Reading notes

Many say Qian has a strong memory and a photographic memory. He himself did not think he was so "divine". He was only a good reader, and he took pains not only to read, but also to take notes; Not just once or twice, but three or four times, filling in the notes. So the books he reads, though many, are not easily forgotten.

His habit of taking notes had been picked up in the Bodleian Library, which he translated as the Codling House. Because the books in the Codling House are not checked out. When you go there to read, you are only allowed to take a notebook and a pencil with you. You are not allowed to leave any trace on the book. In the first volume of Zhong Shu's book "Secretary of the Floor," there are the following lines: "Starting in February 1936, I made an appointment with Jiang to study in the university library, each taking a suitcase with his writing papers, exposing himself to snow, chatting on three luggage bags, iron paintings and silver hooks, and claiming that he was a little bald, for reference." The second book has the inscription as follows: "The heart is like a coconut, want not as good as the book, the book is golden, want not as good as the box. "These were written with a brush. Obviously, they were not read while taking notes at the Codling House, but they were written after regurgitating.

Taking notes takes time. It takes about twice as long to take notes as to read this book. He said that if you read a book for the second time, you will always find that there are many omissions in the first reading. The most wonderful sentence, to read a few times to find.

Reading books and taking notes became a habit. But we also got into this habit because we had no place to live, no place to collect books, for years. He loved to buy books, and new books came from many sources, but most of them were borrowed from libraries. When he had finished reading and taking notes, he returned the books he had borrowed; his books were often given away. Zhong Shu is well aware of the truth that "books cannot be read unless they are borrowed". He reads books as soon as he has them and takes notes when he finishes them. Countless books flowed in and out of my house, but only notes remained, so my family did not have a large collection of books.

Zhong Shu's notes from abroad to China, from Shanghai to Beijing, from one dormitory to another, from iron boxes, wooden boxes, cardboard boxes, even sacks, pillowcases in and out, after several torture, some notebooks have blurred handwriting, paper damage. Zhong Shu always read one or two volumes of Chinese or foreign notes every day and often read the highlights to me. I tried to mend my tattered notes for him, but he stopped me. "Some of them are useless," he said. Which ones don't work? Is it no use to anyone? I didn't ask then, and I never thought to ask again.

After Zhong Shu died, I found a large number of notes and sorted them into three categories.

The first category is foreign language notes (foreign languages include English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Latin). Except for a very small part, which was written on a typewriter with two fingers, it was all handwritten. The notes also include bibliographies and important editions as well as the number of pages in the original text. He does not ignore academic journals in his reading. He took notes after reading important papers by famous writers on literature, philosophy, and politics, and noted down the year, month, and day of publication. Zhong Shu has been reading freely ever since he got rid of the discipline of studying for a degree. He has some grounding in English literature. He studied French literature gradually, from the fifteenth to the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries; He also studied the important works of German and Italian literature of the past, reading them carefully and taking notes diligently. In this way, he laid a literary foundation for himself in France, Germany and Italy. From then on, he read as he saw fit. His notes were often referenced back and forth, so they were difficult to arrange. And I don't know German, Italian or Latin. The visit coincided with the visit of Dr. Moniker Kamotsch, the German Sinologist who translated The Siege, to Beijing. So I asked her to do it for me. She saw the catalog and fragments of content, "greedy" have to borrow the opportunity to come to Beijing next summer vacation, help me to arrange all the foreign language notes. There are 178 volumes of notebooks, several pages of typescript, and more than 34,000 pages of foreign notes.

Chung studied foreign literature at universities at home and abroad, taught foreign literature at universities, and was also a member of the foreign literature section of the Literature Research Institute after the reorganization of the department. But for many years he was sent to do other work, and later he was seconded to the Chinese Classics section, but he never returned to the foreign language section. He had intended to write a treatise on foreign literature in English, but he never did. Those foreign notes were "useless" to him. But for those who study foreign literature, for those who study Qian Zhongshu's works, is it useless?

The second is Chinese notes. He began to mix his Chinese reading notes with his diary. In 1952, when intellectuals were first subjected to "ideological reform", he heard that students could examine the diary of "the old gentleman". Diaries are personal and should not be mixed with academic notes. He destroyed the diary by cutting it off with small scissors. These notes are very fragmented and disorganized, and it takes a lot of work to organize them. These notes were accompanied by his own comments, and he often referred back and forth and cited each other. For the rest of his notes he wrote down the list himself, with occasional comments. The number of notes in Chinese and foreign languages is roughly equal.

The third type is "daily letters" -- the reading experience of the clock book. Rishi Zaxiang began after the "ideological reform" movement. The original book also had smudges and clippings. Later, he wrote various names on the title, such as "Rongan Pavilion Day", "Rongan Room Day", "Rongan Fast day"; The names are also varied, such as "the master of the Rong 'an Pavilion", "the lay scholar of Rong Anzhai", "the scholar of Huai Shu", etc. It's also serious, stamped with all kinds of stamps. It was not until later that I realized that these "pavilions", "rooms" and so on were just the bungalow in Zhongguanyuan Garden where my family lived after the "department adjustment" in 1953. (Quoting Tao Yuanming's "Returning to Ci", "The Easy Safety of") Since then, he has moved to Jongshu many times, and his name has not been changed since his residence in Jongshu was "easy on one's knees".

There are twenty-three volumes and more than 2,000 pages, divided into 802 chapters. Each article has only a number, but no text. The Zha is basically written in Chinese, mixed with a large number of foreign languages, sometimes several in a row. No matter at home and abroad, from the classical works of the past dynasties, to the popular novels, even the slang of the village, he all referred to each other, and learned, but this "knowledge" has to be written into an article, before it can become his work. "Tube Cone Compilation", in all are the experience of Zhali, after play and full of the article. For example, Guan Ying compiled, Supplementary Notes on the Poems of Chu Hongxing Zu in 18 chapters, with a total of 95 pages, while Ri Zhali read a note on the Poems of Chu, with only 16 pages. The Justice of Zhouyi in 27 chapters, totalling 109 pages, while Rizari's notes on reading ZhouYi were only one, less than 12 pages.

Zhong Shu said in the preface to the Pipe Cone Compilation: "... Thus material simple its more easy to manage the board, cone refers to the tube peep, first into a series ", "the initial plan this series has" the whole Tang Dynasty "and other books five, and many sick lazy, can not hurry." Reading "the whole Tang Style" and other books, Rizari have. He once told me, "I want to write at least one more Han Yu and one more Du Fu." These two articles, think "not easy to manage the board of directors", plus "too sick and lazy", were not written. There are a lot of notes in Zhari that have not been written.

This large number of Chinese and foreign notes and reading experience, clock books are "useless". But the knowledge he accumulated through a lifetime of hard work should be a useful legacy to those who study his scholarship and Chinese and foreign culture. I should do my best to preserve the notes and journals left by the book for those who are eager to read.

I would like to thank the Commercial Press for scanning and printing all the manuscripts of Qian Zhongshu, keeping the original appearance of the manuscripts and making them public. I believe public disclosure is the best preservation. I wish I had this way, "the dead live, live without shame."