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how can a writer not like to collect books? many famous chinese writers have one or two "antique books" at home that they are proud of.

writer liu zheng collected western books that had been read and collected by 37 famous modern chinese writers and cultural figures, including zhou zuoren and xu zhimo. in his book "western books collected in east", he recorded this meaningful collection and shared the stories that happened between these private collections and their previous owners.

the following is excerpted from "western books and eastern collections" with the permission of the publisher. the subheadings are proposed by the editor, and the content has been deleted due to space limitations.

01

zhou zuoren and zhitang's western book collection

regarding the fact that he learned greek for three years during his study abroad, zhou zuoren wrote in his "zhou zuoren autobiography" on december 31, 1934: "i came to japan in 1906, first entered the preparatory course of hosei university, and later changed to rikkyo university. i returned to china after the xinhai revolution. i did not study any specialization, but only learned a few words of greek and japanese."

in his later years, he wrote "memoirs of chitang", in which there is a section called "learning greek", which records in detail: "... in the autumn of this year (1908), i began to learn ancient greek... at that time, there was no greek subject in japanese schools. kaibel was teaching philosophy in the liberal arts department of the imperial university, and it seemed that there was such a course, but that highest institution of learning was not something we could enter, so after all our plans, we could only enter rikkyo university in tsukiji. this is an american church school. the principal's surname is theka. the textbook used was wilder's "elementary greek", and later it was continued with kershinophon's "record of the march". however, i did not attach importance to the orthodox ancient language, but sometimes i went to the "trinity college" related to rikkyo university to listen to the greek lectures on the "gospel"..."

in the preface to greek symphony written on june 24, 1932, zhou zuoren wrote: "i started learning ancient greek in 1908. i read kershinophon's march and plato's questions and answers, but my goal was to translate the new testament, or at least the four gospels."

in june 2018, i bought an abridged greek-english dictionary online, the 28th edition published by oxford university press in 1903. the great greek-english dictionary, compiled by henry george liddell and his disciple robert scott, is a classic work of classical studies. however, due to its large volume, it is difficult for beginners to purchase and use it, so an abridged version has emerged. in addition to this small 32-page abridged greek-english dictionary, there is also a medium-sized version, which was reprinted by peking university press in 2015, entitled greek-english dictionary (medium edition)".

abridged greek-english dictionary

in the lower right corner of the title page of this "abridged greek-english dictionary", there is a seal in red seal script "zhou zuoren seal". in addition, it is also stamped once on the first and last pages of the dictionary. this seal is not found in "zhou zuoren seal collection" and articles by chen yan, zhou yun and others on zhou zuoren's seal collection. the seal seems to be made of ivory. perhaps because it is light and easy to lose, zhitang did not use it later.

learning a foreign language naturally requires textbooks and reference books. zhou zuoren said that "the textbook used was huaide's first greek book". he also recommended this book as an introductory greek reading to zhang tingqian, who wrote to zhitang on april 28, 1928: "i have asked [li] xiaofeng to buy the first greek book, but i haven't bought it yet. i appreciate your instructions. thank you."

i searched for "white" and "greek" in the "sold books" section of the used book website, and the book that came out first was john williams white's "introduction to greek". looking at the picture, there is a red seal in the lower right corner of the title page, which is the "zhou zuoren seal", exactly the same as the one on my "abridged greek-english dictionary". it turned out that this was the greek textbook mentioned in "zhitang memoirs", which was bought by someone in march 2018, three months earlier than me.

in fact, the authenticity of the seals on the preliminary greek and the abridged greek-english dictionary can be mutually verified. first, the sellers of these two books did not indicate the names of the previous owners, and the prices of these two books were reasonable as ordinary foreign books. secondly, when i bought the abridged greek-english dictionary, the pictures shown by the seller were quite blurry, and ordinary people could not make out the content of the seals. i just vaguely felt that it might be owned by a famous person, so i ordered it.

although the image of "introduction to greek" is a little bigger, it is still not clear. if i had not carefully examined the seal on the "abridged greek-english dictionary", i would probably still not recognize the words "zhou zuoren seal". the above two points do not conform to the general characteristics of book dealers forging for profit. since "introduction to greek" can be verified by zhou zuoren's own memories, there is no need to doubt the authenticity of the seal. it can also be confirmed that the "abridged greek-english dictionary" was formerly owned by zhitang, and it must have been used by zhou zuoren when he was learning greek in his early years, because when he wanted to translate greek classics later, it would not be enough.

zhou yun's "a study of the collection and dispersion of zhitang's books" recorded the "greek-english dictionary" compiled by liddell and scott, which is now in the national library of china. it is the 1897 edition: "the first page of the main text has a red square seal: kuyuzhai collection seal... page 748 has greek words written in pen, and many places have red pencil, pen, etc. underlining and usage marks." on the one hand, zhou zuoren later had a large dictionary to refer to, and on the other hand, his knowledge of greek had also increased, so the greek reading books and small dictionaries used in his early years could be discarded when necessary. i suspect that "elementary greek" and "abridged greek-english dictionary" were sold by zhou zuoren himself when his life was difficult.

inside page of the abridged greek-english dictionary

zhou zuoren cleaned up his old collection and sold some of it to used bookstores. this had always happened, but he sold more and more frequently after he was in his fifties. here are just a few records of selling western books in his diary: november 9, 1939, "in the morning, pingbai (you bingqi) and shen xinwu came and took away more than 200 volumes of english and japanese books, as well as magazines and chinese books." november 12, "in the afternoon, deyoutang came, songjunge came, and took away old english and japanese books with tongwen bookstore." november 19, "in the afternoon, songjunge came and sold old english and japanese books before the handover for 80 yuan, and also gave him some chinese books." december 11, 1959, "in the afternoon, someone from the chinese bookstore came and sold 41 western books and other books for 135 yuan."

zhou yun pointed out in his article that the national library has a collection of 271 types of zhitang western books with clear collection records (and a small number of supplements later). mr. jin wenbing is currently engaged in research on zhou zuoren's english reading history, and i believe he will also make some discoveries.

02

xu zhimo's "circles" come alive on paper

in the past two or three decades, the foreign books in the collection of the poet xu zhimo have occasionally appeared in second-hand bookstores. some readers have bought them, and some have written about them. the poet xichuan once wrote in his essay "about books" that among the books he bought in a second-hand bookstore in beijing, "there was the oxford edition of 19th century english literary theory with a blue oval stamp of 'zhimo's last letter', and xu zhimo's circles were vividly visible on the paper."

seal of "shima's last letter"

i have also seen a book that was once part of xu zhimo's collection, which was signed by mr. he zhaowu. it must have passed into mr. he's hands later. there are about ten kinds of english and french books in xu zhimo's collection that are scattered around, and the titles of the books can be found. without exception, they are all stamped with the seal of "zhimo's last letters"; judging from the content, they are all literary works of good taste, including works by thackeray, ruskin, etc., which are in line with xu zhimo's reading interests.

on november 19, 1931, xu zhimo died. most of his books were collected by songpo library. during his lifetime, xu zhimo worked in songpo library for several years and presided over the collection work. ms. peng fuying introduced in the article "a glimpse of foreign books in songpo library in the national library": "after the establishment of songpo library, xu zhimo donated a lot of books, such as 157 english books in 1923, which were stamped with the seal of "xu zhimo donation"; some were stamped with the seal of "zhimo's last letter", which was donated after xu zhimo's death. the author participated in the collection and saw 160 books donated by xu zhimo, most of which were english documents, followed by french documents, but the number was not large, only 10."

in october 2013, i got an english copy of "shima's last letters", which has the songpo library number 8336. it is a youth reading material "ancient greek stories" published by "renren series" and written by george w. cox.

it was not until recent years that we had the opportunity to learn that xu zhimo may not have intended to donate those foreign books with the "zhimo's last letter" seal to songpo library during his lifetime. on october 21, 1930, xu zhimo wrote to ding wenjiang, saying:

yesterday i heard from zhenfei that songguan is now managed by my elder brother, which is great. i have a little trifle to ask you. the day before yesterday, songguan wrote that the site of huguan will soon be moved. i have to find a way to move the twelve bookcases and suitcases and other items i have stored there, but i am in nanzhong at the moment and i don’t have anyone to do it for me. i heard that shihu no. 7 is now rented by mr. wang tuansha. could you please discuss with him and let him keep it sealed for the time being? i will try to transport it or move it to another place before the new year. i wonder if brother wang limin is still serving in the library? if he is, i would like to ask him to take care of it so that it will not be lost.

on november 8 of the same year, apparently after receiving ding wenjiang's reply, xu zhimo wrote again, saying:

i am a poor scholar, i have nothing but books, so i cannot accept donations. when i have to move, i can only temporarily leave them at no. 54 jiajin yuelin's place in shijia hutong. i have already informed dongsun and limin, and hope they can take care of them so that they will not be lost. i will be very grateful! (same as above)

from the content of the letter, we can infer that ding wenjiang advised xu zhimo to donate the books stored in shihu hutong directly to songpo library, but xu zhimo explicitly refused. unfortunately, things are unpredictable. a year later, xu zhimo passed away, and his books were left in songpo library. and the books he had been thinking about at that time, hoping that someone would take care of them "so that they would not be lost", fortunately some of them were returned to the national library, and some of them were lost after all.

in 2020, i bought a hardcover old english book online, which was joseph conrad's essay collection "essays on life and literature". in the blank space in the middle of the title page of the book, there is a red seal with the words "zhi mo zuo". i guess this book was formerly owned by xu zhimo. it does not belong to the songpo or "zhi mo's last letters" series, and it does not have the library's collection stamp.

"written by shima" in essays on life and literature

in theory, the seal "zhimo zuozhi" is appropriate for manuscripts, but it is awkward to use it on foreign books. i think the reason may be that xu zhimo was in a hurry and did not examine it carefully. in the letter to ding wenjiang on october 21, 1930, xu zhimo wrote:

i should have thanked you for your generous gift of this masterpiece long ago. i bought a copy in paris and beijing before, but needless to say, my friends always took it away. this is the third copy i have received. i have already written my name and stamped it, and i will never let it go again.

it can be seen that xu zhimo did not usually write inscriptions or put seals on his foreign books; perhaps he occasionally put seals on them to show his appreciation and avoid "running away" with his friends. since the merchant did not use the celebrity's collection as a selling point when i bought it, but sold it as an ordinary old english book, there seemed to be no motive for forgery. if he wanted to forge it, wouldn't it be more reasonable to imitate a common "zhi mo" seal than to carve a "zhi mo zuo" seal that is not very appropriate to the situation? there is also a chinese bookstore's old book pricing stamp on the last page of this book, which shows that it has been circulating in china for a long time. from the depth of penetration of the "zhi mo zuo" seal ink on the back of the paper, it can be judged that this seal is not a recent one. combining the above characteristics, i think that this book is an old collection of xu zhimo, without a doubt.

since this is a work by joseph conrad, did xu zhimo read conrad's books? i searched through the complete works of xu zhimo and found seven articles and letters that mentioned conrad. i will briefly describe them in chronological order as follows.

in 1922, xu zhimo mentioned in his article "rainbow after the rain": "i am reminded of conrad's "the great wind", the duel between man and the essence of nature." the novel he was talking about here was "typhoon".

in 1922, xu zhimo wrote danon snow crow, introducing the italian novelist d'annunzio, saying: "his writing has the depth and strength of dostoevsky, the rigor and precision of fulbertson, and the instinct of conrad to capture words..."

in 1923, xu zhimo mentioned in his famous essay "manshufeld": "she asked me which novels i liked to read the most, and i said hardy, conrad..."

in the summer of 1923, xu zhimo held a series of lectures on "modern english literature" at the nankai university summer school. in the lectures, he praised "conrad's writing is concise and the more you read, the deeper it becomes", pointed out that "he is good at describing marine life", and listed three of conrad's representative works: "typhoon", "the sea like a mirror", and "between land and sea". when talking about the writer wells later, xu zhimo said: "wells and conrad are also different. conrad is based on people, while he is based on society."

in 1927, xu zhimo participated in translating the novel mary mary. in the preface to the translation, he said: "translation is often an unexpected interest for me... i want to translate plato, the old testament, hardy, conwright's novels, pedder's essays, and ludwig's biography of goethe. there are many more i want to translate..."

on july 21, 1929, xu zhimo wrote in a letter to the female poet li qi: "lagoon is my favorite. i hope you will send me the translation and the short essays at once. why not give youth a try? if you add one more article, it will become a collection of conrad's short stories. how about you start working on it when you have time?" xu zhimo's "favorite" conrad short story was "the lagoon", and he later suggested that li qi try translating the conrad short story "youth".

in 1930, xu zhimo said in the preface to his novel collection roulette, "i am afraid i will never be able to write a novel as i wish in my lifetime." he then listed the famous novelists he admired, such as flaubert, conrad, chekhov, mansfield, mrs. woolf, etc., and said, "i have read conrad and i feel excited."

from the above, we can see that xu zhimo was very familiar with, loved and admired joseph conrad's novels. he not only urged others to translate them, but also thought about translating them himself. so it was natural for him to buy and read conrad's essays.

arthur weiley, a british writer and famous translator of chinese poetry, was very close to xu zhimo during his stay in england. in his later years, he wrote a short essay about xu zhimo, "a debt to china". weiley mentioned xu zhimo's interactions with great writers in england: "his worship and pilgrimage were increasingly directed to the field of literature. he visited conrad, wells, hardy, and bilitz; in this series of visits, he created a new style of writing that was unprecedented in china, namely "visit notes". this kind of writing is full of passion, a kind of inner excitement caused by discovering new things, which is very different from ordinary news reports." given that weiley's description is "isolated evidence", we cannot be sure whether xu zhimo really visited conrad for the time being, but it is reasonable that xu zhimo, who likes to read conrad's works, has the desire to pay homage to this literary elder.

essays on life and literature is not a rare book, but the one with xu zhimo's seal is the first edition published in 1921, which is rare. 1921 was an important year for xu zhimo: it was in this year that he was recommended by dickinson to study at the royal college of cambridge university as a special student. perhaps xu zhimo, who was in cambridge, bought and read essays on life and literature when it was first published; perhaps, reading this book was also a preparation for meeting conrad, the great writer he admired.

03

qian zhongshu was also a fan of detective novels

the general reader may have the impression that mr. qian zhongshu had very few books. he borrowed books from the library and returned them after reading. he often gave away the books sent by friends at home and abroad. this statement is certainly not wrong, but we should also note that those interviews and reminiscences are all about mr. qian zhongshu's later years, and they only reflect the situation of mr. qian's collection of books in his later years. we cannot infer from this that qian zhongshu did not like to collect books in his youth and middle age, or that he had very few books. in fact, mr. lin ziqing mentioned in his article "mr. qian zhongshu in jinan university" that in the late 1940s, when mr. qian was in shanghai, mr. lin "once ran to his residence on fuxing middle road and saw that the bookshelves on the second floor against the wall were full of 32-page hardcover foreign books."

in 2010, i bought an english book from mr. qian zhongshu's collection. the book itself is very ordinary. it is a collection of short crime stories first published in new york in 1946, called "no tears for killing: selected crime stories", edited by will capi. many of the selected writers are now unknown. those i have heard of include james thurber, isaac tennyson, karel capek, gilbert keith chesterton, aldous huxley, agatha christie, dorothy sayers, dashiell hammett, stephen leacock, etc.

the first person to provide evidence about qian zhongshu's reading of detective novels (detective novels and crime novels are almost the same thing) was mr. yang jiang. in "notes on qian zhongshu and fortress besieged", she mentioned that when qian zhongshu was studying at oxford in the 1930s, "he had to take the pre-test for the thesis in the course of 'versions and collation', which required the ability to identify manuscripts from the 15th century onwards. he had no interest in it, so he read a detective novel every day to 'rest his mind'. he was so 'resting' that he danced and kicked in his sleep, not knowing whether he was catching a murderer or becoming a murderer and fighting with the police. as a result, he failed the exam and had to take a make-up exam after the summer vacation." this anecdote must be remembered by many readers. mr. lu hao read the copy of "notes from rong'an hall" and found new clues about mr. qian's reading of detective novels. this book "killing without tears: a selection of crime novels" is probably also what mr. qian used to "rest his mind".

there are two seals on the title page of the book, the white one is "qian zhongshu seal" and the red one is "mocun". these two seals are nothing special, but i think the most precious thing is the words "ex libris cs ch'ien shanghai" written in blue pen on the blank page in front of the book. combined with the handwriting, it can be determined that "killing without tears: selected crime novels" is a western book purchased and collected by mr. qian zhongshu between 1946 and august 1949. maybe this book is among the large number of "32-page hardcover foreign books" that mr. lin ziqing saw on the second floor of qian's house on fuxing middle road.

yang jiang wrote in the article "record of "corrections to the chronicle of song poetry" that "my family once lived on the third floor of a house in puyuan in the early spring of 1949, which zhongshu called "qiezhulou". mr. yang was referring to the residence at no. 8 puyuan, pushi road (now changle road) in shanghai. according to wu xuezhao's "listening to yang jiang talk about past events", in 1949, qian zhongshu's uncle asked qian zhongshu's third sister-in-law to bring their three children to shanghai to live together on lafede road. it was inconvenient to have so many people, and a friend happened to recommend a vacant room in puyuan, pushi road, so qian zhongshu and his wife and their daughter qian yuan moved to puyuan. in the summer of the same year, qian zhongshu and yang jiang were hired as professors in the foreign language department of tsinghua university. later, zhou erfu from the united front work department of the shanghai municipal committee of the communist party of china visited puyuan. knowing that qian and yang were going to tsinghua, he bought soft sleeper tickets for them and held a farewell tea party. on august 24, qian and yang left for beijing. qian zhongshu only lived in the "qiezhu building" for half a year. after that, he passed through shanghai for a meeting, but never stayed there for a long time again.

in may 2021, i got a hardcover old english book. on the upper right corner of the title page, there is a blue pen handwriting: "cs ch'ien / 18. vi. 1949 / shanghai". this is qian zhongshu's signature, the place is shanghai, and the time is june 18, 1949. among them, the writing of the letter e and the month represented by roman numerals are both typical of qian zhongshu's style. this book was collected by qian zhongshu during his stay in puyuan residence.

malice in wonderland

the title of the book, malice in wonderland, literally means "malice in wonderland" - in fact, the english title echoes "alice in wonderland" (alice in wonderland, the official title is actually alice's adventures in wonderland). malice (malice) and alice (alice) have similar pronunciations, and it is difficult to take both into account in chinese, so we have to ignore it. the author is signed as "nicholas black", and qian zhongshu added an english note after the author's name: "pseudonym of c. day lewis the poet" ("the pen name of the poet c. day lewis").

c. day lewis, cecil day lewis (1904-1972), is a famous modern british poet who became the poet laureate in 1968. but now most people know him because of his more famous son, actor daniel day lewis. nicholas blake is the pen name cecil day lewis used when publishing detective novels.

this book, malice in wonderland, was published in 1940 as an exclusive edition for the crime club. the author's introduction page lists five other books written by nicholas blake, all of which are obviously detective novels. cecil day-lewis' first detective novel, a question of proof, was published in 1935. according to biographer peter stanford, if the lewis couple's villa roof needed a hundred pounds to be repaired and they couldn't afford it, the detective novelist "nicholas blake" would never have appeared. cecil day-lewis later said that writing detective novels allowed him to "butter the bread provided by poetry."

today, nicholas blake's dozen novels have only a limited number of readers. however, experts who study the history of british detective novels have not forgotten him. if you are interested, you can read martin edwards's monograph "the golden age of murder: the mystery of the british detective club", which praises nicholas blake's first few novels.

"malice in wonderland" was published during the war and seemed to have little response. the novel is set in a seaside resort called "wonderland". the young and energetic pollster paul perry arrives at the resort with an old tailor from oxford who speaks elegantly, his wife, and his daughter sally. soon, a series of pranks occurred in the resort. at first, they were harmless, such as pouring syrup into the piano, and then gradually escalated, such as putting dead birds and dead mice on the beds of many guests... the prankster called himself "mad hatter", a character in "alice's adventures in wonderland", and the so-called "malice in wonderland" refers to the pranks of "mad hatter". the person in charge of the resort is colonel wise, and his younger brother edward also helps in the resort. the smart and dignified colonel's secretary is esmeralda jones. paul, sally, edward, and esmeralda developed the kind of goodwill and jealousy that young people usually have.

as a detective novel, malevolence in wonderland lacks suspense, and the events in the beginning are a bit trivial and uninteresting. i read it patiently for more than a week, and finally finished it. detective nigel strangeways only appears two-fifths of the way through the novel. according to cecil day-lewis's biographer, the young detective was modeled after the poet auden's appearance. interestingly, the first page of malevolence in wonderland teases "early auden," saying that auden's preference for rusty metal and erupting steam is a harmless quirk of genius. i'm curious: was auden already so famous in 1940 that the author was sure that the members of the "crime fiction readers club" knew who he was referring to?

in the last third of the novel, several clues gradually become tangled together, bullets begin to be fired, and the atmosphere becomes tense. in the end, the detective's analysis of the whole incident is meticulous and logical, which shows cecil day-lewis's ability to organize the plot. however, i always feel that this detective novel is boring, and the psychology and actions of several main characters seem superficial and mechanical.

qian zhongshu has always liked to read detective novels. after the publication of qian zhongshu's manuscript collection: foreign language notes, we know that qian zhongshu has read detective novels by john buchan, gilbert keith chesterton, michael innes, eric ambler, edmund clarisse bentley, phyllis dorothy james, ellery queen, raymond chandler, dashiell hammett, etc. among them, nicholas blake is also included.

in the fifth volume of qian zhongshu's manuscript collection: foreign language notes, there are excerpts from the novel shell of death by nicholas blake written by qian zhongshu. shell of death is now generally known as thou shell of death, which means "thou, the shell of death". the book was first published in 1936 and is the second detective novel written by nicholas blake. it has a clever narrative and beautiful writing, and has received good reviews. qian zhongshu also excerpted the "aphorism" mentioned by martin edwards in "the golden age of murder" - "the blonde in the nazi dream". the notebook qian zhongshu used to copy this book was printed by "shanghai minsheng stationery". based on the handwriting characteristics, it can be inferred that it was written when he lived in shanghai in the 1940s, and the reading time was earlier than "malice in wonderland". this shows that qian zhongshu continued to pay attention to the detective novels written by nicholas blake, just like his works by sayers, christie, ambler, etc.

the book "killing without crying: selected crime novels" and "malice in wonderland" that i bought many years ago were both recreational readings purchased by qian zhongshu in post-war shanghai.

the date "june 18, 1949" marked on "malice in wonderland" may be worthy of our special attention. "listening to yang jiang talking about the past" records the scene of that year: "zhongshu's family welcomed the liberation in puyuan. on the night of may 26, the sky was gloomy and drizzling, and gunshots continued all night. they lived on the third floor, and the three of them lay on the floor to avoid stray bullets. in the early morning of the next day, before dawn, they heard the horn, and shanghai was liberated!" in other words, the date marked on the book was only three weeks after shanghai was liberated. when the world was turned upside down and many people must have been panicked and confused, what was qian zhongshu doing?

he was reading a detective novel. we don't know whether he was calm and at ease, or if he was covering his eyes with the book, thinking he was escaping.

this article is excerpted from

western books and eastern collections

author: liu zheng

publisher: shanghai literature and art publishing house

producer: eons

subtitle: foreign books collected by famous chinese cultural figures

publication year: 2024-8