishing House, with more than 100 books published so far.
When you open the Lingnan Library, you will find that there are many ancient documents, as well as modern research on the history of Lingnan. If you read it, you will find it interesting, but the reality is that most readers will be shy away from such large volumes, and only a small number of researchers will read them. "How can we connect the knowledge of this literature and books to the general public? For Wang Daxin, who has loved painting since childhood, what he is best at is to express his ideas by painting. To this end, he set up a creative team of "Dahua Country". In the past ten years, he and his team have traced Lingnan culture with their brushes, and published hand-drawn city travel books such as "Old Guangzhou, New Tour", "Dahua Guangfu", hand-drawn maps of Guangzhou city, postcards, wall calendars and other works.
They painted with watercolors and text, depicted those places and buildings that old Guangzhou did not necessarily know, and then dismantled and described them in detail. It's like annotating rare characters, guiding readers to see and listen to the stories behind old buildings and the cultural implications in the details.
According to Xie Shang, senior editor of Lingnan Library, with the addition of more and more new forces, the Lingnan Library book series is also constantly exploring the path of marketization, and its popular book series "Lingnan Cultural Knowledge Book Series" has published 228 titles. It also launched a derivative series "Cantonese Library", which selects typical and iconic cases, starts from a small place, and presents the cultural value and historical heritage of Cantonese in the way of storytelling.
The exploration of the publishing house for the popularization of ancient books is of great significance. Zhou Xuanlong, executive director and secretary of the Party Committee of Zhonghua Book Company, said that no matter how rich the form of publication is, the most fundamental factor that determines the quality of popular reading materials of ancient books is the content. It is necessary to select and refine the content, carry out creative transformation, and let the spirit of tradition be integrated into contemporary life and produce positive significance.
Harness the power of digitization to bring ancient books to life.
In recent years, the excellent traditional Chinese culture has received unprecedented attention, and a series of policies and measures introduced by the state have provided a good development environment for the development of ancient books, and the research, protection, collation and publication of ancient books have attracted more and more young people to join. However, young people still face many problems and challenges in making ancient books.
Bai Feng said that this is a highly academic work, which involves the bibliography, edition, proofreading, and annotation of ancient books, which requires the collection, visit, sorting, punctuation and proofreading of work materials, which requires a lot of time and energy.
Engaging in the publication of ancient books requires crossing the threshold of high professionalism. For Zhou Panyudi, although he has a solid professional background, he still needs to continue to learn and accumulate in practical work, and needs the guidance and training of his predecessors in how to accurately grasp the content of ancient books and reduce mistakes. "Our generation is definitely not as educated as our predecessors. But even if there's a risk of going wrong, you still need to do it and keep polishing yourself along the way. If you don't do it, you will always be in a state of fear of difficulty. ”
Rao Xuyuan also said that there is a lot of pressure to make ancient books. Not only did she have to make sure that the text was consistent with the original, but she also had to respect the author's opinion and, on that basis, make the layout more standardized and easier for readers to read. It will also involve your own judgment, and you will need to communicate with the author at this time. But I still worry about making mistakes, because my knowledge is limited, and there are inevitable errors, and the process will be more stressful. Once hundreds or thousands of copies are printed, there is no way to change them. Rao Xuyuan said.
The younger generation may not have the same level of education as their predecessors, but they have their own advantages – more technical means and sensitivity to new things. They are using their practical actions to prove that the younger generation can also play an important role in the inheritance and development of traditional culture.
The development of digitalization, the Internet, big data and artificial intelligence technology has brought unprecedented convenience to young people to do ancient book work: ancient book entry and proofreading, AI automatic sentence reading and text proofreading and other technologies have subverted the traditional practice of ancient book collation, and the full-text retrieval of ancient books, text mining and marking, knowledge graph and evidence-based will greatly change the research methods and paths of ancient books.
With the help of modern digital technology, the thick classics are condensed in every square inch, and the dusty historical picture scroll is slowly unfolded, becoming a cultural resource 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 "live", and continue their life and brilliance in a new form.