Stories related to books

Materials for making books

Before the invention of paper, there were many kinds of materials for writing. In addition to oracle bones, bamboo, and silk, we can examine it from some records and obtained objects. , around the world, there are at least the following:

Stones. King Hammurabi of Babylon (2067 BC - 2025 BC) once formulated the famous "Code of Hammurabi", which contained legal provisions to protect the interests of the slave-owning class. It is said that it was engraved on an eight-foot-tall tree. On the stone pillar. This can be called a stone book. There are also stone books in Myanmar, which are now hidden in Mandalay, known as the "City of Treasures". The book is made of marble slabs, with 731 pieces in total. Each piece is one and a half meters high and weighs more than two tons. The whole book covers an area of ??more than five hectares. The content of the book is about Buddhist philosophy. We in China have also had stone books for a long time, and many of them can be seen today. Among them, the earliest written records are the ten stone drums excavated in Fengxiang County, Shaanxi Province in the early Tang Dynasty. The texts on them are called stone drum inscriptions. There are also Xiping Stone Scriptures of the Han Dynasty, Kaicheng Stone Scriptures of the Tang Dynasty, Hou Shu Stone Scriptures, Bianjing Guozijian Stone Scriptures of the Northern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou Emperor Gaozong Yushu Stone Scriptures of the Southern Song Dynasty, Qianlong Stone Scriptures of the Qing Dynasty, and Fangshan Stone Scriptures near Beijing, etc., all of which are also carved on on stone.

Lead. At the end of the seventeenth century, someone bought a lead book in Rome. The outer cover and six pages of the text were all made of lead plates.

Iron. Our country has a saying of "iron coupon alchemy book" since ancient times. More than 2,000 years ago, the Jin Dynasty cast Fan Xuanzi's punishment book on an iron tripod. Not long ago, the "Satirical and Caricature Works" Museum in Gabrovsk, Bulgaria, also exhibited an iron book cast by Fraz Kostov, weighing four kilograms, with a total of twenty pages. The contents are famous mottos and proverbs of the city of Gabrovsk.

Sheepskin. In the second century BC, King Pergamas wrote on sheepskin. People in the city of Pergame in Asia Minor also washed lambskin or sheepskin in lime water, dried it, stretched it on a frame, polished it smooth with thick stones, and then coated it with honey to make parchment, which was then used for writing. Book.

Human skin. In the library of Dresden, France, there is a Mexican almanac written on human skin. There is also a Mexican codex in Vienna made of the same material and with book coloring. There was a countess in France who loved the collection of poems "The Land in the Sky" by the famous astronomer and poet Dr. Camille Flammarion. Before she died, she asked in her will to bind the book with the leather on her shoulder, and her descendants did so. , and there are several French gold characters stamped on the cover of this book: "In accordance with the wish of a lady, bound with her skin. 1882."

Animal skins. It is said that in ancient Cambodia, elk skin was dyed black and then used to write general characters and government documents. However, instead of writing with ink, a kind of powder was used to glue and knead it into small strips to draw on the skin. The writing would never fall off after the painting.

Wood. This is different in shape from the wooden tablets in ancient my country. Wooden books appeared in foreign countries around the first century AD. The method was to pour melted wax on the thin wood used as book pages, and then scrape the wax flat while it was still wet. After the wax solidified, use a sharp stick to press the wax Write words on it, and then use ropes to connect several wooden boards with written words together to become a book.

Grass. A kind of rush grows in the upper reaches of the Nile River in Egypt. Its stem is about six feet high. Some people call it "Egyptian reed", which is also the so-called "paper grass". In ancient times, locals processed papyrus into long rolls and wrote on them. This can be called "Papyrus". At present, the Louvre Museum in Paris still preserves a sample of a papyrus written 4,500 years ago.

Bark. Ancient Latin people liked to write on bark. Today, there are also books written on bark in the museum in Kassel, Germany. Each book has a small gold plate nailed to the back, with both German and Latin characters on it. Indicate the title of the book.

Baye. In a Dai village in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, my country, there is a palm tree that is fifteen or six meters high. It is called "Golan" in Dai language and its scientific name is "Bei Ye Palm". In the past, the Dai people used its leaves to carve scriptures, called Bay Ye Jing. . There are more than 500 original Buddhist temples in Xishuangbanna that contain 50,000 copies of the Bayeux Sutra.

In addition to the above, there are also steel books in modern times.

This book is displayed in the central square of Sao Paulo, Brazil, South America. It is cast from a thin stainless steel plate and has over a thousand pages. The book records the history, customs, and historical sites of Sao Paulo.

The motivation for forging books

After Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty unified the country and established the Sui Dynasty, he once asked for lost books in the world. He issued an edict: Present a scroll of books and be rewarded with a piece of silk. At that time, there was a man named Liu Xuan who was writing books day and night. He was not engaging in "creation" but forgery. Soon he produced a hundred volumes of pseudo-books such as "Lianshan Yi" and "Lu Shishu" and presented them to the government respectfully. The official didn't know the truth, so he made a fortune.

There are a lot of fake books in my country’s ancient books. The so-called fake book, simply put, means that after the original book was lost, someone pretended to forge it, or there was no original book and someone forged it, and then circulated it in the society in the name of ancient people or contemporary people. There is no definite conclusion as to when this type of pseudo-book began. The only texts that can be tested are some books mentioned in the "Qilue" compiled by Liu Xiang and Liu Xin and their sons in the Western Han Dynasty. For example, for the book "Shen Nong", "Qilue" clearly stated: "I doubt what Li Li and Shang Jun said." Regarding the book "Huangdi", it said: "Maybe it was written by Han Gong and his grandson." This means that the "Shen Nong" and "Shen Nong" that were extant at that time "Huangdi" was not written by Shennong or Huangdi, but was forged by later generations. In addition to these two books, "Qilue" also mentions some other pseudo-books. Although "Qilue" has been lost and cannot be seen, the "Hanshu Yiwenzhi" later written by Ban Gu was based on it. Therefore, if you want to know what early fake books there are, you can refer to "Hanshu Yiwenzhi".

After the Han Dynasty, forged books appeared frequently, and all kinds of books were forged. In the Qing Dynasty, Yao Jiheng wrote "An Examination of Ancient and Modern False Books", which listed many false books. The "Tongkao of False Books" compiled by Zhang Xinyi today identifies more than a thousand false books in the four volumes and in the Dao Zang and Buddhist collections. The number cannot be said to be insignificant.

So why do some people want to fake it? In addition to the Liu Xuan mentioned above to deceive the world and make profits, there are also a variety of motives. The common ones are:

1. To respect the past. Because as "Huainanzi·Xiuwu Pian" said: "Most secular people respect the ancient and despise the recent." Therefore, some people pretend that the books they have written are written by the ancients, so as to achieve the purpose of spreading in society. . For example, there is a book "Miscellaneous Secrets" that can still be seen today. According to Liang Qichao after reading it, it was about Liang Ji's family affairs during the Eastern Han Dynasty. At that time, the emperor was choosing a concubine and fell in love with General Liang's lady. The empress dowager sent a nanny to check Miss Liang's body. The article is very beautifully written. The author was originally Yang Yongxiu in the Ming Dynasty, but in order to increase the value of the book, he insisted that it was written by Han people. He only accidentally obtained it from an old bookstall and engraved it and handed it down to the world. However, the customs, ceremonies, clothes, and jewelry written in the book are completely inconsistent with those of the Han Dynasty.

2. To slander others with suspicion. This kind of thing happened endlessly in feudal society. For example, Ouyang Xun was a famous calligrapher in the Tang Dynasty and had excellent character, but he could not be tolerated by some people. Those people forged a "Biography of the White Monkey of Bujiang" to slander Ouyang Xun. Hu Yinglin's "Four Parts of Authenticity" said: "In "The Biography of the White Ape", people in the Tang Dynasty slandered Ouyang Xun. He looked thin and ape-like, so the unknown person at that time made a speech to slander him. This book is titled "Bujiang Zongbai Yuan" "Biography", the author of the false accusation was not only falsely accused, but also falsely accused. "

3. Seeking common ground and overcoming differences. For example, Zheng Xuan of the Later Han Dynasty wrote numerous annotations on various classics. Wang Su, who was a little later than him, wanted to overthrow his theory, but he could not produce genuine knowledge, so he wrote a forged "Confucius Family Sayings" and wrote a preface saying: Zheng's theory is unreliable, and he himself The discussion is consistent with the Confucius books collected by Confucius' descendants. The personality of the counterfeiter is very despicable, and once exposed, he will be looked down upon by others. Zhang Ba of the Han Dynasty had only twenty-eight chapters left in the Book of Documents after the destruction of the Qin Dynasty. At that time, Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty was very fond of this book, so he forged a copy with two more chapters than the original Book of Documents, calling himself It is an old thing from before the Spring and Autumn Period and was presented to Emperor Cheng. Emperor Cheng was of course very happy and gave him the official position of doctor. But later it was discovered that except for the original twenty-eight articles, the rest were all false. There was a sensation in the government and the public, and everyone advocated killing Zhang Ba. Emperor Cheng spared his life and only dismissed his doctorate. His reputation was in shambles.

Conditions for borrowing books

Book collectors in ancient times were not willing to show their books to others easily.

If someone borrows from them, even if they lend it reluctantly, they often attach harsh conditions. Looking at it now, it is quite interesting - asking for gifts. For example, Volume 10 of "Yike Series" says: "I would like to lend my collection of books, and I will give you an owl to unlock the fish every time." There is also a book borrowing poem in Huangshan Valley that says, "If you don't hold two owls for wine, you are willing to fake a cart of books." The "鸱" mentioned here is an ancient wine vessel. According to the second volume of He Zang's "Chunzhu Chronicles": "When the ancients borrowed books, they would first communicate with Yinqin with a wine ceremony, and both borrowed and returned books with their ears."

Must be borrowed from each other. For example, the "Covenant on the Circulation of Ancient Books" written by Cao Rong, a bibliophile in the early Qing Dynasty, stipulates: Anyone who borrows books from others must first bring his own collection of books and give them to the book owner for review. After the book owner has read it, if he finds that there is a book that he also wants to read, then he will agree on a date and everyone will go to the other person's house to copy it, and the number of books copied must be equal. After copying, take the copy back. The original book is not allowed to be taken out to prevent loss.

The borrowing procedures are complicated. For example, Liang Dingfen, the headmaster of Guangya Academy during the Guangxu period, has a "book borrowing agreement" in the "Four Agreements on Fenghu Collection of Books": "Limited to three days of the second, twelfth, and twenty-second day of each month, those who borrow books, Go to the library in person to pick it up early that morning, and wrap it in a clean cloth. No one will be allowed to borrow the book with bare hands...The borrowing period is limited to ten days...The borrowed book cannot be taken out in its entirety. You are allowed to borrow one copy, and after reading one, you are allowed to borrow the second copy. If one is for the ministry, you are allowed to read it on the desk and not lend it out." In addition, it is also stipulated that local governors, government officials, school professors, and supervisors are not allowed to borrow it. The hospital and other officials refused to borrow the book because these people were afraid that they would not be able to get the book back after they lent it out.

In addition to the above, there are also Ye Dehui, a bibliophile from Hunan in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, who once wrote in "Ten Agreements on Collecting Books": "If you are not a friend who copies books from each other, you will not borrow them lightly; if you are not a comrade, Those who write books do not borrow them lightly... When guests come to visit, they are accompanied by a host and a book boy, and the servants are not allowed to enter the room where the books are stored. "

It was so difficult for the ancients to borrow books. It was very difficult for scholars at that time, especially poor intellectuals, to study. Yuan Mei's "Huang Sheng's Book Borrowing Theory" wrote: "I was fond of books when I was young, but it was difficult for my family to be poor. There is a Zhang family who has a very rich collection of books, but he borrows them when he goes back and returns, and dreams come true." This can be seen from this.

The Troubled Secret

On December 18, 1982, it was discovered in the historic city of Anuradhapura, 190 kilometers northeast of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. He wrote a Buddhist scripture made of gold. It is said that this book was originally a lecture book for the Buddhist lecture hall in the city. Because the place was once invaded by foreign enemies, the monks folded the book and hid it in a clay pot and buried it underground. Later, all these monks were killed by the enemy, and the books they buried were not known to outsiders for more than a thousand years.

In an era of war and turmoil, in order to prevent the loss of books, some scholars often hide their books in places where they are not easily noticed by outsiders. They have good intentions. When books were burned to entrap Confucian scholars, Qin Shihuang ordered: "Anyone who has a collection of poems and books written by hundreds of schools of thought in the world who is not a doctor's official should be burned by the Shouwei." At that time, the descendants of Confucius hid a large number of Confucian classics in the walls of the Confucius Mansion in the original Lu State, so later generations called it the "Lubi Collection of Books".

At the same time, someone in Xianyang, the capital of Qin, also smuggled a large number of books to Hunan and hid them in a cave in a mountain in Yuanling County. This mountain is named Eryou Mountain, and the mountain is divided into two: one is "Dayou" and the other is "Xiaoyou". The cave is in Xiaoyou Mountain. The entrance is about two meters wide, more than one person tall, and about fifteen meters deep. There are several shelves-shaped rocks in the cave, and the books are placed on them. According to "Taiping Yulan Jingzhou Ji", there are about thousands of volumes of books in the collection. In the Qing Dynasty, the Hunan Superintendent engraved the four characters "ancient library" on a long boulder near the cave. Later generations called this cave "Eryou". "Book Cave", and there is an idiom "rich in learning and knowledgeable in books", which is used to describe a person who has read a lot.

In the late Qing Dynasty (1899), people discovered a large number of Buddhist scriptures, Taoist scriptures, and historical records in the "Thousand Buddha Cave" in Mingsha Mountain, which is located forty or fifty miles southeast of Dunhuang County in Gansu Province. The materials, language and literary materials, as well as Confucian classics and others, have been studied by many scholars and determined to be hidden inside by monks from the Song Dynasty when they were avoiding the rebellion in Xixia. Since these books were discovered in Dunhuang, scholars later called them the "Dunhuang Posthumous Notes".

According to ancient records, Yuan Xuetu Bridge in Nanhu, Zhejiang, was the former residence of Hu Meiyi, a book collector in the Song Dynasty. In the first year of Emperor Gong of the Song Dynasty, the Yuan army invaded, and Hu Meiyi "joined the army and went north." Later, after the army was defeated, he returned to his hometown on foot and took refuge in Xinchang. He built a stone kiln and hid all the books in the kiln to prevent them from being damaged.

Excerpted from "Book Fun" by Xi Chunnian, Shandong Pictorial Publishing House, January 2005 Edition