The purpose of modifying the text is to cherish books. Lu Xun's act of cherishing books is rare among scholars in the past hundred years. However, Lin Shu's translation in his later period was retrogressive and boring, and Lu Xun no longer bought it and concealed it.
Neishan Bookstore, Sichuan North Road, Shanghai, is a place that Lu Xun often visited in the last ten years. He has a close relationship with the bookstore owner Uchiyama. There was a scene that impressed Neishan deeply: someone borrowed a foreign book from Lu Xun, and when he returned it, the book was wrinkled and the illustrations inside were dirty. "At that time, looking at Mr. Sad face, I also felt very uneasy. Mr. Wang is not lamenting the dirtiness of the book, but lamenting the dirtiness of people who dirty the book at any time. "
Lu Xun likes Maobian books, perhaps because Maobian books are more simple and natural. He said that a book with bare edges is like a monk's head. Another reason for Lu Xun's preference is that many people, including himself, always have sweat stains and stains on their fingers when reading books. Read it again, and the page may get dirty. Reading books with rough edges can solve this problem. After reading it several times, cut off all the dirty edges of the book and put it on the shelf for preservation.
On one occasion, when Lu Xun published a book, he specifically instructed Li Xiaofeng, the owner of Beixin Bookstore, to bind all the books with raw edges, but later more than 20 sample books sent by Li Xiaofeng were all cut off. In fact, bookstores have their own reasons for doing so. Ordinary readers generally don't like burrs, because reading books with burrs is very troublesome. You must cut it first, then trim it. Regardless of this, Lu Xun made a fire and returned it all. Later, the bookstore was very smart and adopted "one book, two systems" for publishing Lu Xun's works, giving them to Lu Xun and selling them in local bookstores; All the outlets are bare.
Lu Xun bought nearly ten thousand books in his life, a considerable part of which were used books. Some hard-won ancient books are worn out, but Lu Xun cherishes them very much and often carefully repairs them himself. He bought a set of tools for repairing books, including needle and thread, sandpaper and pumice. Xu Shoushang greatly appreciated Lu Xun's efforts in repairing books: "As for thread-bound books, if pages are missing, he can copy them;" If the shape is broken, it can be disassembled, repaired and reassembled intact; If the head of the book is dirty, it can be cleaned with pumice; The head of heaven and earth is too short to flatten every leaf ... "
Although Xu Shoushang thinks that in this respect, Lu Xun is "as skilled as a calligrapher in Beiping Liulichang", Lu Xun sometimes invites those professionals to write books. There is a bookstore commissioned by Lu Xun called Benlitang. Take 19 13' s diary as an example: 14 September, "In the morning, the calligrapher of Benlitang came to pick up nine kinds of broken books, which belonged to him, and paid two yuan." 65438 10/5 "Asking this Litang to order books is a great achievement. See "Sage County Records", attached with "Brush Pass Record", 14 volumes * * *, which was bought for two yuan, so that the leaves were re-ordered. " 65438+Feb. 19 "Leave the book review of Li Factory Benlitang in the afternoon to pick up eight old books for repair." Ten days later, "the guy who stayed late at the second-hand bookstore in Li Tang, the factory, came and used the previous support to bind the second-hand books, * * * one hundred copies, and paid five dollars and fifteen cents. However, the binding of "urgent articles" is not good, and it is important to hold them. "
Lu Xun often sends books to his friends, and friends often send books to Lu Xun. When delivering books, Lu Xun always carefully wraps them with kraft paper and string, and sometimes tells his friend Bao Shu to tie them up with rope outside to avoid damaging the books. It is a great pity that Lu Xun has encountered such a thing several times.
"You also want to buy something related to your industry if you are thrifty. Just look at how the fugitives spend money on box guns. " This is an interesting analogy that Lu Xun played. In that case, it is not surprising that he cherishes books.