The so-called "four books" means that all books are divided into four categories according to the traditional classification method in China, and "series" is what is usually called today. More specifically, the four series is a small-scale Siku Quanshu, which concentrates all the necessary books and books.
From 1922 to the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, there were 502 species in four series * *, which were divided into more than 3 100 volumes. It can be said that it is the largest series newly published in China in the 20th century.
Publishing series has a long history in China. But the main starting point of the host seems to be nothing more than "getting lost", or providing rare books and rare books, and some even compete with each other, each with its own strengths. From the perspective of document preservation, this is of course meaningful, but this kind of series can only be used for experts' reference, otherwise it will be the treasure of collectors and may not play a great role in popularizing knowledge and promoting academics. "Four Series" chose "household names, such as silk, such as millet, and people can't live without it for a day", which seems a bit excessive today, but it has indeed included a large number of required books and necessary books in ancient books. Due to our rich cultural heritage, there are many copies of the same book. Under the premise of popularization first, the four series try to choose the best books that can be found at that time. For example, the famous Wu Meicun's poetry collection, Series of Books, is a rare manuscript in the Meicun family library, which is much more precious and reliable than the general version.
These four series also contain many very useful reference books, the most famous of which is the book "Taiping Magnolia" engraved in the Song Dynasty. After liberation, Zhonghua Bookstore in Beijing agreed to reduce it to four volumes (originally divided into 136 volumes) in order to meet the urgent needs of academic circles. This large reference book, which came out thousands of years ago, provided so much valuable information for today's scientific research that it was published in Chinese.
The four series also unearthed some manuscripts that have never been published. Cha Jizhuo's Record of Criminal Evidence in Qing Dynasty only preserved a large number of historical materials of Ming Dynasty. Because the author's position is anti-Qing, there has been no engraving. Perhaps what is particularly interesting is the evaluation of Xu Guangqi. Among all the biographies of Xu Guangqi at that time, Biography of Historical Records and Xu Guangqi was the most informative and fair one (much better than Ming History). This very important history book could not be seen by readers until it was included in the series (this book was later printed in photocopy and typography respectively). There are many precious varieties in the series.