In April, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Work of Ancient Books in the New Era", which pointed out that it is necessary to improve the work system of ancient books, improve the quality of the work of ancient books, and through "mining the value of the times" and "promoting ancient books" "Effective use of ancient books", "promoting the digitization of ancient books", "doing a good job in the popularization and dissemination of ancient books" and other methods to speed up the transformation and utilization of ancient book resources.
The Paper observes that new changes are taking place in the field of ancient book research and publishing, which was originally isolated and shelved. At the level of mass promotion, ancient books are also revived with the help of new technology achievements and new means of communication.
What is the work of ancient books
What is Antiquities Work? An Pingqiu, director of the Ancient Books Arrangement Committee of the National Colleges and Universities and a professor at Peking University, divided the ancient book work into three components, namely the collection and protection of ancient books, the arrangement and research of ancient books, and the publication and planning of ancient books.
The collection and protection of ancient books mainly includes the identification, storage and restoration of ancient books. The main work is concentrated in the library system, and the competent department is the Ministry of Culture and Tourism; the sorting and research of ancient books, including punctuation, collation, annotation, translation and other basic In-depth research on ancient books, etc., the participating groups are extensive, but the systematic work is concentrated in colleges and universities, which belong to the Ministry of Education; the planning and publication of ancient books is under the overall coordination of the national ancient book sorting and publishing planning leading group, contacting the national ancient book sorting and publishing. unit completed. These publishing houses form a joint force to publish the results of the ancient books.
The ancient book talents engaged in these three kinds of work all need to master a solid knowledge of ancient philology, and at the same time have their own characteristics in skill requirements. The collection and protection of ancient books requires practitioners to master identification skills and restoration skills. The sorting of ancient books requires the organizers to have in-depth understanding and research on the texts, while the publication of ancient books requires not only editors with professional editing and proofreading skills, but also project operation and understanding of the market. , with managerial qualities. The cultivation of ancient book talents is basically carried out in the above three circles.

The staff of the National Library of Ancient Books Restoration Center are working

There was a serious shortage of talents in the field of ancient book protection, and there was no successor. The introduction of the "Opinions" also reflects that in recent years, related work has been paid more and more attention.
In 2007, the Ministry of Culture established the National Center for the Protection of Ancient Books, and in 2015, the China Association for the Protection of Ancient Books was established. Since then, a number of state-level restoration centers have been established successively, an ancient book restoration skills training center has been established, and various training courses have been held to cultivate talents through multiple channels. Since 2014, the National Center for the Protection of Ancient Books has cooperated with Fudan University, Sun Yat-sen University, Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Tianjin Normal University to set up the major of ancient book protection, recruiting professional masters, establishing disciplines, and writing textbooks.
The cultivation of talents for the sorting and publishing of ancient books is another case.
In 1959, the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Peking University and Zhonghua Book Company jointly established the major of classical literature. Since then, 5 undergraduate training units in the direction of classical literature, including Peking University and Zhejiang University, and more than 80 research institutions have been established nationwide, specializing in cultivating ancient books reading and ancient books. There are more than 20 professional ancient book publishing institutions that have gradually developed in China, as well as some publishing institutions that do not specialize in ancient book publishing but also publish related ancient books.

Ancient books waiting to be restored in the library

There is a scarcity of talents for ancient book collation and publication
At present, the cultivation of talents for the sorting and publishing of ancient books is basically limited to universities and enterprises through daily teaching, the old and the new, the project practice, and short-term training courses.
The talents trained by traditional methods are indeed solid and effective, but there are also problems such as limited radiation personnel, insufficient information exchange, and long cycle. Different environments lead to different training effects. In addition, for publishing companies, under the evaluation of economic efficiency indicators, no matter how effective training methods are adopted, it is doubtful how much resources can be invested in the publication of ancient books with low economic output value, which objectively leads to insufficient investment in talent training, The team is unstable and the quality of talents is uneven, especially the scarcity of high-level talents.
The cultivation of ancient book talents has high investment, long cycle and slow return, which are its objective characteristics. Ancient book talents have high requirements for professional knowledge, and also need a lot of skills to polish.
Publishing institutions of ancient books have also expressed anxiety about the lack of talents in ancient books for many times. Ni Peixiang, president of Phoenix Publishing House, said: "The publishing cycle of ancient books is long, professional, and the income is low. Tracking and publishing a 'big book', editor Maybe it will go from full of blue silk to full of snow, so that many young people who are engaged in ancient book publishing can't bear the loneliness and turn to other industries. We must find a way to retain these hard-won valuable talents."
The latest "Opinions" also pointed out that it is necessary to "strengthen the construction of talent teams". Strengthen the construction of professional institutions for the preservation, collation, research and publication of ancient books, expand the scale of ancient book protection and restoration talents, strengthen the strength of ancient book collation and research institutions, improve the inheritance mechanism of ethnic minority ancient writing talents, build an academic exchange platform for ethnic minorities ancient books professionals, and strengthen ancient books majors Publishing team building. Improve the employment mechanism and guarantee the work treatment of personnel related to ancient books work. Strengthen the training of ancient book talents, implement the ancient book talent training plan, set up a national ancient book talent training database, build an ancient book talent training base and a training platform integrating ancient book research and study.
Digitization of ancient books
So far in 2020, the epidemic has continued to ravage, and online meetings and live video broadcasts have become the new normal. This trend has also spread to the field of ancient book research and personnel training.
The Paper learned that Zhonghua Bookstore will launch the Jihe College project in 2020. According to Hong Tao, general manager of Zhonghua Bookstore Gulian Company, which undertakes the project, the project mainly focuses on the following aspects. The first is to build an online training platform and establish online courses. Resource Library. At present, the courses planned by the platform of Jihe College include ancient book sorting and publishing classic case analysis, ancient book sorting and publishing special skills intensive, ancient book sorting and publishing special knowledge learning, etc. Hundreds of teachers have cooperated with the Jihe College project, all of whom are scholars with outstanding achievements in the compilation of different types of ancient books and experienced editors in the ancient book publishing industry. "The courses we plan are currently mainly focused on the sorting and publishing of ancient books. In the future, we plan to gradually add courses on the digitization of ancient books, and we have not yet set foot in the field of ancient book protection." Hong Tao introduced.
"There are many tentacles in the cultivation of ancient book talents. At present, the path opened by Jihe College has similar businesses in many industries, but it is indeed a new idea in the ancient book sorting and publishing industry. Due to the characteristics of ancient book work, we deal with these There is no ready-made experience to follow in the business, and every step must be explored. This "Opinion" particularly emphasizes the establishment of a national ancient book talent training database, the construction of an ancient book talent training base and a training platform that integrates ancient book collation, research and study, which is in line with our The work direction is very consistent." Hong Tao said.
Peng Mei News also noted that the "Opinions" pointed out: "Promote the digitization of ancient books. Support key units of ancient book digitization to become stronger and better, strengthen the management and open sharing of ancient book digital resources. Coordinate the construction and service of ancient book digital version resources, and promote the professional database of ancient books. Development and utilization. Actively carry out research and practice of ancient book text structuring, knowledge systematization, and utilization intelligence, and accelerate the transformation and upgrading of ancient book sorting and utilization.”
The database construction of ancient books is also worth noting. According to the National Library of China, since last year's World Reading Day, the "Resource Bank of Chinese Ancient Books" and "Basic Database of National Ancient Books Census and Registration" have been officially launched since 2016. 33,000 ancient book resources (pieces) have been released successively, and more than two-thirds of the rare and ancient books in the collection have been read online.
Recently, in the first "Peking University Digital Humanities Exhibition" held at Peking University, the "Relocation Map of Ancient Chinese Celebrities", "Chinese Han Dynasty Image Information Database", "Chinese Classical Poetry Analysis System", etc. Provides great convenience. The newly launched databases are becoming more and more specialized and sophisticated, such as the "Yin Ruins Oracle Bone Inscription Database" jointly developed by Zhonghua Bookstore Gulian Company and Professor Chen Nianfu of Zhejiang Normal University, which includes 59,591 oracle bones and 143,856 inscriptions. It is divided into two parts, and is marked with the subject classification of the divination, the specific source of the source and the font group to which it belongs. "Ancient Books Through Time and Space": Popular Dissemination of Ancient Books
The "Opinions" also pointed out that it is necessary to do a good job in the popularization and dissemination of ancient books, increase the publicity and promotion of ancient books, and do a good job of popularizing ancient books through multi-channel, multi-media, and three-dimensional dissemination. Many cultural programs and documentaries such as "China in Classics" and "Ancient Books Through Time and Space" focus on ancient books.
The ancient book revitalization documentary "Ancient Books Through Time and Space" was launched in March this year. It no longer chooses a heavy and long-winded narrative method. Each of the nine episodes is only about 15 minutes. In the form of short and medium videos, it is used in the form of short and medium videos. .
Each episode of "Ancient Books Through Time and Space" chooses a theme, such as the first episode "Feast in Ancient Books", which begins with the introduction: If a modern person travels to the Song Dynasty, he should not worry that he will not be used to it. This issue tells the story of gourmet Lu Ran salvaging Song Dynasty recipes from ancient books and restoring them to more than 300 visible and edible Song Dynasty delicacies including "Crab Stuffed Orange" and "Steamed Duck". Reviving the food in ancient books always has a different attraction for gourmets. Starting from the extremely cumbersome eggplant in "A Dream of Red Mansions", in today's era of abundant material, only a pair of skillful hands is needed. The delicious food can also be served on the dining table of an ordinary family through decoding.

Crab Stuffed Orange

In the following narration of "Ancient Books Through Time and Space", clothing historian Chen Shiyu verified ancient clothing through ancient books, and restored the plane archaeological data into three-dimensional shapes. In addition, Mr. Satan, who used a brush to outline the mythical beasts in "The Classic of Mountains and Seas", Ying Yonghui, who designed more than 40,000 artistic characters with ancient book fonts as the master, and Zhang Yu, who looked for artistic inspiration in "The Peony Pavilion", their stories are also presented in the documentary.
Although paper is thousands of years old, the continuation of its destiny depends on the patchwork of generations of skilled craftsmen. "Ancient Books Through Time and Space" also focuses on those ancient book researchers. In the second episode of "Splicing and Torn Civilization", Zhang Yongquan, director of the Dunhuang Studies Research Center of Zhejiang University, worked hard to collect the scattered fragments of Dunhuang and spliced them together. into a complete chapter. In addition, "Ancient Books Through Time and Space" also records the stories of the folk collector Li Shuangjie collecting 25,000 copies of family trees, and the director of the Dongba Cultural Research Institute Li Dejing rescuing and translating Dongba ancient books.

Zhang Yongquan's Restoration of Dunhuang Documents

The ninth episode "I Repair Ancient Books in the National Map" tells the story of Du Weisheng and others from the National Map Ancient Book Restoration Center repairing the "Lake" booklet of the "Yongle Dadian". In 2021, Guotu once held the exhibition "Return of Pearls to Hepu - The Return and Reconstruction of "Yongle Grand Ceremony", and nine copies of the "Yongle Grand Ceremony", which were once scattered around the world, were exhibited in the national map collection. At the scene, even under the weak light, you can feel the brilliant, warm and quaint charm of "Yongle Grand Ceremony".
[Attachment: This article is written with reference to the following materials]
The General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Work of Ancient Books in the New Era"
An Pingqiu: Talking about the Three Components of the Current Work of Ancient Books-and the Talent Cultivation of Ancient Books
Cultivation of Ancient Books Editing Talents and Changes