Seal engraver Qian Juntao: He once used one third of his monthly salary to help Ba Jin in trouble.

Qian Juntao

The recent attention to Ba Jin's book collection reminds me of the contact between Mr. Ba Jin and Mr. Qian Juntao. Both of them have been to Shanghai to write and publish when they were young. Ba Jin wrote new literary masterpieces such as Home when he was less than 30 years old. After graduating from a school in Shanghai, Qian Juntao traveled in his hometown Taizhou and Hangzhou. At the age of 20, he entered Ming Kai Bookstore and became Art editor. In the meantime, Qian Juntao, with his solid art and calligraphy skills, assiduously studied and created cover designs, designed covers for new literary works, won the praise of Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Yu Dafu and other new literary masters, and established a profound friendship. Some of Ba Jin's works, such as Dead Day, Home and Spring and Autumn Annals, were all designed by Qian Juntao, and lifelong friendship was established in the process of communication.

My understanding of Qian Juntao and Ba Jin was introduced by Sophie, a colleague of Qian Juntao Kaiming Publishing House. Qian Juntao remembers that Sophie found him at that time and said that he had a friend from Sichuan, but he had no job, no savings and a hard life. He asked him if he could give some money to help. Qian Juntao readily agreed, and helped to get a third of his monthly salary, and went to 7 yuan every month. Qian Juntao asked Sophie, who is this friend? Sophie said, "Li Yi shot". Qian Juntao asked again, is this helpful? Sophie repeatedly said, "satisfied! Thank you! " Li Yigan is Ba Jin. At that time, Qian Juntao and Ba Jin were both young people. Therefore, Ba Jin and Qian Juntao were friends who talked about everything when they were young. Before entering Ming Kai Bookstore, Qian Juntao had a bitter lovelorn experience in Hangzhou: at that time, Qian Juntao was teaching in an art school in Hangzhou, and he fell in love with a female student of similar age. This female student is Ye, who is from Ningbo. At that time, the two hit it off and were inseparable. Later, the girl dropped out of school because the family decided to marry another local family. Qian Juntao is very painful after his lovelorn love, and often writes love poems to pour bricks and tiles. Soon, Qian Juntao entered the Ming Kai Bookstore and fell in love with a mature female colleague, Miss Wang Aishi, who was several years older than him. Miss Wang is from Shangyu, Zhejiang. Because of her pursuit of free love, she fled to Shanghai Ming Kai Bookstore to pursue Hu Yuzhi, who has a wife. Later, in order to get rid of this emotional embarrassment, the young man left Shanghai for France, which made Miss Wang suffer greatly and never got rid of it. At this time, Qian Juntao took the initiative to express his love to Mr. Wang, but the result was rejected by Mr. Wang. Miss Wang only had Hu Yuzhi in her heart. Soon, Miss Wang fell in love with Hu Yuzhi and chased her overseas. This lovelorn affair hit Qian Juntao hard, and he looked a little miserable. One day, Qian Juntao found his good friend Ba Jin and told him in great pain: "I'm dying!" Hearing this, Ba Jin was very surprised: "Tao Jun, speak slowly, what happened?" Qian Juntao said, "I want to ask you something." When Ba Jin saw that Qian Juntao was in great pain, he was really worried. He quickly agreed and said, "OK, what is it? Tao Jun, tell me. " So Qian Juntao told Ba Jin his attitude of pursuing Miss Wang Aishi and Miss Wang. Finally, I hope Ba Jin will write a mourning article after his death. Hearing this, Ba Jin chuckled and laughed at Qian Juntao's infatuation, so he had to promise and comfort him. Naturally, Qian Juntao didn't die in this lovelorn love, and Ba Jin's mourning articles were not written. Soon, Qian Juntao found a Jiangyin girl, Chen Xueyun, and they became a happy marriage. This is another story.

Qian Juntao and Ba Jin help each other in their careers. In 1930s, Ba Jin, Wu langxi, Wu Chan and Li Ni founded the Cultural Life Publishing House, and invited Qian Juntao as Art editor of the Cultural Life Publishing House. Qian Juntao clearly remembered this incident until his later years, when he went to work every two days, his work was not heavy. After War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression started, that is,1March 9, 938, Qian Juntao, who was on the run, received invitations from Ba Jin and Jin Yi. Qian Juntao set off from Hankou quickly and arrived in Guangzhou two days later. Together with Ba Jin and Jin Yi, he founded the Guangzhou Branch of Cultural Life Publishing House, published cultural books, operated anti-Japanese publications and worked together in the anti-Japanese cultural publishing front. In mid-May, Guangzhou was bombed by the Japanese. It is said that Qian Juntao was very scared when he saw the horrors of the Guangzhou War. He offered to take refuge in the editorial department of Hong Kong. At that time, many people were in the editorial department, and friends such as Ba Jin and Jin Yi laughed at Qian Juntao for being timid and afraid of death. However, when Qian Juntao went to Aiqun Hotel to wait for the bus to go to Hongkong, he found that a group of friends and colleagues who were still laughing at Qian Juntao's fear of death were also rushing to wait for the bus. When Qian Juntao saw this scene, he smiled at one another. It turns out that all the timid people have taken refuge in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Later, Qian Juntao returned to Shanghai, founded Ye Wan Bookstore, and edited "Literature Trends Series". Ba Jin also provided manuscripts for Qian Juntao's Ye Wan Bookstore and supported Qian Juntao's cultural entrepreneurship. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the business of Ye Wan Bookstore in Qian Juntao was booming. However, at the end of 1949, the man who had been friends with his boss for many years was invited to the publishing house where his old friend Li was in charge and Ba Jin was the editor, and personally designed the social logo for the publishing house. From 65438 to 0958, Qian Juntao also designed the cover of Harvest magazine edited by Ba Jin and Jin Yi.

Qian Juntao is a famous seal engraver, who carved more than 20,000 seals in his life, many of which were carved for friends and some for Ba Jin. I will always remember the "Li Family" seal I carved for Ba Jin in June 1945, and the later "Ba Jin Collection" seal. /kloc-in the winter of 0/992, Qian Juntao went to Ba Jin's house to visit his old friend. Two old friends chatted about seal cutting. Qian Juntao said that he had carved two seals for Ba Lao, and Ba Jin had an excellent memory. He immediately took the topic and told Qian Juntao more than two! Hearing this, Qian Juntao was overjoyed. Later, Ba Jin specially found the seal carved by Qi Fang Qian Juntao, which excited Qian Juntao. To this end, he later wrote a special "Notes on Qian Engraving Ba Jin's Seven Seals" to commemorate his friendship.