The hot summer is the time to study. I recently read the book "Out of Print Li Hongzhang" by Zhang Shesheng ( Wenhui Publishing House 2008 edition), and one of the passages related to book publishing and communication aroused my great interest. The author has a special section talking about " The Opium War and " Haiguo Tuzhi" awakened the neighbors", which is quite interesting, inspiring, and also sighing.
Regarding the former, the author wrote:
"The ignorance of the (Japanese) shogunate and the awakening of national consciousness in society formed a strong contrast. There were two other things before and after the 'Black Ship Incident' that affected the future direction of Japan. One was the Opium War. The Manchu The noble parties involved quickly 'healed their scars and forgot the pain', and people today This book has produced hundreds of popular books, such as "The Story of Opium", "The Story of Opium", "Records of the Barbarian Bandits", "Talks of the Qing Dynasty", "The Story of Opium", etc., which have been reprinted in large numbers and widely circulated. The spread of these books has turned Japan's dreams into nightmares for shogunate officials, daimyo princes, samurai at all levels, and for ordinary people. Japan promotes China as an "ideal land" and "the land of sages." ’, ‘a powerful country’, but the majestic ‘Celestial Kingdom’ was actually vulnerable and was defeated by Britain, which was far away across the ocean and was once regarded as a ‘little barbarian country’. Japanese intellectuals asked: 'Western countries have studied academically intensively and have strong national power. Even the country of Zhou Gong Confucius has been plundered by them. What do you think is the reason for this? ’ Even the shogunate’s memorial must ‘… give up the foolish notion of calling foreign countries dogs, sheep, and barbarians; improve the past court rituals that were based on China; and summon representatives of various countries in accordance with the etiquette stipulated by the general rules of all nations. These readings have well popularized the education of "If you fall behind, you will be beaten" in Japan. "
From then on, Japan changed from taking China as its teacher to seeking advice from the West, worshiping Britain and the United States as its teachers, and the more thorough it was, the better. They are not afraid of "full Westernization of and ", just like they were not afraid of "full Chineseization" in the past.
It turns out that the "teacher" (Chinese) was beaten by the "Barbarians" (British) in 1840 until his nose was bruised and his face was swollen, and his face was disgraced. However, the scar of the person who was beaten had not fully healed and he forgot the pain. He turned over and continued to faint. Go to sleep and continue to have the "powerful" dream of "Celestial Empire". There are still people in the Qing Dynasty who continue to worry about how foreign envoys can "kneel down" to the emperor when they come to court. It is inevitable that they will be beaten again after 20 years and be beaten without the ability to fight back. The "teacher" was sick, but the "students" were shocked. They saw it and took it to heart. The "student" immediately reflected, can this "teacher" still be a teacher? Are you worthy of being a teacher? Do students still need to learn from him? Although " Meiji Restoration " was a few years later, the reflection and improvement of the Japanese government and the public began at this time.
Regarding the second thing, it is the fate of the book "Hai Guo Tu Zhi". The author writes (page 84 of the book):
"The other thing is "Hai Guo Tu Zhi". In 1843, the 50-volume "Hai Guo Tu Zhi" Flowers bloomed in the land of the Qing Dynasty. Wei Yuan's "Hai Guo Tu Zhi" covered all aspects of politics, economy, military, history, geography, culture and other aspects of Western countries at that time. Unexpectedly, few people paid attention to it after it came out. The number of copies printed in China is only about a thousand.
In 1851, a Chinese merchant ship sailed into the port of Nagasaki, Japan. Japanese customs officials pulled out three "Sea Country Maps" from the ship during a routine inspection. The Japanese felt like they had found a treasure. It was printed a total of 15 times, and the price kept rising. By 1859, the price of the book had tripled from its original price. ”
After reading this, he closed his eyes and pondered, full of confusion. Because we have learned from books in the past, especially from middle school and even university textbooks, "Hai Guo Tu Zhi" is an extremely important work in modern my country. It has had a major and lasting impact in various aspects, and greatly promoted the enlightenment of Chinese scholars' thoughts and the pace of national modernization.It turns out that’s not the case! I would also like to know why such a book, which is regarded as a treasure by Japan and reprinted again and again, does not play its due role in China? Is there some inherent relationship between the "luck of books" and the "luck of the country"?
Professor Zou Zhenhuan, in his famous book "One Hundred Translations That Influenced Modern Chinese Society", specifically talked about " Four Continents " that influenced Chinese people through "Hai Guo Tu Zhi".
Speaking of Wei Yuan's "Hai Guo Tu Zhi", it is indeed directly related to Lin Zexu's "Four Continents" translated by organization. Lin Zexu, a well-known and well-known national hero, was later demoted and sent to the army. In fact, it had a lot to do with the compilation and publication of the "Four Continents". The famous modern history expert Lei Yi once said (see the article "A nation's greatest regret is not ignorance, but pride in ignorance"):
He ( Refers to Lin Zexu--quoter's note) After this battle, he felt that foreign countries were a field that we had no understanding of at all, so Lin Zexu violated the regulations and quietly asked some Guangdong intellectuals to collect various British materials, geography books, and newspapers, and compiled some books called "Four Continents". He knew this was taboo, so he did not dare to make it public, but later it still spread.
When someone questioned why he collected this information, Lin Zexu said that I wanted to "know the foreigners" and know myself and the enemy. Many people attacked him, saying that you are imposing on your enemies, that our Chinese culture is the best, and that as long as we adhere to our own governance and ethics, we can defeat Britain. So Lin Zexu was exiled. One of Lin Zexu's crimes was to advocate understanding foreign countries and "improve the prestige of the enemy".
Lin Zexu
In addition to the crime of "enhancing the enemy's prestige", Lin Zexu also had another crime called "defeating the defense of barbarians and Xia", which means that the Chinese have long believed that there was a cultural line of defense between China and the barbarians, and Lin Zexu defeated this cultural line of defense. In today's terms, he destroyed the traditional cultural security of China. This was a big crime at the time.
Therefore, at that time, most Chinese people did not accept the book "Hai Guo Tu Zhi". But this book soon spread to Japan, and the Japanese reprinted twenty-one editions in just two years (this number is different from the previous 15 editions, but it is certain that the number of printings is large - the quotation is quoted), and it played a very important ideological enlightenment role in Japan's Meiji Restoration. Through this book, Japan learned what the world needed, and felt that they themselves should be reformed and strengthened. We know that Japan embarked on the road of becoming rich and powerful through the Meiji Restoration, and in turn invaded China again and again. Lin Zexu's book that enlightened the Chinese people did not accept it, and inadvertently enlightened the Japanese. Japan became stronger because of it, and in turn invaded China. I think this historical tragedy is worth learning from.
Wei Yuan
In August 1841, Wei Yuan met Lin Zexu, who had been dismissed, at Zhenjiang , and the two talked all night long. Wei Yuan was entrusted by Lin Zexu to write a work that would awaken and inspire the Chinese people and resist foreign aggression. Based on "Four Continents", he collected extensive information and compiled it into 50 volumes of "Hai Guo Tu Zhi", which was released in 1844. Since then, "Hai Guo Tu Zhi" has been supplemented repeatedly. The printed edition was expanded to 60 volumes in 1847. In 1852 (the second year of Xianfeng), the book was revised and improved again to 100 volumes.
This "big book" describes in detail the geography of the world and the historical political systems, customs and customs of various countries. It advocates learning from the advanced science and technology of Western countries, and puts forward the idea of "learning from the skills of the foreigners to control the foreigners." Some people call it "a masterpiece of epoch-making significance." It is certain that the book later had a certain influence in China, but the specific "era" of how it was "drawn" is really not as beautiful as we imagined. The truth of history is often hidden in historical details and historical facts. The real influence and value of a book are actually in its printing number and number, and in the reading and reaction of readers.
A netizen named "Crazy Language 1988" talked about the fate of "Hai Guo Tu Zhi" in a blog post:
"In 1848, Wei Yuan added a 60-volume version of "Hai Guo Tu Zhi" and published it in Yangzhou but suffered Great cold; the 100-volume version of "Hai Guo Tu Zhi" came out in 1852, but no one paid attention to it except for a few people. Wang Maoyin, the Minister of War, who had read the book, wrote to Emperor Xianfeng to ask for more copies of the book to be seen by more knowledgeable people. Unfortunately, it did not attract the emperor's attention. . At that time, Duke Lin (referring to Lin Zexu - the author's note) had passed away, and no powerful officials in the court were aware of the importance of this book. Almost everyone was not interested in this bizarre book full of "strange and obscene techniques" and "unheard of" content. Some conservatives even resisted banning the book. Lin Zexu had high hopes. Wei Yuan's work, which took eleven years of hard work, came to nothing because no one promoted it. "("Learning skills from the barbarians to control the barbarians, is the map of the sea a forbidden book? A strange book? Or a heavenly book in the eyes of the Japanese?")
Lin Zexu, Wei Yuan and others are undoubtedly the earliest Illuminati in modern times who "opened their eyes to see the world". Unfortunately, there were too many people in ancient China who were lethargic (or pretended to be asleep). They stayed asleep for too long and could not be awakened no matter how much they were awakened. It is said that only 1,000 copies of "Haiguo Tuzhi" were printed in total, but they were not sold out; in Japan, the book triggered a craze for learning from the West. It was printed repeatedly in just five years, and each printing was large. At first, in order to be the first to read this book, some of the upper class people in Japan spent a lot of money to buy the right to read it, and even competed with each other. At that time, it was a great honor to collect the original Chinese version of the book. In mainland China, the Qing government originally had the opportunity and conditions to allow tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even more people to read this book, but it banned the book on the pretext that it was untimely. Forty years later, the former teachers and former students ushered in the Sino-Japanese showdown at the end of the century ( Sino-Japanese War ), and the results are already familiar to everyone. In fact, the seeds for the victory or defeat of this contest were planted decades ago, and "Hai Guo Tu Zhi" can be considered one of the seeds.
First draft on August 6, 2020, revised and finalized on September 5th
About the author
Fan Jun Born in 1961, from Jingmen, Hubei. Editor-in-chief of "Journal of Central China Normal University ", second-level professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Liberal Arts of Central China Normal University, director of Publishing Science Research Center of Central China Normal University, and part-time professor of the National Cultural Industry Research Center. He once served as the chief editor, president and chairman of Central China Normal University Press , chairman of Huada Hongtu Cultural Development Co., Ltd., and concurrently served as a member of the National College Publishing Professional Teaching Steering Committee, vice president of the Editorial and Publication Research Committee of the Chinese Journalism History Society, and vice president of the Hubei Provincial Editors Society.
has long been committed to the research and teaching of publishing culture and industry, publishing history, and cultural communication; he has presided over the National Social Science Fund Project, the Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Fund Project, the Ministry of Science and Technology’s “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” National Science and Technology Support Plan Project, etc.; the main published works include "Publishing Culture Essays", " "Research Book on the History of Chinese Publishing Culture", "Special Research on Editing of Ancient Chinese Poetry", "Manuscript on the History of Chinese Publishing Culture", "Twenty Chinese Modern Book Industry Advertisers", "Book Traces of the Years", "Research on the Enterprise System of the Commercial Press (1897-1949)" (co-author), etc.; published more than 100 papers in CSSCI source journals. The research results won the first prize of Hubei Province Social Science Outstanding Achievement Award, Wuhan City Social Science Outstanding Achievements First Prize, China Outstanding Publication Paper Award, etc., and more than 40 articles were reprinted and excerpted by " Xinhua Digest " and "National People's Congress Copy Newspaper and Periodical Materials". He was selected into the 5th National Top 100 Publishing Workers, the first batch of "Five Batch" Talents in Hubei Provincial Propaganda and Culture System, the 2nd "Hubei Cultural Masters", the first batch of "National News and Publishing Industry Leading Talents" from the State Administration of Press and Publication, and won the first Hubei Publishing Government Award (Character Category), and the first University Publishing Figure Award from China University Press.
