This proverb spread to the Tang Dynasty, and the people in the Tang Dynasty changed "scoffing" into "idiot" in their records. Such as Duan's "Youyang Miscellaneous Continuation", Volume 4: "Today's Cloud: Borrowing and Returning Books" and so on. It's two idiots It means that you are a fool to lend books to others; Lending other people's books to others is also a fool. The meaning of this proverb seems easier to understand: it is a satire on the common bad habit of borrowing and not returning things. Many people borrow other people's things, find it easy and reluctant to return them, so they pretend to forget and take them for themselves with peace of mind, so they don't ask for it from others, nor do they ask for it themselves. With all due respect, this problem is also very serious in the intellectual world, especially in the issue of borrowing books between individuals. Originally, books were for knowledgeable people, who should be educated, but this is not the case. Knowledge and education are not the same thing. Have you noticed that Mr. Kong Yiji steals other people's books? Because he steals "books", he can brazenly say that "stealing books is not stealing, but what scholars do can be called stealing?" As for "borrowing", it is even more trivial. I have been studying all day. Why bother to borrow and return these chapters? So borrowing books is not normal, but borrowing and returning them is a fool; It is precisely because of this behavior of the borrower that those book collectors have grown up and they will never lend books out again. Whoever lends his book to others is a fool. This is the basis of the proverb "I borrow books crazily, but I return them crazily". It is said that Mark? Twain has a famous saying: "Never lend books to your friends, because all the books on my bookshelf are borrowed". He also posted a small note on his bookshelf: "Books and wives are not allowed to check out." It seems that this trend is not only in China, but also in the United States. Later, the two proverbs of "borrowing books and returning them to idiots" became legends, from "one idiot, two idiots" to "four idiots". Lee Kwang Soo's Zi Ji Shu: "Borrowing books: As the saying goes, borrowing one idiot, fighting two idiots, seeking three idiots and returning four idiots." It is more detailed and comprehensive: it is foolish to ask others to borrow it while knowing that others will not borrow it; It is foolish to lend books to others knowing that they will not return them; Those who pull down their faces and beg not to return the book are three fools; If people beg, just give it to them. This is the four fools. Borrowed, borrowed, asked for, and returned to him, they all refused to admit it. In fact, this scholar's borrowing behavior itself is pedantic and poor.
But then again, throughout the ages, the circulation of books mainly depends on borrowing. Modern people mainly rely on libraries to read books. In ancient times, except the royal family, there was no library, and ordinary people could not afford a library if they were not rich. So reading mainly depends on borrowing between friends. Borrow someone else's book, copy it quickly and return the original to someone else. This is the most common process of book publishing and dissemination in ancient times. If, as the saying goes, borrowing and returning books since ancient times is taboo to the world and even ridiculed as a fool, then it is difficult to explain the rapid spread of ancient books among the people, and it does not conform to the professionalism of most China scholars in imparting knowledge and friendly personality in interpersonal communication. Therefore, what the Tang people called "an idiot who borrows books and returns them" is not the original meaning of this old proverb, although it has realistic basis. Later, the Song people finally discovered the original truth of this ancient proverb through in-depth study. According to the homophonic words "scoff", "idiot" and "Yan", the so-called "borrowing books for idiots" is a verbal misinformation of "borrowing books". "Yan", sometimes written as "Yan", is a wine container with a big belly and a small mouth. The rhyme "Yan" in Sun Yu's Notes on Tang Yun says: "Wine vessels. The big ones are stones, the small ones are five buckets, and the ancient books are full of wine bottles. " I also bet the word "Yan" in Ji Yun: "In ancient times, I borrowed books for books to drink, and I also gave books to drink when I returned them." It turns out that the ancients talked about "reciprocity" and asked people to borrow books. Take a bottle of wine as a gift when you go and a bottle of wine as a thank you when you return the book. This is called "borrowing and returning books". Huang borrowed books from friends and wrote a poem, including two sentences: "I would like to borrow a book and give you a lock fish at the same time." -I want to borrow your library, and then give you a wine gift, asking you to open the fish lock in your bookcase (in ancient image casting devices, fish don't close their eyes day and night, which symbolizes vigilance, so the lock is often cast in the shape of a fish). He once borrowed a book from someone before he left. The owner of this book is not at ease. He wrote a poem and said, "Don't be afraid to borrow a thousand Li, and I will pay you back one day." Su Dongpo also knows the ceremony of borrowing and returning books in ancient times, so he also said in his poem: "Why not borrow a car full of books instead of holding two glasses of wine?" Qin Shaoyou once learned that his friend was writing a book and wanted to borrow it, so he wrote him a poem: "I will continue to write the record of retiring from the DPRK in the Spring, Autumn and Ming Dynasties, and I will return it to him as a reward." Yao Su is a poor scholar, and there are only a few boxes of books left at home. He wants to borrow books from others without giving gifts: he is "poor and ill, and has never borrowed books", which he wrote. The poet Ai Xing's father is also poor. Once, he wanted to borrow books from a retired official to sort out ancient books, but he was worried that he couldn't afford the wine. This so-called "proofreading may not be as good as three books, but he is most ashamed to borrow them." There is a poem called "A Bottle of Wine in the Studio", which says: "If you can't drink it every day, leave a cup to borrow books", which means that if you can't bear to drink good wine, you can't drink it all every day, but always leave a cup to borrow books. ……