Meng Qian Bitan, the oldest version that can be seen now is the engraving of 1305 (the ninth year of Yuan Dade) of Chen Renzi Dongshan Academy collected by the National Library of China. According to the second edition of the Southern Song Dynasty Trunk Road Edition (see the illustration in this section), we can get a glimpse of the original appearance of the Song Dynasty Edition. Its format is very large and fine, but its binding is very small. Binding was a popular butterfly costume at that time, and it was unique in the Yuan Dynasty. At the beginning of Yuan Dade's publication, there are two seals: Zhu, Dong Gong Shu Fu and Ge. There are also books printed by Yin and Pingyang Wang, and Jia Zibing Yin, Han Dejun and Qian Runwen took refuge with books twice.
The publications of Dade in the Yuan Dynasty circulated in an orderly way: the Yuan Dynasty was hidden in the Yuan Palace, which was obtained by Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Emperor, after the Yuan Dynasty was destroyed, and was given to Prince Zhu Biao, and then returned to the Palace Chinese Yuange. In the Qing Dynasty, it flowed out of the palace and was successively collected by Art Cloud Jingshe and Songjiang Han. Later, it was collected by Chen Chengzhong (1894- 1978), a famous modern bibliophile. Chen Chengzhong moved to Hong Kong before and after liberation. 1965 planned to sell a number of rare books, including this Meng Xi Talk. Zhou Enlai, then Prime Minister of the State Council, China, personally asked the Ministry of Culture to assign a special person to handle it, and finally spent a lot of money to buy it back. In order to avoid the outflow of precious cultural relics, it became a much-told story in the book forest. 1976, photocopied and published by Cultural Relics Publishing House. In order to facilitate public use, in 2003, "China Recycling Rare Books Project" published a simplified version of Meng Qian's Bi Tan.
There were high-quality editions of Meng Qian Bi Tan from the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the Republic of China, such as the edition published by Xu Yao in Hongzhi period of Ming Dynasty, the edition compiled by Ma Yuan in Jiading in the fourth year of Chongzhen (163 1) and the original edition of Peng Xue in Zhang Haiyu in the tenth year of Jiaqing (1805). The three versions of the popular Meng Qian Bi Tan are the first to publish "Benevolence". Today: Meng Qian Bitan Cultural Relics Publishing House 1976 Yuan copy of Dongshan Academy; In 2003, Meng Qian of the National Library of China talked about reprinting China's rare books and photocopying Yuan Dongshan Academy. Hu Daojing's Meng Qianxin's Collation, Shanghai Publishing Company, 1956 edition; Meng Qian Bitan Zhonghua Book Company 1957 Edition; Meng Qian's Notes, Supplementary Notes and Continued Notes, Notes of Song People First Edition by Elephant Press, 2005; 1956, Shanghai Publishing Company published Hu Daojing's "Meng Qian Bi Tan School Certificate", with detailed textual research. Zhonghua Book Company published a new edition of Hu Daojing's Meng Qian Bi Tan in 1957, which is very readable.
In addition, Meng Qian Bitan is also very influential abroad. As early as19th century, it was famous for its records of movable type printing. In the 20th century, people in France, Germany, Britain, the United States, Italy and other countries made a systematic and in-depth study of Meng Qian Bi Tan, and all or part of its chapters were made public. As early as the middle of19th century, Shen Kuo's representative works were printed in movable type, making it the first country in the world to print Meng Qian's Bi Tan in movable type. Since 1978, Japan has published a Japanese translation of Meng Qian Bi Tan in three volumes.