This year marks the 125th anniversary of the Commercial Press. In its 125 years of development, the Commercial Press has participated in the development of Chinese society and culture in various ways, and has been deeply involved in the lives of individuals in many ways. The authors, translators, readers and staff of the Commercial Press used the theme of "I and Business" to tell their experiences and insights about their business association, interaction and cooperation.
——China Reading News (February 16, 2022)
In 125 years, it was in the same boat as China's modern publishing. Sincerely, the golden stone is open, thanks to the support of the translators. Share the story of "Me and the Commercial Press" by Mr. Jiang Lansheng, Jiang Shaoyu and Mr. Chen Guying.
Jiang Lansheng: My indissoluble relationship with the Commercial Press
The author is Jiang Lansheng, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Commercial Press, and it is an honor for me to write an article as an author to celebrate it. I have a lot of connections with the Commercial Press. My maternal grandfather, Wang Kailuan, was the author of business, and his two books, "Notes on deng Yanzi" and "Notes on Yin Wenzi", were included in the "Student Sinology Series" published by the Commercial Press in 1936. In 2001 and 2008, Business published two of my collected papers, and in 2014 I published an updated version of the latter. In this way, I finally got on the line of authors at the Commercial Press. However, what really made me indissoluble with business was the three classics of the Modern Chinese Dictionary, the Xinhua Dictionary and the Modern Chinese Dictionary.
In the 1980s and 1990s, I served as the leader of the Institute of Language of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and was the main revised host of the 11th edition of the Xinhua Dictionary in 2011 and the 6th edition of the Modern Chinese Dictionary in 2012, so I was able to have more contact and in-depth cooperation with the Commercial Press. The leading bodies of the various business industries attach great importance to the revision and publication of these two dictionaries, and select the best editors to serve as responsible editors, from review, editing, cover, binding, paper, printing factory and other aspects are particularly meticulous. The quality of business responsible editors is high, not only do not miss the details such as text style, but also often put forward very pertinent modification suggestions. It can be said that these two dictionaries can maintain a high academic standard and publication quality, which also includes many efforts of business people.
In 1997, we and the Commercial Press jointly sued someone for concocting a dictionary that seriously copied the Modern Chinese Dictionary (hereinafter referred to as "Present Chinese"), infringing the copyright of the Institute of Languages and the exclusive publishing rights of the Commercial Press. At the opening of the trial and cross-examination, Han Jingti and Comrade Yang Deyan, general manager of commerce, exchanged heated arguments with the defendant on a reasonable and well-founded basis with conclusive facts, and finally won the case. The Chinese Dictionary Society took this incident as an opportunity to issue an initiative in the industry to fight against infringement and illegal acts such as plagiarism and piracy and shoddy and improper study styles, which stimulated healthy trends and received very good social results.
One day in the first half of 1998, Comrade Yang Deyan said that Mr. Chen Yuan, the old leader of commerce, wanted to invite me to dinner, and I was flattered. Chen Yuanlao is a well-known sociolinguistic and veteran publisher. He is very knowledgeable, yu tongxi learning, very kind and humble, as a post-learner, it is really impossible to have the opportunity to chat with him and ask for advice. During the meal, Mr. Chen Yuan asked me what suggestions I had for running a good business, and I was completely layman in the publishing industry, where I could say what suggestions I could make, but it was not good to say nothing, and I was fearless and said a few words indiscriminately. Soon after, General Manager Yang informed me that Comrade Gui Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Press and Publication Administration, wanted to talk to me, which aroused my doubts and asked General Manager Yang what was going on. Mr. Yang told me that the above intended to transfer me to the commercial editor-in-chief. I was dumbfounded as soon as I heard it. I am a reader, accustomed to the life of the bookstore, for market research, topic planning and other work can not do at all, really to agree will be wrong big things. So when they met, they truthfully confessed to Comrade Gui Xiaofeng and showed their hearts, but fortunately they were reasonable and respected my opinion. This incident further strengthened my relationship with business: I almost became a business person, or rather, I had the opportunity to become a business person.
The author of this article, Mr. Jiang Lansheng, recently took a photo
In July 2012, the 6th edition of "Present Han" was published. In order to provide readers with the convenience of inquiry, like the previous two editions, the dictionary is appended with "words at the beginning of the Western letter", that is, 239 letter words. Unexpectedly, at a rally of hundreds of people on August 27, some people accused the "present Han" of including alphabetic words "illegal", saying that "this is an unprecedented great upheaval of Chinese characters", "the evil result of its development is to adapt to the dream of imperialism to disrupt Chinese culture", "Chinese character culture has reached the most dangerous time", calling on people to rise up and fight a chinese character defense war. The next day, a newspaper published a news on the front page with the headline "More than 100 scholars report the illegality of the new edition of "Now Han"," which immediately became a hot topic in the news. Since then, these people have twice jointly signed a letter to the Ministry of Education and the State Administration of Press and Publication, demanding that alphabets be banned. We were pushed to the forefront. In the face of the sudden attack, the Language Institute and the Commercial Press withstood the pressure, and while calmly responding to media interviews, we held expert colloquiums to sort out the inevitability of the emergence of alphabets and the necessity of including alphabets from the historical and practical levels. We believe that it would be neither wise nor practical to ban alphabetical words altogether. What we should do is to guide and regulate its use as necessary to prevent misuse and abuse. Zhou Hongbo, editor-in-chief of the Commercial Press and I, was also invited by the People's Daily's "Strong Country Forum" to communicate directly with netizens and have an online debate with the whistleblower, so that the merits and merits could be clarified. In another side-by-side battle, I formed a comrade-in-arms friendship with business.
In December 2010, CCTV reported that some poor primary schools in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region lacked the genuine Xinhua Dictionary, and poor quality pirated and counterfeit dictionaries flooded the campuses. The report caused strong repercussions in society. The Commercial Press Yu Dianli and other leaders immediately made a decision to donate public welfare, rushed to the reported school for donation at the first time, and signed a long-term "Love Dictionary Project Cooperation Agreement" with two other schools. The business has also set up a dictionary love price, which is provided to public welfare organizations such as the Soong Ching Ling Foundation at a lower price. Our language institute also heard the wind and proposed to reduce royalties and jointly do good deeds. At the same time, the love activities of government agencies and all sectors of society have been expanding, and they have donated the Xinhua Dictionary to rural students. An important outcome of this activity was that in October 2012, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education jointly issued a notice to include student dictionaries in the government procurement list, which fundamentally solved the problem of rural students' lack of dictionaries at the national level. This incident made me impressed by the Commercial Press, the market rule is "in the business of business", but in the tide of market economy, business people still do not forget their original intentions, their own publishing business into the cultural and people's livelihood undertakings, showing their feelings for the people and a high sense of social responsibility. I think it is worth it to get involved with business!
In the autumn and winter of 2005, Comrade Yang Deyan, who was the general manager of the Commercial Press at the time, learned that the "Modern Chinese Dictionary" (hereinafter referred to as "Da Xian Han") was planned, and immediately expressed his support and provided 4 million yuan of compilation funds for the project. You know, 4 million is still not a small number today, let alone sixteen or seventeen years ago! At the beginning of 2006, "The Great Present Han" was officially launched, and in the long process of compilation since then, after many twists and turns, Yu Dianli General Manager and Zhou Hongbo have always given warm encouragement and support. At the beginning of 2020, "Da Xian Han" entered the final stage, and in April, Comrade Gu Qing called me a few days after he became the secretary of the party committee and the executive director of the commercial department, saying that he would continue to support the work of "Da Xian Han", which made me very moved. In early April 2021, under the planning of Gu Zong and the business team, Comrade Zhou Hongbo, the former editor-in-chief, personally went out and carefully organized a week-long Jixi expert consultation meeting. There were more than 40 experts attending the meeting, including many well-known people in the industry, such as He Jiuying and Mr. Wang Ning, editors-in-chief of the third edition of "Ciyuan", Mr. Lu Jianming of Peking University, Mr. Lu Guoyao of Nanjing University, etc., and Zhang Bojiang, director of Gu Zonghe Institute of Language, also gave guidance. During the meeting, each expert read 200 pages of manuscripts, leaving extremely valuable comments, which played a substantive role in improving the quality of the later period of "The Great Present Han". After the Jixi meeting, the closing work of "The Great Present Han" was fully launched, and in the face of the difficult situation of complicated worries, difficulty and workload increased, under the overall arrangement of Gu Zong and the commercial leadership team, the editorial team of the Commercial Press cooperated closely with our research group to promote each step of the work in a tense and orderly manner, and the responsible editor of the business paid immeasurable efforts all year round. According to incomplete statistics, there are more than 200 special inspections of various types alone, and some special projects have been done more than once or twice. In order to send smooth feedback on the review note, Mr. Gu called many times to communicate with the relevant parties, which deeply touched and inspired me and all the members of the research group. Now, this large-scale original language reference book that provides cultural support for the new journey of comprehensively building a modern socialist country will be published soon, which is a masterpiece created by the Institute of Linguistics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Commercial Press, and is another witness to the academic friendship between our two units.
Photo taken from the working meeting of the Modern Chinese Dictionary
Over the past 125 years, the Commercial Press has been walking hand in hand with modern Chinese scholarship, and has always taken cultural accumulation and academic inheritance as its responsibility. As a business writer, friend, and comrade-in-arms, the deeper the love, the more earnest it is. I sincerely hope that business should cherish its social reputation more, love its own golden signboard, keep up with the pace of the information and electronic era, adhere to high standards, produce more good books, and make greater contributions to inheriting excellent Chinese and foreign culture.
Jiang Shaoyu:
The story behind the Dictionary of Common Words in Ancient Chinese
The author, Jiang Shaoyu, is a professor at the Department of Chinese, Peking University
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the Establishment of the Commercial Press. This is something that should be solemnly celebrated.
The Commercial Press is the earliest publishing house established in the mainland, and is the kingdom of reference books and the publishing center of linguistic works. Personally, from the day I embarked on the academic path of Chinese linguistics research, I was inseparable from the linguistic works published by the Commercial Press.
Several important linguistic works by my teacher, several masters of Chinese Chinese linguistics, were published by the Commercial Press. Mr. Wang Li's "Chinese Phonology" (later renamed "Chinese Phonology"), "Theory of Chinese Chinese", "Modern Chinese Grammar", Mr. Lü Shuxiang's "Collected Papers on Chinese Grammar", and Mr. Zhu Dexi's "Grammar Lecture Notes" are all published by the Commercial Press; the Chinese translations of Saussure's "General Linguistics Course" and Bloomfield's "Language Theory" are also published by the Commercial Press.
These books were read a lot in my youth or middle age, and to this day, I still revisit them from time to time. Business has published more good books on linguistics in recent years, and I have drawn nourishment from them.
Mr. Wang Li
Many of my books are also published at the Commercial Press. Among them, the most closely related to the Commercial Press is the Dictionary of Common Words in Ancient Chinese, which I participated in compiling and revising and co-ordinating.
The first edition of this dictionary was completed in March 1978, published by the Commercial Press in September 1979, the main text contains more than 3,700 commonly used words in ancient Chinese (excluding variant characters), with the "Difficult Character List", more than 2,600 difficult characters, only Zhuyin and interpretation, no example sentences. The cover is signed "Ancient Chinese Common Character Dictionary Writing Group". In 1993, the second edition was published, and in 1998, the third edition was published, and 416 articles were added to the main text, and nearly 200 articles were added after the adjustment of the "Difficult Word List". In 2005, the fourth edition was published, this edition is an updated version, the "Difficult Word List" was removed, and more than 1800 example sentences commonly used in the "Difficult Word List" were added to the main text, and the meaning items and example sentences were set. In addition, more than 400 commonly used characters were added, and a total of 6400 commonly used characters in ancient Chinese were collected (excluding variant characters). The cover signs list the original editors Wang Li, Cen Qixiang, Lin Tao, Dai Li, Tang Zuofan, Jiang Shaoyu, Zhang Wanqi, Xu Minxia, etc., and the addenders Jiang Shaoyu, Tang Zuofan, Zhang Wanqi, Song Shaonian, and Li Shuqing. In June 2016, the fifth edition was published, and a major revision was made on the basis of the fourth edition. A sixth edition is now being prepared.
Dictionary of Common Words in Ancient Chinese, First Edition (Left) and Fifth Edition
The Dictionary of CommonLy Used Words in Ancient Chinese won the first prize of the Chinese Dictionary Award in 1995. Since its publication, it has been very popular with readers.
It is said that the Dictionary of Common Words in Ancient Chinese is closely related to the Commercial Press, not only because the five editions of the dictionary are published by the Commercial Press, but more importantly, the publication of this dictionary is inseparable from the support and concern of the Commercial Press. This should start from the compilation and publication of the first edition of the Dictionary of Common Words in Ancient Chinese.
The Dictionary of Common Words in Ancient Chinese was compiled in 1974. At that time, it was still in the midst of the Cultural Revolution. Why was such a dictionary compiled at that time? How was this dictionary compiled?
Looking back at history, in 1972, the Chinese Department of Peking University came in the first batch of workers, peasants, and soldiers. At that time, the practice of "opening the door to run the school" was to pull students to the factory and the teachers to follow. At that time, it was still a military propaganda team management school, and the industrial propaganda team of the Chinese Department of Peking University was sent by the Beijing Gear Factory, the Beijing Internal Combustion Engine General Factory, and the Beijing Third General Machinery Factory, so the trainees of the two grades of the Chinese Department (72 and 73) went to these three factories in the eastern suburbs of Beijing and took classes while working in the factories. The content of the class was also inseparable from the politics of the time. At that time, I thought, can I do something serious at this time? It is absolutely impossible to engage in academic research, and we can only find such a reason: if the workers, peasants, and soldiers want to occupy the superstructure, they must be able to understand ancient books, so they must compile an ancient Chinese dictionary to serve society. The Gongxuan Team could not oppose this idea, so they began to compile the Ancient Chinese Dictionary.
The author of this article is Mr. Jiang Shaoyu
At that time, I was the head of the dictionary writing. But how to compile the dictionary, I have no bottom in my heart. First of all, to compile the Ancient Chinese Dictionary, which characters should be chosen as the prefix? I was not sure, so I had to use the existing dictionaries such as "Ciyuan" and "Cihai" to list a list as a reference. Although nearly half a century later, I still remember it vividly: I found a few people in a dormitory in the factory to discuss the list. The participants in the discussion were, of course, mainly workers, but also students and teachers, including Mr. Wang Li, who followed the students to the factory. The workers did not say a word, and the other students and teachers rarely spoke, but Mr. Wang Li made a decision word by word: which word is commonly used and which word is not commonly used. It was decided by Mr. Wang Li, which was the basis for the more than 3,000 words (later added or subtracted) of the first edition of the "Dictionary of Common Words in Ancient Chinese".
When the prefix is fixed, I will make a note in groups. At that time, each group was a "three-in-one", with workers, students, and teachers. We used our spare time from labor and classes to do it in groups in the dormitories of the factory. Here are a few words to add: At that time, when the "door was opened to run the school", the instructors almost followed the students down to the factory in a "pot end". Mr. Wang Li, Mr. Cen Qixiang, Mr. Lin Tao, and Mr. Dai Li (who was originally from the Department of Journalism of Renmin University and was merged into the Department of Chinese of Peking University at that time) also went to the factory, lived in the workers' dormitory, and ate in the factory canteen. I remember that Mr. Wang Li and Mr. Lin Tao lived in the same dormitory, sleeping in bunk beds, Mr. Wang Li was on the bottom bunk, and Mr. Lin Tao was on the top bunk. At that time, Mr. Wang Li was more than 70 years old, and Mr. Lin Tao was more than 50 years old. They went home on Saturday for the holidays, and early Monday morning, they had to take a bus from Peking University to the eastern suburbs of Beijing before 8 a.m.
It is of course not efficient to make notes in such a scattered way, and not many entries have been written for several months. Can this dictionary be compiled? Fortunately, the Commercial Press took a fancy to the dictionary being compiled and decided to compile it and publish it by them. At that time, the head of the Commercial Press was Mr. Chen Yuan, and the director of the dictionary editing office was Ruan Jingying, who not only made this decision, but also sent the editors Zhang Wanqi and Xu Minxia to contact the work. Looking back now, I really should admire the vision and boldness of the leaders of the Commercial Press.
Since it was supported by the Commercial Press, by the winter of 1974, the dictionary writing team was concentrated at the Commercial Press. The teachers and students of Peking University all live in business, including 6 teachers: Wang Li, Cen Qixiang, Lin Tao, Dai Li, Tang Zuofan, and Jiang Shaoyu; there are 6 students, 2 in grade 72 and 4 in grade 73. Eight workers from three factories and two editors of the business do not live in the business and come to the business every day to participate in the preparation. The dictionary is written in four groups, each with two workers, several students, faculty members, and editors. The four writing groups were concentrated in a large room (room 213) in the middle of the second floor, and Two gentlemen, Cen Qixiang and Dai Li, were not in the group, and they made the "Difficult Word List" separately.
The writing team stayed in business for more than half a year, until the summer of 1975, when the 72nd class of students was about to graduate, and the writing team was dissolved. The efficiency of centralized writing is relatively high, and the entries written in the past six months, later I sorted them out, became the first draft of the "Dictionary of Common Words in Ancient Chinese".
Some of the situations that were written at that time can still be remembered today.
At that time, "the working class led everything", but the workers in the writing group were very simple, did not put up a "leader" shelf to tidy up the whole person, and got along better with us. Of course, they can't play a role in the writing of terms, and their task is to "check" politically. There was a slogan at that time: "Implement the dictatorship of the proletariat in every entry." "They're doing it very seriously. For example, when writing the "wood" note, under the meaning of "tree" of "wood", it was originally planned to use an example sentence from the "Qi Min Zhi Shu": "A certain large wood can be a coffin." But one worker proposed: Now that they are all cremations, isn't the use of this example a coffin advocated? Therefore, this example sentence had to be replaced. At that time, the society was "evaluating the law and criticizing Confucianism", and none of the example sentences of the Analects and Mencius could be used, and the most used were the example sentences of the Legalists " Shangjun Shu " and "Han Feizi " . So, later, before the dictionary was officially published, I made a considerable change of example sentences with the editor Zhang Wanqi.
At that time, what role did Mr. Wang Li play in the compilation? At the beginning, Mr. Wang Li was divided into a writing group, and the workers were the group leaders. He saw that Mr. Wang Li was very familiar with ancient books, and when he saw an example sentence, he would soon say which book it was in, so he said, "After that, let him take charge of verifying the example sentences." Slowly, they also realized that Mr. Wang Li's knowledge had a great effect on the writing of the entry, so they also respected Mr. Wang Li more and more and listened to Mr. Wang Li's opinions. Mr. Wang Li's accommodation conditions in business are also better than those of the factory, and he does not have to sleep with Mr. Lin Tao on bunk beds. However, every Saturday, it is still necessary to squeeze the bus back to Peking University, and then rush back to Business from Peking University on Monday morning. Once after 8 o'clock in business, although he was not criticized, Mr. Wang Li himself made a review in the group. That's about a month or two. Once, after work on Saturday, I rushed the bus back to Peking University with Mr. Wang Li, there were many people on the bus that time, Mr. Wang Li just squeezed up, he was pushed down, stood unsteadily, and sat on the ground. That time back at Peking University, I told the leader of the Chinese Department that Mr. Wang Li was old, so there would be an accident. Fortunately, the leaders at that time were reasonable and decided that Mr. Wang Li did not have to live in business and read the manuscript at home. Since then, when I returned to Peking University every week, I brought a batch of manuscripts from business and sent them to Mr. Wang Li's home for him to review and revise. On the weekend of the second week, he went to Mr. Wang Li's house again, sent a batch of new manuscripts, and brought back the manuscripts he had already read to business. In the second edition of the "Amendment Notes" in 1988, I said: "Most of the entries in the first draft of the dictionary have also been examined and approved by Mr. Wang Li. ...... However, at that time, Mr. Wang Li failed to systematically review the whole book, and the shortcomings and errors in the dictionary could not be responsible for Mr. Wang Li. "Specifically, this is the case.
In the summer of 1975, after the dictionary writing group was disbanded, a bunch of scattered notes were left in my hands. It took me almost three years to put together the notes into a first draft and hand them over to business in March 1978. Accepting the first draft, it was published in September 1979.
In the future, every edition will be revised and improved, and we have received strong support from the business. At the same time, the circulation of the dictionary is large, the number of readers is gradually increasing, and many readers will give feedback to the publisher in the process of use. Jin Xinxin, the editor in charge of the fourth edition, and Gong Ying, the editor in charge of the fifth edition, are very conscientious and responsible, and they deal with the readers' opinions in a timely manner, and they all contact me when they have important questions, and I will look up the information to modify them or give the readers a reply. This is also an important way to improve the quality of dictionaries.
This is the path that the Dictionary of Common Words in Ancient Chinese has traveled in the past half century. We sincerely thank the Commercial Press for its strong support, the responsible editor of the business for their serious work, and the readers for their love and concern for the dictionary. At present, the Commercial Press has designated this dictionary as a key publication in the library, and we will work closely with the business to continue to do a good job in the revision and maintenance of the dictionary.
Chen Guying: I got along with business with books
Chen Guying (Department of Philosophy, Peking University)/Oral
I have a little relationship with the Commercial Press, which is made up of several books.
I am a Hakka family member of Changting, Fujian, and I have a cousin Zheng Wenhua who has a very good relationship with my family. Wen Huage later studied in the United States, and his father Zheng Bingru was a former high-ranking member of the National Government, but after he studied abroad, he chose to come to the mainland to teach. He had a good friendship with Mr. Gao Song, the director of the philosophy editing office of the Commercial Press at that time, so he introduced my book to business. At that time, the Commercial Press and the Zhonghua Bookstore were still merged, and the business specialized in translation, so I gave my "Lao Tzu Annotated Translation and Commentary" and "Zhuangzi Present Annotations and Translations" to the Zhonghua Bookstore. Because of this relationship, there is now a situation in which my "Notes on the Present" series is published by Zhonghua Bookstore and the Commercial Press. What makes me even happier is that Mr. Gu Qing, who used to preside over the publication of my book collection at the Zhonghua Bookstore, is now a secretary and executive director of the Commercial Press, and my relationship with business has deepened.
Speaking of "present notes and modern translations", we must also mention Mr. Wang Yunwu, the predecessor of the Commercial Press. The "present annotation and modern translation" of ancient classics was first advocated by Mr. Wang Yunwu. Originally, the authors of his manuscripts at the Taiwan Commercial Press were all my teachers, such as Mao Zishui, Wang Mengou, Qu Wanli and other gentlemen. However, Mr. Wang proposed that this series of "Notes on The Present" series should be done by young people, so that I can have this opportunity. Here, I would like to thank Mr. Wang a lot for his support of the younger generations, as well as Professor Jin Yaoji, who introduced me to him.
One more thing, I also think it's a coincidence. In 1985, state leader Deng Xiaoping received me. At that time, I proposed to translate more Western classics, and the Commercial Press has made great achievements in translating Western books, and I think this matter should be carried out more systematically. Later, the Commercial Press specifically asked me if I had such a thing, which coincided with their ideas. As we all know, the Commercial Press has been doing this thing continuously, and the "Chinese Translation World Academic Masterpieces Series" published by them is famous in the world, and the "Chinese Translation Masterpieces" has become a systematic project, and the scale is still expanding. I think this is also a little contact between me and the Commercial Press. In addition to the "Masterpieces of Chinese Translation", The Business has published many other translations. I was personally interested in existentialism and collaborated with Meng Xiangsen and Liu Qi in translating W. Kaufman's Existentialism. The book was also published by the Commercial Press in 1987.
Finally, I would like to talk about my "Taoist Research Book Series", many of which are written in the mainland, such as "Yi Chuan and Taoist Thought", and I am very grateful to Mr. Yang Deyan, general manager of the Commercial Press, for putting them in commercial publishing and becoming a series, and later they were successively introduced to other countries and translated into English, Japanese, Korean, etc.
Chen Gu should interpret the Book Series of Taoist Classics
I've been associated with business for decades with books. On the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the Commercial Press, I wish that the business will continue to produce more good books and benefit the forest in the future, and record these bits and pieces of the past, which is a congratulations.
China Reading News (2022-02-16 08 edition)