【Guangming Shuhua】
Author: Yao Yiming
When I received the newly purchased copy of “Fan Yong: A Life of Books”, I couldn’t help but be impressed by its simple and elegant binding. Whether it is the bookplate pattern in the cover design, or the illustrations, paper and overall binding of the book, they are all very exquisite and elegant. This book was designed by Mr. Ning Chengchun, who is 80 years old. The title of the book is taken from “A Life of Books”, a biography written by Fan Yong for the Russian publisher Suiqing. As a publisher, there are many books about Fan Yong in bookstores, such as “I’m Ugly and Not Gentle – Comics Fan Yong”, “Bookworm Fan Yong”, “The Soul of Books Will Live Forever – Fan Yong’s Collected Works”, “Time” ——Fan Yong and Sanlian Bookstore for Seventy Years”, “Fan Yong’s Copies”, etc. “Fan Yong: A Life for Books” was compiled by Mr. Wang Jiaming, who worked with him. The content uses “books” as a clue to present Fan Yong’s publishing style throughout his life, that is, from reading to reading in the bloody turmoil of the 1930s and 1940s. From publishing, to editing, publishing, and designing books in the new era, especially around the 1980s, to writing and promoting books in his later years, Fan Yong has spent 70 years as a companion and friend of books. process.
What we know about Fan Yong is that in the eight years from 1978 to 1986, he published a number of far-reaching books. This was also Fan Yong’s most glorious period as a publisher and editor, such as “A Journey to the West” and “Fu Lei”. Classic books such as Letters from Home, Random Thoughts, and Hui’an Shuhua have influenced a generation of young people. As Wang Jiaming said in the “Notes at the end of the article”: “Publishing, in the final analysis, is about dealing with books and periodicals, including the initial reading and buying of books, to the later editing, designing and publishing of books, to collecting, writing and promoting books. Books. Writing around books is the most suitable for Fan Yong. Some people say that Fan Yong is a pure book lover; others say that there are many book lovers, but those who can be called “bookworms” are rare. Fan Yong is such a typical ‘bookworm’. He even paints portraits of his friends and classifies them into books; and the portraits his friends give him call him ‘out-of-print books’.” Fan Yong, who loves books like an idiot It’s called an “out-of-print book”, which is really vivid.
Famous publisher Fan Yong (1923-2010) file photo
The most attractive part of the book is the appendix, the article “Fathers Outside of Publishing” written by Fan Yong’s daughter Fan You. From the perspective of his daughter, Fan also described the unknown side of his father – “In my eyes, my father is just an ordinary person with a strange temper.” Not much.” In his daughter’s writing, Fan Yong is a not very competent father. Maybe it was because Fan Yong was the only son in the family and was spoiled by his elders; maybe it was because Fan Yong’s wife was three years older than him and he was more dependent on her. Everything in the family was taken care of by his wife, and Fan Yong only cared about his own books. Fan Yong in the family is still very “stingy”, “My father loves books, he loves them to the point of being stingy… It’s not that he objects to us reading books, he is just worried that the books will be damaged or stained. There are many rules for borrowing his books: you are not allowed to I saw that the book in the middle of the book was opened and clasped, and I was not allowed to hold the book rolled up and read it, and I was not allowed to fold the corners of the pages. So every time I read his book, I wrapped the book cover and prepared a bookmark. If I couldn’t find the bookmark, I would use paper. Article instead…”
After the death of Mrs. Fan Yong, he seemed to have lost his backbone, and his life in his later years became very lonely. Fan also wrote: “The death of his mother was a great blow to his father. He was very uncomfortable losing his mother’s careful care and his wife who could talk and act coquettishly. In addition to reading and reading newspapers, his father only had TV as his companion.” Two years later, his mood improved slightly, and he picked up his energy to edit a few books and write some essays. In recent years, his father has obviously aged. He originally had a wide range of interests and was busy all day long, but this time In the past two years, he has become very indifferent to everything and does not want to do anything. Except for going to the bathroom, he sleeps in bed all day long and refuses to move around no matter how much he is persuaded. He is completely different from before. Although he rarely interacted with others in the past, My family talks to each other, but I often chat on the phone with old friends. In recent years, because my hearing has become worse and worse, I have stopped making phone calls. In the days after my father left, I realized in retrospect that he had been lying awake all day in the last two years. He is willing to get out of bed and eat very little. He is really troubled by illness and has no strength and appetite. It is not completely willful.”
“Fan Yong: A Life for Books” edited by Wang Jiaming, Life·Reading·New Knowledge Sanlian Bookstore
The Fan Yong described by her daughter is very different from the editor and Boss Fan we know, which is at least a little surprising. That Fan Yong who has compiled so many good books, that Fan Yong who is all-powerful in the field of publishing, this is what life is like. Fan You is not exposing his father’s shortcomings, but showing us a father who is flesh and blood and loves books like crazy. He is an ordinary father who also has shortcomings, but his love for books and publishing is sincere, and he devotes his whole life to books. In fact, in Fan You’s article “Father Outside Publishing Work”, what we see is not the daughter’s “complaints” against her father, but the love and understanding of her father revealed between the lines, which also makes the reader seem to see a Three-dimensional scope.
In addition to editing and writing books, Fan Yong is also a bibliophile. Unlike many bibliophiles, his love of books has no leisure meaning at all. He does not love the edition value of the book, but the content of the book. He loves everything related to the book, such as the author’s signed copy, such as the book compiled by Lu Xun, such as some pictures, New Year’s cards, such as the author’s signature, manuscripts (like Feng Feng) “Reading and Publishing” written by Zikai, “Yimeng’s Inscriptions and Postscripts” written by Li Yimeng, “Hui’an Shuhua” written by Tang Tao, etc.). At the same time, Fan Yong also collected various Republic of China pictorials and periodicals, such as Liangyou Pictorial, which published a total of 172 issues. He had almost a complete set of them, which he took advantage of various opportunities to buy from second-hand bookstores in Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou and other places. Fan Yong is not public, but collects quietly to witness the development and changes of China’s publishing industry.
On September 14, 2010, Fan Yong finished his life of working for books, saying goodbye to his “book city” forever, and bidding farewell to the editing and publishing career that he had loved and attached to all his life. In September 2020, on the tenth anniversary of Mr. Fan Yong’s death, in order to commemorate this old man who dedicated his life to publishing, the China Modern Press and Publication Museum and Life·Reading·New Knowledge Sanlian Bookstore, Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore and many other units They jointly organized “A Life for Books – An Exhibition Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of Fan Yong’s Death”. The exhibition starts with the life of Mr. Fan Yong and presents his different identities in chapters: Fan Yong, a revolutionary, Fan Yong, an editor and publisher, Fan Yong, a magazine writer, Fan Yong, a writer, Fan Yong, a book designer, and Fan Yong’s collection. Through letters, manuscript files and objects collected by Fan Yong, Mr. Fan Yong’s “life for books” is wonderfully presented.
I was fortunate enough to visit “A Life for Books – An Exhibition Commemorating the 10th Anniversary of Fan Yong’s Death”, which was held near Longchang Road in Shanghai. In the exhibition, Fan Yong’s collection of objects, letters, manuscripts, books and periodicals, as well as relevant on-site videos, truly and three-dimensionally restore the image of the bookworm Fan Yong.
“Guangming Daily” (October 26, 2023, page 11)
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责编：孙琦 ]
