The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

Jiao Hong had already made an appointment to leave for Anyang in the next few days, and he didn't want to change the date for Fan Runan to see the oracle bone excavation.

"Anyang Oracle Bones...is the place where Mr. Jianyang recently wrote an article in the Suzhou Xunbao?" Fan Runan also read Wang Wenlong's report on Anyang Oracle Bones and was equally interested in it.

Jiao Hong nodded and invited: "Is Mr. Zhang also interested in Anyang? Why not go to Anyang and wait until you return to Jinling to slowly copy the bibliography."

Fan Runan shook his head and said: "Seeing that summer is coming, I have to go back to Tianyige to arrange insect control, but I don't have time."

Jiao Hong said: "That's unfortunate." He looked disappointed and left after saying that.

After a conversation, Jiao Hong felt that Fan Runan was a qualified person, and he did not agree with the Fan family's idea of ​​collecting books, so he planned to show goodwill in his interactions with Fan Runan.

Although both the Jiao Hong and Fan families were famous book collectors at this time, the concepts of book collection in each family were very different in this era.

For example, Xu Xinggong in Fujian collected books to build a public library. After collecting any good books, he would invite friends to share and read them. There were even poor scholars who came to read the books, and he also took care of their food expenses.

Jiao Hong's library was another style. He collected a large number of precious journals and manuscripts from the Song and Ming Dynasties. Some editions were unwilling to be given away by others, so he copied them himself, because he collected the books to read the contents.

People at the time recorded that Jiao Hong had "two floors of books, five couplets full, and I have seen everything, and every one of them has been collated and discussed." It can be said that he has read almost all the books in Jiao Hong's collection, and every book has a stamp. Put the seal on.

As for Fan Runan, his book collection looks even more strange when it is closed.

His grandfather Fan Qin was the builder of Tianyi Pavilion. After resigning and retiring, he devoted himself to collecting books. Before his death, Fan Qin came to his two sons and said: "I have two properties, a pavilion of books and a million dollars of silver." two."

Fan Runan's father, Fan Dachong, took the initiative to collect books. After Fan Qin's death, Fan Dachong formulated various storage rules, including: Tianyi Pavilion has descendants to jointly manage the door of the pavilion and export the keys to brothers in each room. Unless the keys are collected, the lock cannot be opened. All the books in the pavilion are "unfilial to borrow from others" and "the books are not divided into different generations, and the books will not leave the pavilion".

In history, the first time Tianyi Pavilion invited outsiders to study in the pavilion was after the fall of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, Huang Zongxi entered the pavilion as the world's greatest scholar. He studied books for several days and nights, and finally wrote the "Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty" which summarizes the thoughts of all schools in the Ming Dynasty. 》.

Why do many people not mention the Ningbo Fan family when talking about the world's major bibliophiles during the Wanli period? Because the family's collection of books is not only invisible to outsiders, but also to members of the family who want to read the books. Brothers from several rooms have to gather the keys together to enter the pavilion.

The Fan family's book collection is simply the height of performance art, either for reading or for hiding.

Although Jiao Hong showed respect for Fan Runan, he was very dissatisfied with the Fan family's behavior. This group of people collected books without reading them or lending them to others, which was a waste of resources.

Fan Runan saw Jiao Hong's expression and knew what he was thinking, but he still thanked him and said, "Thank you, Mr. Danyuan. I will stay at your place for a few days and copy the bibliography." By this time, Jiao Hong had already gone away. Fan Runan was neither sad nor happy. He just asked the book boy to take out his pen and ink while waiting for Jiao Hong's housekeeper to bring the books. At the same time, he carefully calculated how much time it would take to deworm and dry the books this year, and how much manpower and money it would cost.

His father, Fan Dachong, was just a tribute student and did not have much ability in the imperial examination. Fan Dachong could not understand many of the profound books in Tianyi Pavilion. Now that Fan Dachong is dead and Fan Runan is in charge of Tianyi Pavilion, Fan Runan's generation has no talent in the imperial examination. Despite his many achievements, he still insists on following his grandfather’s career.

The Fan family's behavior of keeping Tianyi Pavilion seems very stupid to outsiders, but the family still persists because Fan Runan remembers that his father Fan Dachong once said: Only such stupidity can preserve books.

In history, there were many bibliophiles in the late Ming Dynasty: Nanjiao and Beili, the Four Great Masters of Jinling, Xujia Hongyulou in Fujian, etc. However, none of these famous bibliophiles lasted until the Qing Dynasty.

For example, Jiao Hong's Jiao Zhuangyuan Library collection was famous all over the world at this time. However, in the original history, during the Chongzhen period, Jiao Hong's descendants were in despair and sold all of Jiao Hong's books. Books stamped with Jiao Hong's collection seal are now The selling price on the market was higher, and in the end not a single ancestral book from the Jiao family remained.

Why did Huang Zongxi go to Tianyige to read the book when he wrote "The Case of Confucianism in the Ming Dynasty"? Because among the world's bibliophiles, only Ningbo Tianyi Pavilion survived the chaos of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. In the era of starvation and war, each room of the Fan family still strictly abided by the rules, and the book collection not only did not decrease, but also increased. There has been an increase.

In the original history, until Ningbo fell in the Opium War and Tianyi Pavilion was plundered by the British army, Tianyi Pavilion was the place with the largest private collection of books in the world.

Even after the Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion, Tianyige still had a collection of more than 2,000 books and more than 17,000 volumes during the Guangxu period.

After the late Qing Dynasty and into modern times, the private collection method could no longer effectively preserve books during the great changes. After the Republic of China, the Fan family gradually changed Tianyi Pavilion into public-private management. Until modern times, Tianyi Pavilion was undoubtedly the best place to preserve books and materials in China. The best place to do it.

From a historical perspective, we can understand Fan Dachong's thoughts - this family's book collection is not for their own reading, but to preserve the context of the entire civilization, and this has been done for three hundred years in history.

……

When Jiao Hong arrived in Anyang with his servants, it was already close to July and it was extremely hot. However, Dong Qichang and local officials from Anyang still ran to the city gate to greet him.

Jiao Hong was almost the most famous among the famous scholars at this time. He had won the first prize in the examination and served as Zhu Changluo's lecturer. More importantly, his status in historical research was too high. .

Jiao Hong focused on the study of national history when he was a Hanlin Academy. He positioned himself as a historian. Jiao Hong respected history very much. After joining the Hanlin Academy, he came into contact with a large number of records of national dynasties and found that there were many emperors and generals of the Ming Dynasty. A large number of royal archives had been deleted, and many historical materials passed down to later generations had been processed. He was so angry that he directly wrote an article "On History" to explain his views. Just by reading one sentence, you can know his views. : "The power of history is the same as that of heaven and the king, and sincerity is the most important thing." - Jiao Hong had a reverence for historical documents and believed that even the emperor had no power to change the records of historians.

In the 22nd year of Wanli, the great scholar Chen Yu proposed to compose the history of the country, and recommended Jiao Hong, who had profound historical knowledge, to take charge of the matter. This proposal won the support of the cabinet and courtiers, and Jiao Hong also conducted considerable research. After a lot of preliminary preparations, the palace caught fire not long after, and Emperor Wanli used the money to repair the three main halls. In the end, the compilation of the national history of the Wanli Dynasty was not carried out. (End of chapter)