Lin Yi and Haitang stayed in Hong Kong for almost three days, and almost every day was a variety of banquets and all kinds of characters. Lin Yi, who is lazy by nature www.biquge.info couldn't survive this situation, and after discussing with Haitang, he decided to embark on a honeymoon trip to Taoshu, and the first stop was Japan.

In fact, going to Japan to search for books has always been Lin Yi's greatest wish. You must know that in ancient times, there were three main satellite countries that inherited and carried forward the great Chinese culture, the first Japan, the second Korea, and the third Vietnam.

It is said that China once "ruled" many countries in Asia with Chinese characters - the former Chinese character cultural circle, including Vietnam, Japan, North Korea and South Korea.

Among these countries, the first to introduce Chinese characters was Vietnam. Because of its historical origins, many important historical books and official documents in Vietnam are written in Chinese Chinese. For example, the Complete Book of the History of the Great Viet, which is one of the most important historical books for the study of the early history of Vietnam, was compiled in Wenyan and Chinese.

However, the highest degree of de-Chinese characters is also in Vietnam. At the end of the 19th century, French colonists imposed a phonetic script in the Latin alphabet in Vietnam, and created a script based on a French missionary's marking method, which the Vietnamese called "Chinese characters". Since then, Vietnam has withdrawn from the Chinese character circle.

Japan, on the other hand, reformed Chinese characters as early as when they were first introduced. More than 1,000 years ago, Japan created syllabic letters from simplified kanji, and this alphabet system matured, known as "kana", and was sandwiched between the Chinese language. Nowadays, kanji can be found everywhere in Japan, but these kanji that Chinese can understand are not "Chinese kanji", but "Japanese kanji". Japanese kanji is a Chinese character that was created by the Japanese people who reconstructed the words on the basis of Chinese characters and gave them new meanings. There are 2,136 current Japanese kanji, and not all of them have the original Chinese kanji, and more than 300 of them have been simplified, such as "nearby" to "fujin".

Korean characters come from two sources: Chinese and Japanese. Until the middle of the 15th century, Hanja was the only writing system on the Korean Peninsula, and although the local script "Hangul" was invented, Hangul still has an unshakable place in official documents and publications. After that, the Japanese colonizers entered the Korean Peninsula, and the Japanese kanji, which was transformed from Chinese characters, also influenced Korea.

North Korea, another country on the Korean Peninsula, gradually abolished Chinese characters after World War II. According to an article in the journal "Language Construction" under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, after the founding of the DPRK, in order to raise the cultural level of the entire nation and meet the needs of economic construction, the simple and easy-to-learn proverbs were vigorously promoted. Statistics show that at the time of liberation in 1945, about 80% of North Korea's population was illiterate, and by 1950 illiteracy had basically been "wiped out". In today's North Korea, except for a few historical sites, there is no place with Chinese characters.

In this way, South Korea has almost become the last country in the Han cultural circle to have complete Chinese characters.

But at the same time, Chinese characters in Korea have undergone a process of repeated elimination and restoration, the so-called Three Movements. Some scholars have also called the controversy over writing since the founding of the Republic of Korea the "60-year word war."

In this war, where there is no trace of blood on the surface, it actually brings together a contest of politics, economy, and culture of one country.

The 1948 Hangul Law was the first major crisis for Chinese characters in Korea. But the law was the result of a hasty decision. At that time, South Korea was deeply influenced by the United States, and the "theory of leaving Asia and entering the West" was popular throughout the country, and the first step was to abolish Chinese characters. With the support of the United States, South Korea even established the "Hanja Abolition Association", which was born out of the proposal of the "Hanja Abolition Association".

However, this kind of law, which did not originate from the needs of the Koreans themselves, did not crowd out Chinese characters, and government documents, newspapers and magazines were still "used in both Korean and Chinese". Since then, Korean education has gradually resumed in China.

The second major crisis of Chinese characters in South Korea was during the reign of President Park Chung-hee. During his 18 years in charge of South Korea, he worked for the abolition of Chinese characters for "Hangeul only". Some scholars believe that the powerful president's move was aimed at dictatorship, while others believe that the abolition of Chinese characters was his political offensive against his rival Kim Dae-jung. In any case, it is true that under Park Chung-hee, the complete abolition of Chinese characters will be carried out in every grassroots organization.

For nearly 30 years, South Korea largely followed the Hangul-specific policy until 1998, when Kim Dae-jung, a formidable opponent, came to power. As soon as he came to power, he issued a manifesto for the resurrection of Chinese characters. However, the more important background to the restoration of Chinese characters was the financial crisis that broke out in South Korea at the end of 1997. At that time, South Korean business people were worried that more than 40% of South Korea's goods exports were destined for the Chinese character cultural circle, and it would be difficult for South Korea, which had completely abandoned Chinese characters, to do business with its counterparts in the Chinese character cultural circle. So in 2003, South Korea's five major economic groups recommended that their 190,000 companies must pass a kanji test when recruiting employees.

In terms of ancient books, whether it is Japan, South Korea and Vietnam, there are basically a large number of ancient Chinese books.

Among these ancient books, there are two main categories of interest to Chinese buyers: those that have been exported from China and those that have been reproduced locally in Chinese characters. These ancient books include both Chinese characters and minority languages such as Tibetan, Shui Shui, Naxi and Dongba.

Among these countries, Japan has a large stock of ancient Chinese books, and they are well preserved for a long time. However, due to the large number of reprinted Chinese ancient books in the past dynasties, ordinary ancient books are not favored at present; The version from China is very popular with Chinese buyers, even the reprinted version from the 50s to the 80s of the last century. For example, around 1980, Duo Yunxuan reprinted 300 sets of the famous Ming Dynasty book "Luo Xuan Ancient Notes", which later flowed to Japan. In 2006, its transaction price in Japan was about 10,000 yuan, and the current price is at least 300,000 yuan.

"The market price of Chinese ancient books in Japan closely follows the auction price in the Chinese market, and usually as soon as an auction in China ends, they update their bidding prices in time," is the news that Lin Yi learned from his old father-in-law, Hai Baichuan.

As the big boss of the auction company, Hai Baichuan also attaches great importance to the version of ancient books now, perhaps because of Lin Yi, Hai Baichuan believes that this kind of ancient books belongs to the potential stocks in the auction, and it will be developed in the future. In addition, Lin Yi also learned from Hai Baichuan that in the large-scale auction of ancient books in Japan twice a year, the transaction price of the Chinese version of the ancient books has been higher than that of the mainland, in addition to the Japanese sellers doing their homework, but also because the quality of the lots is relatively high and the preservation is better.

According to Hai Baichuan, in addition to Japan, Vietnam is now a "heavy place" to find Chinese ancient books, although in terms of engraving and printing technology, the Vietnamese version is difficult to compare with the Chinese version, but in ordinary ancient books, the Vietnamese version may be more than 10 times more expensive than the Chinese version.

In addition, there are relatively many Korean versions of ancient books, only slightly less than those of Japan, but the Goryeo version is also favored by Chinese buyers.

According to Lin Yi, the ancient book editions of Vietnam and South Korea can be traced back to the Song Dynasty in China at the earliest, and the most recent is only around the 40s of the last century, but they are sought after by Chinese buyers; As long as it is a version of the Chinese minority language, no matter how recent the era is, it has a certain collection value.

According to Lin Yi and Haitang's honeymoon book shopping route, they first went to Japan to buy books, mainly to buy the "and carved books" there.

Because Lin Yi knew that this version of the ancient book belonged to the early Japanese reprinted Chinese books. It is a special form of ancient Chinese literature circulating in Japan, and it is the most active and developed system for the spread of Han literature outside the territory. Among them, the more famous ones are Goyamamoto and Shoheimoto. In terms of content, it often involves old Chinese knowledge, and some famous sinologists such as Lai Xiang, Oka Qianren, Naito Hunan, etc. are very attained. Nowadays, it has gradually become a distinctive branch of the collection of rare books. But for Lin Yi, the main reason for collecting this version is that it is cheap and large. If you have the heart, you can reclaim a few truckloads from Japan, and in the future, these versions are bound to appreciate in value.

In addition, Lin Yi often buys books and collects, and also likes to buy some rare and unique books on the Internet, so he knows that there are some capable people, so he buys and engraves a large number of copies from Japan, and then takes them to the Internet for auction, it is said that the annual income is four or five million, the price is rising, and the buyers are still like the wind.

……

From Hong Kong to Japan, it was only a few hours by plane, and the first stop Lin Yi went to was "Sendai".

The reason why Lin Yi wanted to go to Sendai was because he was interested in Lu Xun's plot here. I remember clearly that when he was in school, he studied a text "Mr. Fujino", which recorded the experience of the literary master Lu Xun studying in Sendai when he was young.

Now Lin Yi can clearly memorize one of the passages from this text:

I went to Sendai's medical college. Departing from Tokyo, I soon arrived at a post station and wrote: Nippori. Somehow, I still remember it. Secondly, I only remember Mito, which is the place where Mr. Zhu Shunshui, a remnant of the Ming Dynasty, died. Sendai is a town and is not big; Winter is bitterly cold; There are no Chinese students yet.

It's probably because things are more expensive. When Beijing's cabbage is shipped to Zhejiang, it is tied to the root with a red head rope and hung upside down at the head of the fruit store, which is respected as "rubber cabbage"; Aloe vera in the wild of Fujian, as soon as you arrive in Beijing, please enter the greenhouse, and its beautiful name is "agave". When I came to Sendai, I was also treated with such privileges, not only did the school not charge tuition, but several staff members also worried about my room and board. I first lived in an inn next to the prison, and it was quite cold in the early winter, but there were still many mosquitoes, and then I covered my whole body with a quilt, covered my head and face with clothes, and left only two nostrils to breathe. In this breathless place, the mosquitoes can't intervene, and they actually sleep peacefully. The meals weren't bad either. But a gentleman thought that this inn also provided food for the prisoners, and that it was not appropriate for me to live there. Although I felt that the food for the prisoners in the inn had nothing to do with me, it was difficult to give up my kindness, so I had to find a suitable place to live. So I moved to another family, which is far away from the prison, but unfortunately I always have to drink the unpalatable taro soup every day.

……

Today, Sendai is a big city in Japan, and there are not too many Chinese students, but there are too many Chinese tourists, so that Lin Yi often hears Chinese with various accents on the road.

Lin Yi heard that Chinese tourists are now very popular in Japan, and they like to buy duty-free goods such as cosmetics, luxury goods, and home appliances here. As a result, merchants are very welcoming to those who prefer to buy goods with cash, so much so that in many stores you can see large banners saying "Warm welcome to Chinese tourists", as well as promotional price tags and discount signs written in Chinese characters on the counters.

As for the food in places like Sendai, it is no longer what Mr. Lu Xun called "unpalatable taro stalk soup", as long as you are willing to spend money and are willing to look for it, you can find a variety of Japanese dishes, as well as Chinese fried noodles, dumplings and other delicacies.

Compared with other travelers who come to Japan either to buy home appliances, enjoy food, or visit the scenery, Lin Yi's only purpose is to buy books. And Sendai City is one of the most book-seeking places in Japan.

Without deliberately asking, Lin Yi took Begonia to several second-hand bookstores near the monument of Lu Xun in Sendai.

Lin Yi inquired and learned that these used bookstores have a history of hundreds of years, and their prosperity originated when students studying in Japan during the Qing Dynasty studied here and liked to buy various ancient Chinese books, thus forming a large-scale used book market. With the passage of time, the used book market has now languished, and most of the original dozens of used bookstores have closed, leaving only seven or eight remaining. One of them is named "Itosai", who claims that Lu Xun bought their old books here.

When Lin Yi entered, he also saw that this bookstore was full of various photos of Lu Xun. Among them, Lu Xun was wearing a robe, meditating with a cigarette, and Lu Xun sat down and waved a pen, these photos Lin Yi has seen in the domestic information about Lu Xun, obviously this Ito boss is also a caring person, and these data pictures are enlarged as the history of the store to decorate.

Perhaps it was really because of "Lu Xun" that most of the people who came to this used bookstore were Chinese, to be precise, most of them were Chinese tourists.

Lin Yi carefully looked at the books they selected, either the Four Books or the Five Classics, which belonged to the very ordinary "and engraved books", but they were happy, as if they had found some treasure. In Lin Yi's view, maybe they are not good at it, and what they are looking for here is not books, but a feeling of nostalgia for great people.

Seeing Lin Yi looking at this bookstore, he didn't rush to buy books, but stood aside in a daze, and Haitang, who came with him, couldn't help but remind him: "Don't stay--- since you enter Baoshan, how can you return empty-handed?" Let me see your legendary ability to pick up leaks! ”

Lin Yiwan smiled, does this count as a wife urging her husband? It seems that this wife of mine wants to make a big show of her power and empty all these Japanese treasures!