1923165438+10 In October, the Shanghai Commercial Press published an unprecedented short book. The title of the book, 1924/kloc-0+65438, published on October 28th, can be seen in Sewing Advertisement in Literature (formerly known as Literary Xunkan):
Commercial press
Published on 1923
Literature research society
series of books
Scarecrow (fairy tale)
Ye Shao Jun
A book for ninety cents.
The publication of Scarecrow is unprecedented, because China has never published a collection of fairy tales written in vernacular Chinese before. Although the advertisement of scarecrow was not published until 1924, as early as 1923, 10, 15, the preface written by Zheng Zhenduo for scarecrow was published in the 92nd issue of Literary Newspaper. At that time, the book had not been officially published.
This is an insightful, brilliant and enthusiastic preface. Based on the painful modern life, the author profoundly summarizes Ye Shengtao's creative experience and his understanding of the scarecrow:
"Finally, his hope for the world was dashed with the scarecrow. People who mourn can't make them happy'. Looking at the life course in Shengtao's fairy tales, we can know how cold and miserable modern life is. That is to say, the dreamer tries to beautify such a moment in the utopia, which is only a moment, but it is actually impossible. "
The language art of The Scarecrow, Zheng Zhenduo sincerely praised:
"We will unconsciously be surprised and admire his perfect and delicate description of beauty with respect. In fact, a description like this is not only beyond the expectation of recent shallow and grandiose writers, but also difficult to find such the same words in the diaphragm.
On the one hand, scarecrows are also very successful in describing children's spoken language and characters.
Sheng Tao was one of the most successful artists in China in 2003. "
192 1 year 1 year/month 1 day, Ye Shengtao wrote his first fairy tale "Little White Boat" and began to write fairy tales. In the preface of The Scarecrow, Zheng Zhenduo once said:
Shengtao first started making fairy tales when I edited Children's World.
Check the electronic version of the annual report published in Shanghai. Children's World was founded in 1922 65438+ 10/6. It is "the first periodical in China that mainly publishes children's literature, published by the Commercial Press". The original founder and editor-in-chief was Zheng Zhenduo, and the other editors were Xu Yingchang. All the fairy tales in Scarecrow were originally published in Children's World:
"And China's first fairy tale book written in vernacular Chinese is Ye Shengtao's fairy tale collection Scarecrow 1923 published by the Commercial Press, with Ye's signature, Zheng Zhenduo's preface and Xu Dungu's illustrations. Collected 23 short fairy tales written by the author in 192 1 ~ 1922 (all published in Children's World magazine published by Commercial Press and founded by Zheng Zhenduo). Lu Xun said that the Scarecrow' opened up a creative road for China's fairy tales'.
Ye Shengtao's earliest fairy tales were created in Hangzhou. In this regard, Mr. Zhu has a more detailed record:
"At that time, the material of his novels was old storage; The material of fairy tales is sometimes a temporary excitement. For example, the article "Big Throat" in Scarecrow is. That morning, we all woke up in bed and heard the whistle of the factory; He said,' There is another one today. I've thought about it. It came too fast. "The art of that article is very ingenious. Who thinks this is just a temporary idea?
..... He has only been in Hangzhou for two months, and he has written a lot, which is enviable. I saw him write seven articles in the fire, from rice to tide, and part of the scarecrow. "
Scarecrow * * * contains 23 fairy tales, which were first published by the Commercial Press in June 1923 1 1. "1932, the scarecrow was transferred to Ming Kai Bookstore for publication." (According to Shanghai Publishing Daily)
From 1932 to now, there are many kinds of fairy tales written by Ye Shengtao in the first edition of Scarecrow in China, or books containing some fairy tales, and I have only collected these:
1. The Scarecrow, The Commercial Press, First Edition 1923.
2. Xiaobaizhou, published by Yilin Bookstore 1936.
2. Selected Fairy Tales of Ye Shengtao (10), the first edition of China Children's Publishing House (1956), 95 pages, illustrated by Huang Yongyu.
3. < Scarecrow >; And other fairy tales (15), China Children's Publishing House, the first edition in May 1956, the second edition 1979, with illustrations by Xu Dungu and Huang Yongyu, 152 (it is said that there is also a 1984 edition).
4. Scarecrow (9 articles, English version), the first edition of foreign languages press 196 1, the fourth edition 1978, 97 pages, illustrated by Huang Yongyu.
5. Fairy Tales 1985, Xin Lei Publishing House.
6. Selected Fairy Tales of Ye Shengtao 1986, Jilin People's Publishing House.
7. Ye Shengtao's Collection of Fairy Tales (24 pieces), edited by Ye Zhishan, Ningxia People's Publishing House, first edition1998,204 pages.
8. The Scarecrow was published by Xi 'an Publishing House, beginning with 1998, and was listed as one of the fairy tale treasures in China in the 20th century.
9. Collection of Ye Shengtao's Works (including fairy tales), published by Jiangsu Education Press in 2004.
10. Complete Works of Ye Shengtao's Fairy Tales, published by People's Education Press in 2006.
1 1. Complete Works of Ye Shengtao's Children's Literature, published by China Children Publishing House in 2005.
Of these editions, I have only (or seen) 1, 2, 3, 4 and 7, all of which are selected editions. The original text was later revised by the author, not the original appearance of the first edition. Judging from the preface to Ye Shengtao's collected works, Ye Shengtao's complete fairy tales and Ye Shengtao's complete children's literature found on the Internet, although these three books are complete, the words in them have also been edited and changed, which are not the original appearance of the first edition.
. Scarecrow
Among the various selections of Scarecrow, its English version is the most rare one at present. This book is an old thing that has been preserved in my family. I have only read it once in a second-hand bookstall. Its title is:
scarecrow
Children's story
Ye Shengtao
Open its copyright page, you can see a few lines of fine print in Chinese:
Selected Fairy Tales of Ye Shengtao
Illustration of Huang Yongyu
foreign languages press
196 1 year (big 32) first edition
1978 fourth edition
Number: (English) 10050-446
00 1 10
10-E-47 1P
On the title page of Scarecrow, there is a subtitle: "Collection for Children", which is more serious than the line "Story for Children" printed on the cover, although the meaning is roughly the same. On the directory page, under the preface, there is a fairy tale directory with nine articles printed on it:
seed
babbler
scarecrow
Statues of ancient heroes
The emperor's new clothes
Sensitive plants
Silkworms and ants
Languages of birds and animals
The experience of locomotive
Judging from the title page of Scarecrow, the Chinese name of this book is Selected Fairy Tales of Ye Shengtao, and the first edition is 196 1 year. Of these nine fairy tales, the first seven are selected from The Scarecrow, the last two from The Language of Birds and Animals and The Experience of a Locomotive, and from Ye Shengtao's collection of short stories.
According to the postscript of the first edition of Ye Shengtao's Selected Fairy Tales, China Children's Publishing House asked Ye Shengtao to "select old fairy tales as new books" in 1956, and Ye "selected ten articles, each of which was revised ... and invited friends to read them." "Please ask Mr. Huang Yongyu to carve this book into wood, and he promised to do it in January this year."
This postscript was written on April 1956, and Mr. Huang Yongyu's woodcut illustration should be "engraved" on April 10/956. In general, it is difficult to find out the creation date of the illustrations created by artists for literary works, but Mr. Ye's introduction left a specific date for these exquisite illustrations. But I don't know if these illustrations are in color, because I didn't buy the first edition of China Children's Publishing House (1956). This "postscript" comes from the second edition of Scarecrow; And other fairy tales.
But in The Scarecrow, all the colorful woodcut illustrations of Huang Yongyu are included, and the effect is excellent, with nine * * *. If you add the scarecrow with only one tooth on the cover, there are as many as ten. There are only a few Huang Yongyu illustrations in Ye Shengtao's Selected Fairy Tales, which are still black and white, which is not good-looking. In the 142-page "Huang Yongyu Painting Collection" published by Heilongjiang Fine Arts Publishing House, only 6 pictures are included, and they are still in black and white.
< Scarecrow >; Waiting for Fairy Tales and Scarecrow are both designed by Huang Yongyu, so the cover compositions of the two books are exactly the same, except that the stars in the English cover painting are yellow and the stars in the Chinese cover painting are white.
This English version is very strange. I wonder who translated it. In front of the book is the author's preface, also written in English, which seems to have never been published.
Preface of Ye Shengtao, English Version of Scarecrow
XiaoMao
1956 China Children's Publishing House asked Mr. Ye Shengtao to select some fairy tales from his collection of the Scarecrow and the Stone Statue of Ancient Heroes for reprint. Therefore, Mr. Ye compiled a book "Selected Fairy Tales of Ye Shengtao" and asked Mr. Ye to create woodcut illustrations and include them in the book. In this edition, * * * contains ten fairy tales, six of which are selected from Scarecrow, the first edition of the Commercial Press 1923.
1979, China Children's Publishing House decided to reprint this 1956 edition of Selected Fairy Tales of Ye Shengtao, and asked Mr. Ye to "add a few more", that is, five articles (none of which was taken from the first edition of Scarecrow), and got fifteen articles. Mr. Ye named the book Scarecrow; And other fairy tales to distinguish them from the 1956 version. This edition only contains some illustrations of Huang Yongyu, and the rest are the line-drawing illustrations made by Mr. Xu Dungu for the first edition of Scarecrow.
The publication and compilation of these two kinds of books, from 1979 edition of Scarecrow; And other fairy tales, we can learn from 1956 and 1979. However, during the period of 1956 ~ 1979, an English version of The Scarecrow, which is closely related to the 1956 version of Selected Fairy Tales of Ye Shengtao, was published in China, and probably not many people knew it.
The English version of The Scarecrow was first published by foreign languages press on 196 1. The preface received before the book was signed "Ye Shengtao" and the writing date was marked as 1959 May (May 1959). The English preface is the same as the Scarecrow 1979 edition. Compared with 1956 and 1979 in other fairy tales, it is different. Only one paragraph in the English preface was translated from the "Postscript" of 1956, but another sentence was deleted. This passage is written in the postscript of 1956 edition:
"I want to talk about the stone statues of ancient heroes in particular. This fairy tale was selected into a Chinese textbook, and many teachers and classmates wrote letters about it. They asked me if it was like this, according to their own opinion. That's what I always say when I write back. When writing, you can only write some ideas. I thought the main idea was at the end of this article. Whether it is a big stone or a small stone, they gather together and pave a real road for people to walk. This is the most meaningful life of stone. Before paving the road, it doesn't make much sense to carve big stones into heroes and put small stones under the stone statues as platforms. As for the big stone carved into a hero, I became proud, thinking that I was different and looked down on people: I wrote this just to understand the' psychology' of the big stone at that time. This used to be an irresistible problem. Many people used to make this kind of trouble, but in this era, it is necessary to exercise hard to avoid it. What I thought after writing small stones and seeing the pride of big stones was nothing more than their' psychology' at that time. "
From the English version of the preface, the first four sentences of the Chinese version of the postscript are slightly different from the English version of the preface, but the following words can be translated into each other here:
"I write this, just want to understand the' psychology' of the big stone at that time. This used to be an irresistible problem. Many people used to make this kind of trouble, but in this era, it is necessary to exercise hard to avoid it. What I thought after writing small stones and seeing the pride of big stones was nothing more than their' psychology' at that time. "
Among them, the sentence "This used to be an irresistible annoyance. Many people used to make this kind of trouble, but now in this era, we have to exercise well to avoid it. "It carries a lot of weight, but it has disappeared in the English preface."
I think few people can read this English preface completely, so they translated it into Chinese.
XiaoMao
Ye Shengtao prefaces Terror.
Proofreading and Translation of XiaoMao
A few things in this book are selected from dozens of stories I wrote to teenagers more than 30 years ago. The purpose of the selection is to make teenagers interested in current life and pay attention to things around them.
Since The Stone Statue of Ancient Heroes met with readers in China, many teachers and classmates have written articles for it. According to their own opinions, they asked me if the meaning of the story was as they said. I can only tell them what I think when I write, and the main meaning of the story is at the end of this article. Whether it is a big stone or a small stone, they gather together and pave a real road for people to walk. This is the most meaningful life of stone. Before paving the road, it doesn't make much sense to carve big stones into heroes and put small stones under the stone statues as platforms. As for that big stone being carved into a hero, I became proud and thought I was different and looked down on people. It's just my "psychological" thinking about that big stone at that time. I wrote what the small stones thought when they saw the pride of the big stones. I just wanted to find out how they felt at that time.
The Bird's Language and the Animal's Language was written during Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia. The experience of locomotives was written during the Japanese imperialist invasion of China. At that time, all China people strongly demanded anti-Japanese, but they were blocked by the Kuomintang reactionaries. For us foreign readers, it is enough to point out this fact without too much explanation.
However, this point needs special clarification. By 1949, the facts of China described in my story began to be changed nationwide. Under the leadership of the great the Communist Party of China (CPC), the people of China completely revolutionized the unreasonable old society, and the object of struggle began to turn to ruthless nature. Although this work has only been carried out for ten years, the face of China has completely changed.
If that thrush is flying at the moment, there will be many happy adventures wherever it flies. It will sing endless songs of joy. If the scarecrow stands in the field at the moment, he will see the vast fields that are carefully cared for, the rows of windbreaks around him, and the clear water flowing in the irrigation canals. It wouldn't have seen these scenes ten years ago. People will be surprised to find that farmers show great enthusiasm for their work. How happy they are to work collectively, with smiles on their faces and singing in the sky! These scenarios would not have happened ten years ago. It will also find a surprise, that is, it can see such a strong crop and a rich harvest. Can crops planted ten years ago have the same growth and harvest? The scarecrow will start to blame himself in a completely different way. It will blame itself for being like a tree, rooted in the soil and unable to move. Although it can't move half a step, it is still eager to devote itself to farmers' labor.
That sensitive plant (1) will no longer be ashamed of anything, because nothing that makes it ashamed will happen again. Of course, its leaves will still meet and hang down like a shy child with his head down, but this only happens when teenagers touch it out of curiosity, because teenagers like to see it like that. How can you let them down? These changes have taken place not only in China, but also all over the world. Where is Mussolini? The whole African continent, like a giant waking from a deep sleep, is proudly standing up and opening its arms to the new rising sun. Of course, there are still people like Mussolini in this world. As we sometimes say, "this is the second Mussolini" and "that is the third". But they can no longer be as crazy as Mussolini, because they are firmly guarded by giants standing on every continent. Moreover, these followers of Mussolini are probably afraid of being hanged in Milan.
Therefore, almost all the stories in this book are related to the past. This is natural! Children's stories and fables don't always start with "Once upon a time ..."