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 Printingfor Profit
The Commercial Publishers of
}ianyang, Fujian (11th-17th Centuries)

Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 56

 Printing for Profit
The Commercial Publishers of
}ianyang, Fujian (11th-17th Centuries)

Lucille Chia

Published by the Harvard University Asia Center

for the Harvard-Yenching Institute
Distributed by Harvard University Press
Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London, 2002
© 2002 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College

Printed in the United States of America

The Harvard-Yenching Institute, founded in 1928 and headquartered at Harvard University, is a

foundation dedicated to the advancement of higher education in the humanities and social sci-
ences in East and Southeast Asia. The Institute supports advanced research at Harvard by faculty
members of certain Asian universities and doctoral studies at Harvard and other universities by
junior faculty at the same universities. It also supports East Asian studies at Harvard through
contributions to the Harvard-Yenching Library and publication of the Harvard Journal of
Asiatic Studies and books on premodern East Asian history and literature.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Chia, Lucille.
Printing for profit: the commercial publishers of Jianyang, Fujian (11th-17th centuries) I
Lucille Chia.
p. em. -- (Harvard-Yenching Institute monograph series ; 56)
Includes bibliographic references and index.
ISBN 0-67 4-00955-X (alk. paper)
1. Printing industry--China--Jianyang Xian (Fujian Sheng) --History. 2. Book industries
and trade--China--]ianyang Xian (Fujian Sheng)--History. 3. China--History--960-1644.
I. Title: Commercial publishers of ]ianyang, Fujian, 11th-17th centuries. II. Title. III.
Series.

Z244.6.C6 C438 2002

338.4 '76862'0951245--dc21 2002027348

Index by the author

@ Printed on acid-free paper

Last number below indicates year of this printing

12 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02
To my Mother and Father
and to the memory of
Piet van der Loon
 Acknowledgments

Like everyone entranced by the history of Chinese books, I have found

studying it an immensely satisfying but challenging endeavor because these
books can be frustratingly reticent about themselves. In the past fifteen years,
however, the study .oi Chinese books and printing has increasingly engaged
the efforts of scholars working on Chinese history, art history, literature, re-
ligion, and science. Thanks to their persistence and imaginative approaches
in coaxing data out of Chinese manuscripts and imprints, we now under-
stand more about Chinese book culture and have devised new ways to learn
even more.
In the course of my own work on the commercial publishers of ]ianyang,
I had the chance to learn from and be inspired by many of these scholars. A
number of them also provided useful suggestions on this manuscript or the
earlier dissertation. The book's imperfections arise from my obduracy in not
heeding sufficiently the advice offered and from my own limited knowledge
about so many of the topics I discuss.
First, I wish to thank my Ph.D. adviser, Robert Hymes, who helped teach
me the craft of a social historian and who provided comments on the disser-
tation that still proved useful as I recast it into a book.
Cynthia Brokaw, who thoroughly critiqued both my dissertation and my
book manuscript, has surely earned an astronomical number of points in her
ledger of merits. Her continuing support and encouragement, as well as her
own work on and deep interest in Chinese books and publishing, have
viii Acknowledgments

helped to sustain my conviction about the value and fascination of learning

about the history of the Chinese book.
I thank Piet van der Loon for the trenchant comments and tips he gave
me out of his immense knowledge of Chinese literature in general and of
]ianyang publishing in particular. I dedicate this book to his memory and
hope that it does not fall too short of his expectations.
A number of scholars gave detailed and honest comments about my
work. To Kathryn Lowry and Karin Myhre, who generously took time out
from writing their own dissertations to offer suggestions about mine and to
send a variety of useful materials, I happily acknowledge my debt. In reading
my dissertation, ]oseph McDermott came up with many stimulating remarks
and posed some hard questions that cannot be easily answered, but the chal-
lenge of addressing those issues have helped me rethink important aspects of
the history of the Chinese book, and of Chinese history in general. Thanks to
Joe, I expect to continue thinking about them for a long time to come. Mark
Halperin offered a very detailed reading of several chapters of the manu-
script. In addition to thoughtful challenges to some of my arguments, he also
took the time and effort to catch a few howlers and to insist that I present my
arguments more stylishly. Beverly Bossler read the chapters on the Song and
Yuan with great care and reminded me to not to lose sight of the broader
historical issues to which books and printing were related. My colleague in
the Department of History at UC Riverside, Piotr Gorecki, a historian of me-
dieval Europe, generously and valiantly read through much of the manu-
script, and provided me with many penetrating comments. I learned to pay
close attention to all his remarks, including those solitary and eloquent ex-
clamation points.
I also want to thank the scholars who have contributed greatly to my
continuing education in Chinese studies. To Soren Edgren with his vast
knowledge of Chinese rare books I am deeply grateful for taking the time
from his very busy schedule to read the entire dissertation and offer many
valuable insights on the traditional Chinese imprint. My many citations of
Anne McLaren's works merely hint at how much I have learned from her
about Ming literature. Each time I visit the Harvard-Yenching Rare Book
Collection, I enjoy the added benefit of learning more from its curator, Shen
]in i:k ?t, one of the leading experts on Chinese rare books. I am grateful to
Martin Heijdra not only because of his help as the guardian of the Gest Li-
brary Rare Book Collection at Princeton, but because of his amazing knowl-
edge of Chinese history, which he generously shares with anyone with the
good sense to listen. If my discussion on bamboo paper-making in Fujian in
this work sounds well-informed and interesting, it is due in large part to what
 Acknowledgments ix

I have learned from Christian Daniels. I also thank Pan Jixing 1-j '15 £ for
sharing his expertise on traditional Chinese paper-making and wish that I
had asked him many more questions; I will do so the next time I see him.
During my research work in China, a number of scholars were particu-
larly generous with their help. Fang Yanshou jj § ii, of the Zhu Xi Re-
search Institute in Jianyang, shared with me his knowledge and experience in
finding and examining the genealogies of the publisher families described in
this work. I also wish to thank Di Chongde :j}c ft 1!, my adviser at the His-
tory Institute of the Fujian Academy of Social Science, from whom I learned
much of both Chinese rare books and the history of the Minbei area. To
Professor Di I also owe my rudimentary skills in repairing and binding Chi-
nese books and in seal-carving. Hou Zhenping f* J)lljl, of the History De-
partment of Xiamen University, unhesitatingly supplied me with enough in-
formation on Fujian blockcarvers of the Ming for another study.
Whatever clarity and smoothness of writing this book enjoys result in
large part from the efforts of my editor, John Ziemer. Like his other authors,
I count it my good fortune that my manuscript came under his attentive and
understanding care. Because of John, this book will not be known as the last
Mashaben.
I also wish to thank the Committee for Scholarly Communication with
China, which supported my dissertation research in China (1992-93), and
the Fulbright-Hays DDRA Program, which supported my work in Taiwan
and Japan (1993-94). In Tokyo, I was made welcome by the Toyo bunko, of
whom I was a Foreign Research Fellow. I thank Shiba Yoshinobu WT ~ ~ {§
for making this possible. In continuing my research after completing the dis-
sertation in 1997, I received a Harvard-Yenching Library Travel Grant and a
Short-term Visiting Fellowship for the Princeton University Library, both of
which I gratefully acknowledge.
Finally, I thank the various libraries that gave permission for reproduc-
tions of pages from Chinese rare books in their holdings: the Naikaku bunko,
the National Central Library in Taipei, the Seikado bunko, the National Diet
Library of Japan, the Hosa bunko, the Tenri Central Library, the British Li-
brary, and the Wurttembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart.
L.C.
 Contents

Tables, Maps, and Figures xiii

Abbreviations xvii
Dynasties and Reign Periods xix

Part I
1 Introduction 3
Purpose and Scope of Study 3/ ]ianyang and the History of Chi-
nese Publishing 7I A Nate on the Main Sources 14/
The Geography ofMinbei 18
2 The Physical Appearance of ]ianyang Woodblock Imprints 24
Materials Used in Book Production 25/ Woodblock Carving 34/
The Design of the ]ianyang Block-Printed Book 39

Part II
3 The Development ofthe]ianyang Book Trade, Song-Yuan 65
· Historical Background 71/ ]ianyang Publishers 75/
The Liu, Yu, and Xiong Families of Publishers 79
xii Contents

4 ]ianyang Imprints of the Song and Yuan 100

Visual Appearances of ]ianyang Imprints of the Song and
Yuan 100/ Mashaben 116/ ]ianyang Imprints: A
Survey 126/ Summary and Some Contrarian Conclusions 141

Part III
5 The ]ianyang Book Trade During the Ming 149
Historical Background 150/ Commercial and Government
Publishers of Jianyang 154/ Charting the ]ianyang Book Trade
During the Ming 180
6 ]ianyang Imprints of the Ming 193
The Visual Appearance ofMing]ianyangimprints 193/
A Selective Survey of ]ianyang Imprints of the Ming 220/
The Qing Aftermath 24 7I Recapitulation 250

7 Conclusion 255

Appendixes
A Selected List of Song and Yuan ]ianyang Imprints 267
B Lists of ]ianyang Publishers 279
C Compiling the Bibliography of Jianyang Imprints 307

Reference Matter
Notes 321
Works Cited 391
Glossary-Index 419
 Tables, Maps, and Figures

Tables
1 Statistics for known ]ianyang publishers and printers of
the Song and Yuan 76
2 Genealogical tables of Liu descent groups in the ]ianyang area 81
a Simplified genealogical table of Liu descent groups in the
]ianyang area 81
b Simplified genealogical table of the Liu Xizu Beipai 82
c Simplified genealogical table of the Xizu Nanpai 84
d Simplified genealogical table of the Dongzu 85
3 Genealogical table of the Tanxi Shulin Yu shi 88
4 Genealogical table of the Xiong shi Xizu 94
5 Summary of government memorials, edicts, decrees,
dealing with privately and commercially produced
examination-related literature 121
6 ]ianyang publisher families, ranked by number of
attributable imprints 155
A.1 Selected list of Song and Yuan ]ianyang imprints 268
B.l ]ianyang printers and publishers of the Song and Yuan 279
B.2 ]iashu publishers in the Song and Yuan 283
B.3 Shuyuan and jingshe publishers in the Song and Yuan 284
B.4 Publishers working in the ]ianyang area under official
auspices in the Song and Yuan 285
xiv Tables, Maps, and Figures

B.5 Commercial and private publishers and printers in

the ]ianyang area during the Ming 286
C.l Summary of statistics for ]ianyang imprints bibliography 311
C.2 Distribution of ]ianyang commercial imprints by dynasty
ordered by the siku system 312
C.3 Medical imprints from ]ianyang in the Ming 314
C.4 Types of leishu from ]ianyang in the Song, Yuan, and Ming 315
C.5 Divination works from ]ianyang in the Ming 315
C.6 Sample printout of a page from the ]ianyang bibliography,
showing publishers surnamed Chen 316
C.7 Sample printout of a page from ]ianyang bibliography,
showing Ming philological works 317

Maps
1 Fujian and bordering areas 4
2 ]ianyang county and environs 68

Figures
Example of an impression from a worn woodblock 32
2 Example of two consecutive leaves carved from a
split woodblock 33
3 Notice in front of each of the series of Classics published by the
]ianning prefectural government during the ]iajing period 35
4 Recordings ofblockcarver's name and number of
characters carved 36
5 Examples of illustrated historical fiction in the
shangtu xiawen format from ]ianyang 41
6 Format of a leaf in a block-printed Chinese book 43
7 Examples ofkerchiefvolumes from the Song 45
8 Sample page of punctuated text and explanation of punctuation 48
9 Similar illustrations in different ]ianyang imprints 54
10 Examples of Ming ]ianyang imprints in the shangtu
xiawen format 56
11 Ming household reference manual 58
 Tables, Maps, and Figures XV

12 Pictures of the animals of the Chinese zodiac from a Yuan

and a Ming work 59
13 Using the same image in three different contexts 60
14 Publishers' notes and colophons in Jianyang imprints of
the Song 90
15 Examples of Song Jianyang imprints resembling the
"Slender Gold" calligraphic style 102
16 Examples of Song Jianyang imprints showing the Yanti
calligraphic style 103
17 Examples of noncommercial ]ianyang imprints from the Song 105
18 Two imprints of popular works from ]ianyang,
Southern Song-Yuan 107
19 Yuan imprint of medical prescriptions 109
20 Examples of superior Jianyang imprints of the Yuan 110
21 Medical works from ]ianyang during the Yuan 112
22 Yuan editions of rhyming dictionaries from ]ianyang 114
23 A Ming geomancy text from Jianyang 158
24 Qunshu kaosuo 164
25 Wuyizhilue 166
26 Work of ]ianyang men working in N anjing 174
27 Xinkan !ian deng yu hua 176
28 Gujin yunhui juyao xiaobu 179
29 Comparison of number of Jianyang imprints in selected
categories, early to late Ming 186
30 ]ianyang imprint showing influence of Zhao Mengfu' s
calligraphy 195
31 Examples of two different calligraphic styles in Jianyang
imprints of the Ming 196
32 Guangyun 196
33 Examples of better calligraphic styles in ]ianyang imprints
oftheMing 198
34 Examples of mediocre calligraphic styles in Jianyang imprints
oftheMing 199
35 Example of a page in jiangti 200
36 Example of different calligraphic styles in the front matter
and the main text of an imprint 201
xvi Tables, Maps, and Figures

37 Different ]ianyang imprints of the Book ofPoetry 203

38 Variously punctuated preface in three editions of the Zhouyi
of the Ming ]iajing period 206
39 Examples of tu (illustrations, tables, figures) in ]ianyang
imprints of the Ming 208
40 Nonfiction works in the shangtu xiawen format 211
41 Dingqie quanxiang Tang Sanzang xiyou zhuan 212
42 Shuguo zhengqi 213
43 Illustrations from four different ]ianyang editions of the
Sanguo zhizhuan 214
44 Full-page illustration from a late sixteenth-century
]ianyang imprint 215
45 Three different publishers recorded in a single ]ianyang imprint 216
46 Title page of a Ming ]ianyang imprint 218
47 Examples of lotus leaf colophon blocks in Ming
]ianyang imprints 219
48 Two different printers' colophons in copies of a work
from the same set of blocks 219
49 Portraits of ]ianyang publishers in their own publications 220
50 Examples of works on the Book ofPoetry 223
51 Example of a merchant's route manual 229
52 A copiously illustrated pharmaceutical work 233
53 Illustrated court-case stories 244
 Abbreviations

BMTZ Ba Min tongzhi )\ j;j 3m ;E;

CS]C Congshu jicheng it W~ JJX,
CZF]TZ Chongzuan Fujian Tongzhi ~ ~ 1jfj!j 9l 3m ;E;
DMB Dictionary ofMing Biography
F]T] Fujian Tongji 1jfj!j 9l 3m *[1,
]NFZ ]ianningfuzhi 9l $1F.f ;E;
]YXZ ]ianyang xianzhi 9l ~ l'-* ;E;
SHY *
Song Huiyao fr ~
Siku quanshu [9 ~ :i: W
SKQS
SRZ]
ss
Song ren zhuanji ziliao suoyin *A 1$ ~c ~ l¥4
* *' 51
T]SY
ZBK
Song shi 5I::

Zhongguo banke tulu l:j:I ~ It& t<U Ill ~

*'
Guji ban ben tiji suoyin ti *I It& :zjs: ~ ~c 51

Note on page citations for primary Chinese sources: juan and page numbers
for the original imprint, as well as any page number for a modern reprint are
given, wherever applicable. Full publication information is given in the
Works Cited.

On Chinese terms and titles: translations are given at the first instance they
appear in the text and again in the Glossary-Index or in the Works Cited.
 Dynasties and Reign Periods

Northern Song

Emperor (temple name) Reign dates

Taizu::kt.El 960-75
Taizong;k7.f; 976-97
Zhenzong~7.f; 998-1022
Renzong1=7.fi 1023-63
Yingzong~7.f; 1064-67
Shenzong t$ 7.fi 1068-85
Zhezong f1f 7.f; 1086-1100
Huizong{~7.f; 1101-1025
Qinzong~7.f; 1126

Southern Song

Emperor
(temple name) Accession Reign period Dates

Gaozongr\¥ij7.f; 1127 }ianyan9l* 1127-30

Shamdng *21 $ 1131-62
Xiaozong~7.f; 1163 Longxing !li $ 1163-64
Qiandaoljiz~ 1165-73
Chunxi¥~\!\i~ 1174-89
Guangzong 1f:, 7.f; 1190 Shaoxi*"B!!ii~ 1190-94
XX Dynasties and Reign Periods

Southern Song, cont.

Emperor
(temple name) Accession Reign period Dates

Ningzong~ff; 1195 Qingyuan J!f j(; 1195-1200

]iataiB* 1201-4
KaoxiOOfi 1205-7
]iadingB/E 1208-24
Lizongf.!ll.ff; 1225 Baoqing JW J!f 1225-27
Shaoding 5E*B 1228-33
Duanping ftlffl-'¥ 1234-36
JiaxiBW~ 1237-40
Chunyou ¥:$ tti 1241-52
BaoyouW:fti 1253-58
Kaiqing 00 !t 1259
]ingding it 5E 1260-64
Duzong~ff; 1265 Xianchun J9k; ¥:$ 1265-74
Gongdi~?,ff 1275 Deyout~tti 1275
Duanzong ftlffl ff; 1276 ]ingyan il:* 1276-77
Dibing?,ff~ 1278 Xiangxing t!f $ 1278

Yuan

Emperor
(temple name) Accession Reign period Dates

Taizu::;Z\:1.13. 1206
Taizong::;tff; 1229
Dingzong 5E ff; 1246
Xianzong )if, ff; 1251
Shizu ttl: t.ll 1260 Zhongtong lfl *ft 1260-63
Zhiyuan .¥. j(; 1264-94
Chengzong plt ff; 1295 Yuanzhen j(; ~ 1295-96
Dade*.{!!\ 1297-1307
Wuzong ff-t ff; 1308 Zhida.¥,-j;:_ 1308-11
Renzongf=ff; 1312 Huangqing ~Jl! 1312-13
Yanyou~:fti 1314-20
Yingzong~ff; 1321 Zhizhi .¥, rtl 1321-23
Taiding di ::;t 5E 1ff 1324 Taiding::;t/E 1324-27
Zhihe3&5fD 1328
 Dynasties and Reign Periods xxi

Yuan, cont.

Emperor
(temple name) Accession Reign period Dates

Mingzong~* 1329 Tianli'X:If,f 1329

Wendi)C~ 1330 Tianli'X:}f,f 1330
Zhishun .¥.11!fJ 1330-32
Shundi /l!fJ ~ 1333 Yuantong :lG*ft 1333-34
Zhiyuan .¥. :lC 1335-40
Zhizheng .¥.JE 1341-67

Ming

Emperor
(temple name) Accession Reign period Dates

Taizu :;(~: t.EI. 1368 Hongwu~JE.t 1368-98

Huidi~~ 1399 }ianwen 9i )( 1399-1402
Chengzu JJ)t t.EI. 1403 Yongle7.)'<.~ 1403-24
Renzongf=* 1425 Hongxi~~W~ 1425
Xuanzong 1§ * 1426 Xuande 1§ 1~ 1426-35
Yingzong~* 1436 Zhengtong 1Hft 1436-49
Daizong }ingdi
{~*~~ 1450 }ingtai ~* 1450-56
Yingzong~* 1457 Tianshun 'X: ll!fJ 1457-64
Xianzong~* 1465 Chenghua JJ)t 1t 1465-87
Xiaozong** 1488 Hongzhi 5L yi:J 1488-1505
Wuzong:!Et* 1506 Zhengde JE 1~ 1506-21
Shizong t!t * 1522 }iajingB~ 1522-66
Muzong~* 1567 Longqing ~j /!f 1567-72
Shenzong 1$ *
Guangzong *
XizongJ':*
*' 1573
1620
1621
Wanli ;iilf,f
Taichang*~
Tianqi7(.@:
1573-1619
1620
1621-27
Zhuanglie di r± ;t~ ~ 1628 Chongzhen *tffi! 1628-43
 Printingfor Profit
The Commercial Publishers of
]ianyang, Fujian (11th-17th Centuries)
Part I
 1
Introduction

Purpose and Scope of Study

The Chinese have printed their books for over eleven centuries, but little is
known about the people involved in the book trade. Most of our knowledge
comes from detailed examination of extant imprints and from annotated _bib- 1
liographies compiled by generations of scholars. This information, however,
1
relates mainly to the bibliographical aspects of the book and concerns publi-
cations by various government offices, high-quality private editions, and re-
ligious works such as the Buddhist Tripitaka and the Daoist Canon, which do
not adequately reflect the broad and varied tastes and needs of the many dif-
ferent kinds of readers in Chinese society. To understand the reading habits,
literary tastes, and literacy of different social groups, we must consider the
activities and products of profit-minded commercial publishers who had to
respond to and even anticipate quickly the many demands of their customers.
In this study, I focus on three families of publishers (Liu ;D, Yu 7F, and
Xiong~~) of ]ianyang gt~ in northern Fujian (Minbei ~ ~t-see Map 1),
who wrote, edited, printed, and sold books for over six hundred years, from
the late Northern Song through the beginning of the Qing dynasties (mid-
eleventh through late seventeenth centuries). The commercial printers of
]ianyang2 occupy a conspicuous if not highly respectable position in the his-
tory of Chinese books. The area, already noted for its flourishing paper in-
dustry, rapidly became one of the most important centers of the book trade in
the country as printing burgeoned during the Song. From the start, ]ianyang
 to Hangzhou

Fuzhou

\.
\ Jianchang

t
N
0 50
0 100 200Km

Map I. Fujian and Bordering Areas

 Introduction 5

publishers had the reputation (not fully deserved) of producing shoddy edi-
tions on cheap paper with blurred impressions, which nevertheless sold
throughout China, as well as Japan and Korea. These works ranged from the
Classics to dictionaries, histories, geographies, medical texts, encyclopedias,
collections of anecdotes, school primers, poetry anthologies, plays and bal-
lads, and historical novels. Because of the broad cultural, historical, and geo-
graphical scope of the ]ianyang book trade, findings from this study should
help us understand the history of the book in traditional China in general.
There are other good reasons for choosing to study the ]ianyang printing
industry. First, because of the great productivity of the ]ianyang printers, their
books represent a significant portion of the Chinese rare books extant in pub-
lic and private collections and those described in the annotated catalogues of
3
past collections. Second, Fujian is benefiting from the current upsurge of in-
terest in local histories, genealogies, and related materials. Much of what has
been unearthed still awaits detailed examination by scholars, and indications
are that other uncatalogued materials in libraries and archives do exist and
may have significant historical value. Although Minbei has not captured the
attention of scholars to the extent that coastal Fujian has, it has been the sub-
ject of several modern studies, including one on Minbei dialects, another
comparing the agricultural economies of the Minbei and southern coastal re-
gions of Fujian during the Ming, and a third on the tea trade in northern Fu-
4
jian in the Qing and Republican periods. In addition, because the ]ianyang
area was one of the strongholds of Nee-Confucianism during the Southern
Song, many studies dealing with Nee-Confucian scholars, including Zhu Xi
*;#; (1130-1200), who lived and taught there for over forty years, have
touched on the history of the region. Most important for this study, the gene-
alogies of several descent groups of ]ianyang printers have recently been dis-
covered and described. By correlating the information in all these sources, we
can begin to understand how a remote mountainous area traditionally re-
garded as hard to govern and frequently ignored by the central government de-
veloped into one of the most important and long-lived printing centers ofim-

*
perial China. Having done so, we may then be able to understand better why
other rural areas (e.g., Sibao Changting [9 ~ H in western Fujian, and
Huizhou 1*& joJ>i in Anhui) also became printing centers in late imperial China.
5

This study consists of seven chapters in three parts. Part I discusses why
and how we can study the social history of the book in China. The present
chapter explains the purpose and scope of the work, briefly considers some of
the issues to be examined, describes the chief kinds of primary sources used,
and gives a brief geographical description of Minbei. Chapter 2 deals with the
visual appearance of ]ianyang commercial imprints. In order to understand
6 Introduction

how Chinese read and looked at books in the past and how commercial pub-
lishers developed their technical and business practices, we must first exam-
ine these works and consider how the paper, ink, calligraphy, page layout,
and illustrations affected readers' perception and reception of the printed
book. In the past, such knowledge has largely been limited to experts in the
field of Chinese bibliographic studies (banben xue It& 7-js: ~), but as Chapter 2
shows, it is essential for understanding the cultural uses of print. Part II ex-
amines publishing in ]ianyang during the Song and Yuan. Chapter 3 traces
the rapid rise and development of the ]ianyang printing industry during these
dynasties. It begins with a brief discussion of the historical background of the
region in this period and then focuses on the publishers of Minbei. Chapter 4
discusses the imprints themselves, first examining their physical appearance,
then looking at the low-quality Mashaben Iii 1.9> 7-js: for which ]ianyang was
notorious, and finally offering a general survey of printed works from the
area. The history of ]ianyang books and printing during the Ming is exam-
ined in Part III. Chapter 5 looks at conditions in Minbei in relation to the
]ianyang book trade, which revived in the mid-Ming in the early sixteenth
century, after a long lull of over a hundred years, and the publisher families
most active during the Ming. Chapter 6 considers the wealth of ]ianyang im-
prints from the Ming, as compared to earlier periods, which allows us to
speculate on more certain grounds about issues such as the authorial and
editorial contributions of the publishers, the different kinds of audiences for
commercial imprints, and the links among the printers in the major book
trade centers of central and south China. The final chapter offers general con-
clusions and suggestions for future research. Because this study concentrates
on the commercial printing industry of ]ianyang, works published in the re-
gion by private individuals, religious organizations, or government offices
(county, prefectural, or regional) are mentioned but not analyzed in detail,
since these imprints do not necessarily reflect the trends in scholarly and
6
popular reading of the time, as do the output of the commercial publishers.
In fact, however, the distinctions, traditionally made by scholars of Chi-
nese rare books, among official (guanke '§~U). private (sike ;f.L.~U). and
commercial (fangke ;l;Jj ~U) publishing, turn out to be deceptively clear-cut
and often of little use. For example, in imperial China, printing books was a
means of earning money for central, regional, and local government offices
and schools, religious organizations, and private individuals, as well as estab-
lishments whose main business was printing. By "commercial publishers," I
refer to the last category-nonofficial publishers not known to be printing
works under official auspices or those of a religious organization, such as a
temple or monastery, and whose imprints often have some indication that
 Introduction 7

they were meant to be sold on the open market (e.g., a printer's colophon ad-
vertising the merits of the book). These descriptive guidelines are generally
adequate for distinguishing commercial publishers from government and re-
ligious organizations. It is more difficult to differentiate between a private in-
dividual and a commercial printshop. One possible way is to consider the
motive(s) for printing a book, as expressed in a preface or postface, if avail-
able. Often the reason given is quite specific-an act of filial piety in pub-
lishing the works of one's ancestor to preserve and broadcast them, or to do a
public service by making available to other scholars a rare edition in one's
family library (though this second reason is sometimes used by commercial
publishers as well). Although such intentions do not preclude the person
from profiting by the sale of the imprint, he is not in the business of routinely
printing a variety of works for sale. Unfortunately, because so many Chinese
books that were printed have been lost, we cannot determine with any cer-
tainty whether a publisher was "commercial" by the number of titles associ-
7
ated with a person or the name of the printshop (tangming1ft.16). For exam-
ple, a survey of ]ianyang imprints of the Ming reveals that often there is only
one known work associated with a particular publisher, even though such
imprints are clearly commercial editions, to judge by their physical appear-

arises in deciding whether the family schools (jiashu *

ance, contents, printer's notes, and other marks. A more difficult problem
~) that figured so
importantly among ]ianyang printers in the Song should be considered
commercial printers. I have included them in my discussion in Chapters 3
and 4 because they printed much the same kinds of works as other printers
8
that can clearly be classified as commercial. In short, there is no absolutely
unambiguous method of differentiating between a commercial and a private
publisher. I have used the criteria mentioned above to make a reasonable de-
cision for some uncertain cases among the ]ianyang printers studied here.

]ianyang and the History of Chinese Publishing

In any given period, printing's potential as "an agent of change," in Elizabeth
Eisenstein's words, depends on the development of written culture in that so-
ciety, the variety and extent of literacies, the interactions between recorded
and oral cultures, the specific printing technology, and the identity of those
participating in and controlling the production and dissemination of printed
materials. Thus, the impact of printing has been as momentous in China as in
Europe, but its story is quite different. 9
To begin with, printing using woodblocks (xylography) rather than
movable type was the dominant method in China from the early eighth
8 Introduction

century at the latest and continued to be the preferred method until movable
type and lithography became popular in the late nineteenth century. Xylog-
raphy owed its long ascendance in China not only to technical reasons, such
as its greater suitability for Chinese characters, but also to the continued im-
portance of commercial printing, in which economy and efficiency were vital.
Indeed, religious and commercial uses of printing began long before the Chi-
nese state started exploiting the potential of print in the Song. Block printing
was first utilized for replicating Buddhist texts and images. 10 In addition, in
some areas, such as Sichuan and the lower Yangzi River valley, where the
natural resources for block-printing materials (paper, ink, brushes, and
woodblocks) were easily available, printing was already fairly advanced in this
earliest period, as revealed by the private calendars, dictionaries, simple
school primers, and works on astrology, divination, and geomancy pro-
duced.11 The rise of ]ianyang's book industry in the eleventh century and its
subsequent rapid growth can be understood in terms of these factors. Not
only did the mountainous Minbei area offer an abundance of raw materials
for woodblock printing, but for centuries the publishers there could produce
their books more cheaply than any of the major urban printing centers in the
country, partly because of the cheaper labor costs as well.
A second difference between the development of printing in China and
in the West is the sequence in which different groups in society began using
printing routinely, often for different purposes. For example, the profound
effect of printing on the social formation of the scholar-official elite and on
various intellectual and philosophical movements began only in the Northern
Song, over two centuries after the invention of printing, and was rather longer
in coming than comparable changes in Western Europe. But when this phe-
nomenon occurred, changes in the ways of learning, remembering, reading
and writing and in the ways that texts could be collated and conveyed in a
stabilized and easily replicable form began to affect all areas of learning, as
they did in Western Europe during the Renaissance. In contrast, for less edu-
cated groups, such as peddlers, shopkeepers, certain artisans, some peasants,
and most women, the impact of the printed word is a more complicated
story. Although the printed materials of the Tang and Five Dynasties noted
above argue an earlier start than for scholarly works, other kinds of materials,
such as illustrated fiction and household encyclopedias apparently appeared
much later, probably no earlier than the Southern Song. Again, the long his-
tory of commercial printing in ]ianyang affords us an opportunity to survey
these different sequences of the shift from script to print.
The early part of this history, the rise of ]ianyang publishing in the Song,
illustrates in detail the complex interactions between the state and commercial
 Introduction 9

publishing. The active role played by the Chinese state in printing ensured far
greater official influence over the printed word than censorship measures
alone by any government. This is especially clear in the Northern Song, when
the emphasis on book learning was such a fundamental part of the emperors'
and the officials' approach to governing. The monumental government proj-
ects to compile and publish the Classics, Histories, lexicographical works,
medical works, and certain encyclopedic works resulted in their somewhat
greater availability to scholars. Commercial and private publishers also bene-
fited from these official editions, which provided them with exemplars of new
or previously rare works. Indeed, the ]ianyang book printing industry proba-
bly would not have developed to any significant extent without the Song
state's publishing efforts.
The dissemination of these imprints in turn helped spur the literati's
enthusiasm for re-examining and re-collating the received texts. 12 Such ac-
tivities were further encouraged by the rapid growth of commercial printing,
which allowed scholars increasing opportunities to see one another's efforts
in print-and to continue correcting them. We see in this an example of the
continuing conflict between certain official and private uses of print in impe-
rial China. Specifically, the government's efforts to preserve standardized
texts without any deliberate effort to disseminate them widely often clashed
with the efforts of scholars and commercial printers to transform the texts, for
a variety of motives, for better or for worse, which were then meant to be
published widely. Song official editions, especially of central government or-
ganizations like the Directorate of Education, are generally highly esteemed,
and it is an ironic tribute to them that the many commercial editions de-
scended from them, directly or indirectly, succeeded in subverting official
efforts to preserve a standardized text and ultimately effected many more of
the text-shifting changes facilitated by printing. Among the worst offenders,
as the Song government discovered, were the ]ianyang publishers, particu-
larly with their notorious Mashaben, which offered cheaper, bowdlerized ver-
sions of well-collated full-length editions.
The low esteem generally accorded commercial publishers by the edu-
cated elite is another important difference between China and Western
Europe. During the European Renaissance, for example, a number of the hu-
manist printers, such as the Amerbachs, Aldus Manutius, and Joost Baade, 13
were friends of the most celebrated thinkers of the day as well as recognized
scholars in their own right. In contrast, commercial printing in China was not
considered an honorable activity mainly because the printers were in it for
profit. It was also seen as demeaning work, whose technical aspects were best
left to artisans and unskilled workers. A notable exception was Zhu Xi, who
10 Introduction

closely supervised the printing of some of the Classics and his own works. It is
rather telling that he felt defensive about these activities when a friend re-
marked that such things were unworthy of a scholar's notice. 14 And even centu-
ries later, in the late Ming and early Qing, we can only speculate about the pos-
sible involvement in commercial publishing of literati such as Feng Menglong
{.~~W~ (1574-1646),Chen]iru~!·f~ (1558-1639),andLiYu*¥Mt (1611-
ca. 1680), men who were hardly reticent about their literary activities.
This contempt for commercial printing in traditional China has meant a
dearth of sources on the subject compared to those for Europe. We know little
about the publishers themselves. We do not have, for example, the equivalents
of the account books and business records that permit the re-creation, almost
on a daily basis, of the activities of Christopher Plantin's Antwerp printing es-
tablishment, or the wealth of notarial documents relating to the Crombergers'
printing activities in Seville, or the abundance of correspondence to and from
Aldus Manutius in Venice, or the collected letters of the Amerbach family. 15
For Liu Hongyi ~U ?~ ~, a contemporary of Manutius and one of the fore-
most ]ianyang printers of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, we
have, other than some 45 known imprints, just a few slivers of information in
his family's genealogy: an imagined portrait by a much later artist accompa-
nied by a brief eulogy (xiangzan 1~ Jt) and his name incorrectly recorded in
the genealogical table. Yu Xiangdou #; ~ ;t, a contemporary of Plantin and
the most famous (or infamous) ]ianyang printer in the late sixteenth-early
seventeenth centuries, was hardly modest about praising his own publications
in his printer's notes and prefaces. He listed his publications in at least two of
16
his imprints and even inserted his portrait in a few of his publications. Other-
wise, however, we have only an extremely terse entry for him in the geneal-
ogy, which gives nothing more than the names of his father and his son.
Apparently, even the publishers themselves, as well as their families and asso-
ciates, subscribed to the general disregard for their work by remaining
resoundingly silent about it. Information about a printer in his genealogy, a
17
eulogy, or a local history almost never mentions his publishing activities.
This silence extends to the business of printing, publishing, and book
selling. We have almost no data on print runs and the prices of books. For the
entire history of Chinese block-printed books, such information can be
summarized in a few pages, and little of it pertains to the commercial imprints
from ]ianyang. 18 Even in advertisements in their own imprints, the commercial
publishers said so little about themselves that we know next to nothing of their
motives, the reasons behind their choices of what to publish, or their business
practices. Rarely do we have specific clues about their relationships with their
authors, editors, booksellers, and readers. Nevertheless, these obscure figures
 Introduction 11

played such an important role in the writing, compiling, printing, and dis-
seminating of information for both elite scholarly and non-scholarly "popu-
lar" cultures-often assuming all these functions in several segments along
19
Darnton's "communications circuit" -that studying them is essential to un-
derstanding the history of the Chinese book. In the case of the ]ianyang pub-
lishers, we luckily have over two thousand extant imprints from which we can
glean information.
The story of how the visual appearance and format of the printed book
diverged from those of the manuscript is also quite different in China and
Europe. Although a number of early European books slavishly imitated the
written text, the impulse to exploit the capabilities of movable type soon re-
sulted in imprints that looked very different from manuscripts. In contrast,
most woodblock carving is facsimile carving-the surface of the wood is cut
away by faithfully following the handwritten or hand-drawn original inked
onto the b.lock. Thus the connection between the original hand copy and the
final printed copy is inevitable and explicit. This accounts for the common
aesthetic criteria for judging both manuscripts and imprints in China; beau-
tiful calligraphy rendered on superior paper is highly valued in both. One rea-
son why many commercial imprints were held in such contempt was that the
text was badly written and badly printed on poor paper. Physical shoddiness
and bad editing were common complaints about ]ianyang books.
Nevertheless, some of the changes in the appearance of the book intro-
duced or popularized by commercial publishers ultimately gained wide if re-
luctant acceptance. For instance, as we will see, the use of the character styles
known as jiangti 1ft fFE became common in the late Ming, especially among
commercial imprints such as those from ]ianyang, although it was generally
regarded as ugly. This craftsman style, however, not only facilitated the carv-
ing of the characters but also improved their legibility, and we can interpret
its growing use as an example of technological innovation in xylography
driven by a rapidly growing book market.
The enduring interaction of manuscript and print in China has also
meant that written and printed texts were easily and routinely transformed
into each other, a process that persisted even after the use of printing became
widespread. Thus a reader might copy the contents of a hard-to-acquire book
by hand or hire one of the numerous copyists available-quite possibly the
same ones employed by local printing establishments. Sometimes a manu-
script or printed copy's worth would be significantly enhanced by marginalia
added by a renowned scholar, and a new printed edition incorporating the
handwritten notes and possibly elevating them to minor canonical status
would quickly appear on the book market. Fully aware of this phenomenon,
12 Introduction

many ]ianyang printers would tout their publications as newly compiled edi-
tions of works that incorporated the heretofore private notes of well-known
scholars, a claim that often turned out to be specious. In any case, these new-
est editions might well in turn become another segment in the cycle as they
were copied by readers.
Another significant difference between Chinese woodblock and European
movable type imprints is the method of illustration. By the late sixteenth cen-
tury in Europe, woodblock illustrations had been replaced for the most part by
copper engravings and etchings, which were capable of much finer detail and
expression oflight and shade. 20 In contrast, woodblock image and text were in-
separable on the printed leaf of a Chinese book for the simple reason that they
21
were often carved on one block. Consequently, illustrations in Chinese books
were subject to the technical limitations of wood carving. This does not mean
that woodblock pictures of high artistic merit were not produced, but fairly
simple line drawings could easily be copied from an older work and cut by a
carver of average skill. In other words, illustrations in a mediocre commercial
imprint could be produced easily, efficiently, and cheaply with little originality
and little skill and perpetuated for a very long time. Images that appeared in a
calendar from the ninth century (and which probably originated even earlier)
can be seen in near identical form over seven hundred years later, a continuity
unmatched in European books. Moreover, these drawings, diagrams, and
maps appeared in all kinds of books, including the Classics, Histories, medical
works, encyclopedias, and fictional works, which meant that readers from a
wide cross-section of Chinese society were exposed to them for many genera-
tions. These points will be graphically demonstrated as we look at ]ianyang im-
prints and their near-duplicate pictures (and text).
The complex relationship between handwritten and printed materials has
also led to questions of when print culture truly became "dominant" in China.
Although both official and commercial publishing had undeniably burgeoned
by the early twelfth century of the Song and probably earlier, a number of
scholars have argued that the uses of print became widespread among both
the literati and the less learned only sometime during the Ming in the mid- to
late sixteenth century. They base this assertion on the persistent and over-
whelming dominance until that time of manuscripts over imprints in private
and public collections, some evidence on the lowering of book production
costs and book prices, and observations of various writers about the scarci~
22
of books until the late Ming. Although we lack sufficient information to\
prove or disprove this argument, the examination of the ]ianyang publishing'
industry from the Song through the end of the Ming presented in this work
suggests that the issue is far too complex and rich to justify a simple yes or no
 Introduction 13

answer. Certainly we have many more extant ]ianyang imprints from the Ming
than from earlier periods, even after trying to correct for the variation in sur-
vival rates with time. But when we consider that the variety of imprints in the
Song and Yuan was not significantly less than in the late Ming, that the impact
of printed materials does not correlate in any simple direct fashion with their
numbers, and that lists of titles in collections may not reflect the actual reading
habits of their owners and certainly do not reflect those of other readers, then
fixing a date for the ascendance of print may not be very useful.
Since this study focuses on the commercial publishers of Jianyang, it will
offer only limited speculations concerning readership and reading practices,
based mostly on clues from the imprints examined. As many scholars have
pointed out, the fascinating topic of readership and readers' responses is
fraught with questionable assumptions, including those that lead one to pos-
23
tulate some "implied reader." When we confront the wealth of Jianyang
commercial imprints, it is highly tempting to imagine who their audiences
might have been and how they read, looked at, or listened to the books. Of
course we cannot know for certain the actual response to a given work of any
one reader or even of readers within a narrowly defined socioeconomic group
with shared knowledge and at least some shared cultural values. But we can
and should at least offer some judicious conjectures that enrich our under-
standing of the publishers' role.
For example, there were at least six different editions of collections of Su
Shi's verses fromJianyang alone in the late twelfth century, and we can arrive
at the safe and not particularly stunning conclusion that he was an immensely
popular poet, however different readers might have responded specifically to
his writings. Furthermore, since Su's verse and prose collections continued to
be published in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, we may chart his long-lasting
popularity for several centuries after his death. Even more interesting, how-
ever, is the presence of Su's works in a variety of writing manuals and literary
anthologies from the Song onward, suggesting that Su appealed not just to
poetry lovers in general but also to aspiring authors, who looked to his writ-
ing style as a model.
In examining commercial imprints for information about possible read-
ers and their reading practices, we should exercise extra care in not taking
the publishers at their word about their intended readers. For example, by
the mid-sixteenth century at the latest, terms such as tongsu yanyi 3M 1:fr
rffii[®t (common or popular elaboration), yufu yufu ~~~~ffl'(unlearned
men and women), tianxia zhi ren 7( T z A (all the people in the world),
simin 1m.§:; (the four classes of people) appeared in the titles, publishers' no-
tices, and prefaces of commercial imprints. It would seem obvious that the
14 Introduction

publishers of such works were targeting the broad audience of "common

people" rather than the highly educated literati elite. But as we will see in Part
III, even a casual survey of these imprints reveals a wide variety of styles,
commentaries, and necessary reading levels; we must read the texts and look
at the illustrations and the page layouts closely and consider other evidence
outside the imprints to determine just who might have constituted the actual
audiences.
This brief discussion of some issues that need to be examined in order to
assess the impact of woodblock printing on Chinese society, and the compari-
sons with early modern Western Europe show that while we can be inspired by
24
the huge amount ofwork being done for the history of the book in the West,
we are also exploring a different territory that has remained uncharted for
much longer. The neglect does not mean that the topic has not deeply inter-
ested scholars in Chinese studies, but that the sources have appeared particu-
larly disparate and recalcitrant. Recently, however, scholars have begun to
25
tackle these issues. As their work and this study show, some of the questions
we ask differ from those asked in Western studies, and the answers grow out of
a different assortment of sources beset with their own particular limitations.

AN ote on the Main Sources

Ironically, because the printing of books began in China about seven centuries
before it did in Europe, the earlier part of the story for China is harder to
study. This is not only because many relevant materials no longer exist, but also
because by the Song, when commercial printing took off, the tremendous
changes generated by the printed text did not catch the attention of contempo-
raries in the same ways as they did in Europe for the two centuries or so after
Gutenberg. Thus although Song literati were quite aware of the power of print
to replicate, disseminate, and transform texts, they were most likely to com-
ment on the last phenomenon and to complain about the abuses of print, if
they mentioned the subject at all. In addition, as we have noted, most scholars
thought the technology and economics of printing to be beneath their notice.
This silence by those most likely to leave written records of their thoughts has
deprived us, in large measure (though not entirely), of one potentially valuable
source. As a result, finding extant contemporary sources and extracting from
them information for studying the social history of the Chinese book pose
quite different challenges from those encountered by researchers of early
modern Europe. What we have is an assortment oflocal histories, genealogies,
the writings of the publishers' contemporaries, a few government documents,
the imprints themselves (which occasionally recorded details such as the
 Introduction 15

names of calligraphers and blockcarvers), and annotated library catalogues

and bibliographies compiled throughout the centuries by scholars and book
collectors that describe these imprints.
The most important source for this work is the imprints themselves. In the
course of this study, I have compiled a bibliography of over two thousand ]ian-
26
yang imprints. Aside from counting how many different titles and different
editions were printed when by which publisher, we can also obtain much useful
information by thoroughly examining the physical features of each work, the
occasional recording of the names of calligraphers and blockcarvers, and the
paratexts, including advertising features (printer's colophon, printer's note),
prefaces and postfaces, editorial notes, page layout, and calligraphic styles (for
more on these subjects, see Chapter 2). Indeed, even lacking all the other
sources just mentioned, we could still wrest from the imprints nearly every-
thing we can know about the history of the ]ianyang publishing industry.
The annotated catalogues used in compiling this bibliography served as a
necessary substitute for imprints not easily accessible or no longer extant by
providing information such as the contents of the printer's note or colophon,
passages from prefaces and postfaces, occasional comparisons with other
editions, and sometimes the history of a particular copy as derived from the
owners' seals and handwritten notes. The authors of these catalogues come
from a long tradition of Chinese bibliographic studies and show the limita-
tions of this discipline as well as its virtues. For example, an author may re-
peat an unsubstantiated value judgment by another bibliographer or decide
that a book is a "]ianben" without giving his reasons in detail. This assess-
ment is usually based on many years of connoisseurship on the part of the
writer, but without a satisfactory explanation, I have been cautious about ac-
cepting such pronouncements.
27
Another set of sources for this study is eighteen genealogies of descent
28
groups in the ]ianyang area. Four of these genealogies (two for branches of
the Liu family, and one each for the Xiong and Yu) are particularly relevant for
this research, since they are for the families of the publishers studied here-a
number of men with these surnames were involved in the printing industry
during the Song and Yuan, and many Ming publishers can be identified in the
29
genealogical tables (shixi t!t ffi). In addition, clues such as the generational
names that they share with other men not recorded in the genealogies but
listed as publishers, editors, or collators in ]ianyang imprints show that print-
ing was often a family business. Moreover, although some printers' names as
they appear in the imprints (in colophons, prefaces) cannot be found in the
genealogies, recent investigators have managed to equate a printer with a
name in the genealogy by a bit of detective work usually involving the names
16 Introduction

of the printshop, the father's or grandfather's name, relevant dates, and refer-
30
ences in prefaces and contemporary writings. As already noted, these gene-
alogies can be frustrating because they contain virtually no information on
the printing activities of these men. All too often, if one of them has merited a
biographical sketch, it notes his filial piety, his love of scholarship, his aca-
demic successes and government service (if any), his leadership in the local
community, and any other virtues associated with a member of the educated
elite. Almost the only time printing is mentioned is when the man was in-
31
volved in compiling and printing a new edition of the genealogy itself.
Although few publishers can be identified in the other fourteen genealo-
gies examined, most are for Minbei families that were nationally or locally
32
prominent in the Song, Yuan, or Ming. For example, several branches of the
Zhu family descended from Zhu Shu, Zhu Xi's eldest son, can be traced
through the late Qing in their genealogy. Another genealogy is that of the Cai
descent group, among whose members were prominent Daoxue scholars of
the Song and Yuan, such as Cai Yuanding ~t7c5E (1135-98) and his sons,
Yuan, Hang, and Chen. Also useful is the genealogy of the family of the Song
scholar and publisher of some highly esteemed editions of the Classics, Liao
Yingzhong ~~l=j:I (?-1275). Information collated from all eighteen gene-
33

alogies examined reveals that intermarriage among these families was fairly
frequent, and such marriage ties are useful in providing supporting evidence
for the social and intellectual networks to which the publishers belonged.
In addition, these genealogies do give information on the social, political,
and economic conditions of the descent groups. If sufficiently complete, this
information allows comparisons of wealth and academic and official success
m
to be made among various fang of a zu 1f*' and among the various pai ?JK of
a fang. Furthermore, the prefaces to the genealogies, commemorative essays,
and biographies of family members often contain information not (easily)
available in other sources. For example, starting in the Northern Song, family
schools (variously termed jiashu or shuyuan) were established in increasing
numbers in the ]ianyang area. These schools, which played an important role
in the rise of the printing industry in ]ianyang (see Chapter 3), are rarely
mentioned in other sources. The commemorative essays found in the gene-
alogies are valuable for the information on the schools' founding, records of
land endowments, and activities. Thus, as frustratingly uninformative as the
genealogies can be, in other ways, they give us a much closer glimpse of the
]ianyang publishers and their families and associates than any other source.
The local histories used in this study include provincial gazetteers for Fu-
jian, prefectural gazetteers for ]ianning and neighboring regions, and county
gazetteers, especially for the counties in ]ianning prefecture Qianyang, ]ian' an
 Introduction 17

9t 'ii:, Ouning ~ $, Pucheng tii :!:,oX, Songxi f.L} ~, Zhenghe i& 5¥0, and Shou-
34
ning ~ $). Most of the information in these works does not relate directly
to printing, but instead provides a general picture of the geography and his-
tory of the region. Diverse facts on county and prefectural schools, private
academies (shuyuan) and the books they owned, the lists of degree holders,
and the biographies of men related to, or who had social and business deal-
ings with, publishers can be found in the local gazetteers. As for the commer-
cial printers themselves, none from the Song or Yuan and very few from the
Ming appear in any gazetteer. One of the latter, Xiong Zongli f!~ *fl. (1409-
82), is described as the author and editor, but not printer, of some twenty
medical books. And Liu Longtian ;tl'~~EEI, one of the most prolific of all ]ian-
yang printers during the late sixteenth century, very likely earned his brief bi-
ography among the "Virtuous and able" (xianliang WfiJ:) because his eldest
son was a jinshi and official who had his father posthumously ennobled. 35
Nevertheless, the compilers of the various editions of the Jianyang county
gazetteer were aware of the area's lively printing industry, even if they were
reluctant to admit their own possible use of its products. They noted which
books in school collections were Jianyang imprints, mentioned with some

*
pride how merchants from all over visited the book market held every month
in Chonghua 1t (Shufang), and listed books as a native product.
36

The collected writings (wenji )(~) of the publishers' contemporaries

and of later men who commented on Jianyang books or on the book trade in
general or on the Minbei area constitute the most diverse sources. On practi-
cal details of the book trade, such as book prices, print runs, and how the
books were sold, these texts are all too silent. Although numerous ]ianyang
imprints recorded as editors and collators men who lived or served as officials
in the area, such activities are almost never mentioned in the men's own writ-
ings, other than those of Zhu Xi, whose description of his own printing ac-
tivities to supplement his meager income and to promote his ideas has already
been noted. Much more often, one finds a writer deploring the low quality of
Jianyang books even as he notes their ubiquity. Typical is the well-known re-
mark of Ye Mengde in the late Northern Song about the low quality of Fujian
books printed from blocks of softwood. Ye's opinion was echoed by other ob-
servers in the Song and later in the Yuan and Ming, and defective ]ianyang
imprints, or Mashaben, were the target of various sarcastic anecdotes. From
other wenji, however, it is possible to learn about the literati's changing atti-
tudes toward the printed text through different periods. For example, the lit-
any of complaints by Song scholars that the greater availability of books be-
cause of printing has led to superficial reading and less understanding of texts
is gradually replaced in the Yuan and the Ming by a more favorable assessment
18 Introduction

of the benefits of the printed text. Thus, there ;'Ire bits of information available,
but these are serendipitous finds that must be gleaned from examining a huge
number ofwenji.
Very few government documents specifically mention the Jianyang book
trade. For the Song, aside from general laws on publishing, there are occasional
memorials and decrees pertaining to the illegal activities of the Jianyang print-
ers that contributed to the general negative view of Mashaben of the time.
There is practically nothing for the Yuan, except in the Yuan dianzhang 5G ~
$[ (Institutions of the Yuan). The situation is much the same for the Ming; dis-
cussions of government attitudes toward commercial imprints and official
37
measures dealing with them are more likely to be found in wenji. The overall
dearth of official documents probably reflects in part the state's tacit and reluc-
tant acknowledgment of its inability to control the book trade, a task whose
difficulty grew with the spread of commercial and private publishing.

The Geography of Minbei

Minbei refers to the northwest portion of Fujian province (Map 1); most of it
lies in the 27,288 sq km (10,533 sq mi) now designated as the Nanping district
(f¥j ljZ :!:ill~) . This includes areas that were part of Jianning, Shaowu fj~ JEt ,
38
and Yanping .9!fljZ prefectures in the late imperial period. The relatively low
but rugged Wuyi Mountains JEt~ L1J extend along the border between Min-
bei andJiangxi to the west, and to the north the Xianxia Mountains (fillS it)
straddle part of the boundary with Zhejiang.
The weather in the region, like that of the rest of Fujian, is subtropical.
The average temperature ranges from 13oC in December-January to 28oC in
July in the valleys. The area is also the wettest in the province, receiving an av-
erage annual rainfall of 1, 700 mm, about 60 percent of which occurs from
March to July. 39 Because of variations in temperature and precipitation, the
number of frost-free days differs from place to place; the valleys have about
290 such days.
About 90 percent of the Minbei area is either hilly or mountainous, with
narrow river valleys. The predominant soils are red and yellow podzolic types
formed from the chemical and mechanical degradation of the original rocks
under humid, subtropical conditions. Many inorganic materials have been
leached out and turned into insoluble alkaline metal hydroxides, which give
the soils their characteristic colors. Many of the organic constituents have
also been leached out. Consequently, the soils are acidic, low in humus con-
tent, and not very fertile. Nevertheless, they are used for cultivation of rice,
wheat, fruits, vegetables, tea, and tong trees. The soils also support an ever-
 Introduction 19
40
green broadleaf forest (mainly fir, pine, and bamboo) that covers over half
the region, making it one of the most important timber preserves in China. 41
Minbei is criss-crossed with a dense network of waterways. The main
river in the region, the ]ian Stream .91 ~, although a tributary of Minjiang
~?I, is as broad as the latter. Except during spring thaw, the Minbei water-
ways are relatively shallow. A heavy downpour can, however, turn a placid
stream into an impassable torrent. Moreover, the swift currents, the multi-
tude of large, semi-submerged rocks, and the many sandbars make naviga-
tion hazardous. According to Hu Sanxing (1230-87), "Following the current
from the ]ianxi and descending eastward to Fu prefecture, the river takes a
winding course for several hundred li, and the current is very swift. A light
boat starting at dawn will arrive in the evening. "42 Presumably, only a shallow-
draft vessel such as Hu's "light boat" or a raft can make the journey success-
fully. In the seventeenth-century work Tiangong kaiwu 7C I 00 4"-0 (The ex-
ploitation of the works of nature; original preface dated 1637), Song Yingxing
* JJ! £ described two kinds of boats, the "clear-stream" (qingliu ¥~ 7.il0 and
the "mizzen-sail" (shaopeng ffj'~). which plied between the small streams
from Guangze :7\:;¥' and Chongan in the Minbei area down to the Hongtang
?~~seawall of Fuzhou. The clear-stream boats were used for transporting
merchants and their goods; the larger mizzen-sail boats had sleeping quarters
43
for traveling officials and their families. The bottoms of both kinds of boats
were made from fir and suffered frequent damage from rocks and shoals. Be-
cause of such natural hazards and bandits on the water or on the shore,
boatmen were reluctant to travel at night and preferred to put up at the near-
est town. Thus a journey downstream often took longer than Hu Sanxing's
optimistic estimate. Travel upstream, against the most rapid flow of any ma-
jor river in China, was an entirely different experience and far slower, even in
stretches where rowing or sailing was feasible. Until the advent of motor
launches, rapids were negotiated by having men on shore tow the boats,
which made them an even easier target for bandits. In any case, the going was
very slow: some six days from Fuzhou to Yanping. 44 All the rivers of the Min-
bei region eventually flow into the Minjiang. In the imperial period, Minbei
produce, such as rice, tea, paper, timber, and bamboo (the last two floated
down the river), and goods from Jiangnan were shipped to the coast in ex-
change for salt, fish, textiles, ironware, fruits, and such products from over-
seas as spices and aromatic woods.
The Minbei waterways functioned as the main transport routes in the re-
gion well into the twentieth century. All the prefectural and county seats in
Minbei, as well as many of the larger towns and villages, are situated on a river
or at the junction of two or more waterways. Thus, Masha is on the Mayang
20 Introduction

Stream jt ~~ ~ (a tributary of the ]ian Stream), about 52 km west and up-

stream of the ]ianyang county seat. Further southwest, Shufang is on a smaller
tributary about the same distance from Jianyang. By following the ]ian Stream
north from Nanping municipality, one reaches in succession ]ian'an (now
]ian' ou ~ ~), Jianyang, and Chongan (now Wuyi municipality). Branching
off the ]ian Stream at ]ian' an is the Song Stream fl ~, which leads in a
northeast direction to the seat of Songxi county, or along a different stream to
Zhenghe iJ&5fD. Pucheng ¥ffi!)jj(; can be reached along the Pucheng Stream
¥ffi !)J)(; ~, which enters ]ian Stream between ]ian' an and ]ianyang. To this day,
the most important roads in the region faithfully follow the twists and turns
of these waterways.
The most important route from northern Fujian into Zhejiang, used ex-
tensively since at least the Northern Song, proceeds from Pucheng north, first
by water and then by land, through Xianxia Pass {UJ 21m and into Zhejiang.
There, again by a combination of water and land transportation, one passes
through liangshan ?I L1J and Quzhou 1¥Jij 1+1 and eventually reaches Hang-
45
zhou. This route was the shortest and most direct way to Jiangnan, but it was
a quite narrow and tortuous path over several mountains. Moreover, unlike
the other routes north from the Minbei area, there was no government postal
courier station along it until the Ming.
Another route, largely by water, also proceeded from Pucheng into Chu-
zhou ~ 1+1 in Zhejiang and eventually reached Wenzhou r.lfi\JH on the coast.
In fact, throughout the imperial period, Wenzhou may have been the port of
choice for many Minbei imports and exports. One modern scholar has sug-
gested that many of the ]ianyang imprints that eventually reached Japan and
46
Korea may have been shipped from Wenzhou. Another scholar has argued
convincingly that pottery from Minbei and Jiangxi kilns active in the Song
and Yuan was transported over this route to Wenzhou (or a northern Fujian
47
port) rather than to Quanzhou on the southern Fujian coast. Finally, a
nineteenth-century English traveler noted that salt from coastal Fujian was
48
shipped to Wenzhou and then transported to Pucheng. All this evidence be-
speaks the difficulties of land travel in northern Fujian and of shipping bulk
commodities up the Minjiang.
A third route, known since the Han dynasty, went from Guangze in Shao-
wu through Shan Pass if~ 1m in the Wuyi Mountains into Jiangxi, first by land to
m
]ianchang ~~,then by water to Fuzhou 1+1 and beyond to Nanchang i¥i ~
and down the Gan River~ ?I to Guangdong, or to Poyang Lake and eventually
on to Nanjing via the Yangzi. This route from Guangze was relatively easy: the
land roads were fairly level, and the waterways were not too difficult to navigate.
It was not, however, as important a commercial route as the others, probably
 Introduction 21

because it was longer and more circuitous and went from Shaowu rather than
the commercial centers in the more populous ]ianning area.
The fourth and most important route was through Chongan, past Fen-
shui Pass 5?t 1]'< ~ in the Wuyi Mountains into ]iangxi, where the first impor-
tant stop was at Hekou ~ilJ 0 (modern Yanshan ~J LlJ). Westward from He-
49

kou, a water route went through Guixi -~ into Poyang Lake and then south
on the Gan River to Nanchang and eventually to Guangdong. An easterly
route from Hekou via the Xin River f§ ?I led to Shangrao J: MJ and Yushan
:li LlJ , then overland to Changshan 'It LlJ in Zhejiang, and from there on eas-
ily navigable rivers and canals to Hangzhou or Ningbo. The courier service,
toll stations, and government patrol posts on this route attest to its impor-
tance. Wang Shimao .3:. i:tt ~ (1536-88), who was generally unimpressed with
the roads in Fujian during his travels there in the 1580s, noted the busy com-
mercial traffic through two of the mountain passes in the Minbei area.
Not one day passes but the silks of Fuzhou, the gauzes of Zhangzhou, the indigo of
Quanzhou, the ironware of Fuzhou and Yanping, the oranges of Zhangzhou, the li-
chees of Fuzhou and Xinghua, the sugar of Quanzhou, and the paper [products] of
Shunchang go through the Fenshui mountain pass and the pass at Pucheng and down
to Zhejiang 0/Vu ~) and ]iangsu (Yue ~) like flowing water.
50

These routes reveal several important characteristics of the Minbei area.

First, its orientation was inland across the mountains toward Jiangnan and be-
yond at least as much as, or more than, toward the sea. Minbei was the first
area of Fujian to be settled by Han immigrants from the north; as far back as
the end of the second century CE during the Eastern Han, settlers came across
51
the mountains following the routes described above. Before the rise of the
Fujian maritime trade, Minbei's overland and water routes were the main con-
duits of trade between the Fujian coast and the inland; they remained impor-
tant even after the economic development of coastal Fujian. 52 Second, these
trade networks stayed active even when the region was in many other ways an
economic, cultural, and political backwater. Merchants from outside would
come to buy its tea, timber, paper, and books. Since books are relatively small
items, the book trade probably followed the same routes as bulk exports.
Third, social unrest moved as easily as merchandise over the borders between
53
Fujian and ]iangxi or Zhejiang. The routes were frequented by rebels, ban-
dits, tea and salt smugglers, and migrant workers, such as tea pickers and min-
ers, as well as by the shack people (pengmin tnHB:;), whose numbers began to
grow noticeably in the late Ming. For good or for bad, these routes prevented
northwestern Fujian from being isolated.
In terms of agriculture, although much of the ]ianning area is mountain-
ous, it was considered a rice-exporting area in imperial China. Rice was
22 Introduction

grown on both paddies and dry land, and varieties of early-ripening rice spe-
54
cially adapted to poor soil have been cultivated since the Northern Song.
Until recently, it was customary in ]ianning to grow only one crop of rice per
year. The reason is uncertain, but it cannot be the climate-the growing sea-
son allows two crops, the other usually being winter wheat. 55
Another important Minbei agricultural product has been tea, which has
6
been cultivated on hills and moutainsides since the Tang. 5 Tea was grown first
in ]ian'an, where the famed Beiyuan ~t3ie: was established around the begin-
ning of the tenth century. During the Tang, Song, and Yuan, the highly prized
57
tea from this area was subject to a government monopoly. Tea also began to be
a major product in the Wuyi Mountains during the Yuan. Minbei tea continued
to play a role in the regional economy during the Ming, but it was only in the
58
mid-Qing that it attained international fame and economic importance.
Of the forestry products, the lumber from conifers, especially China fir
(shan 1~), and pine, constituted the most important exports; firwood was
59
particularly favored in the construction of ships and houses. No records
note deforestation in the Minbei area, although this occurred in regions
nearer the coast. 60 Apparently, by the late Ming, if not earlier, a small number
of people, some of whom were from outside the Minbei region, had bought
up large tracts of forest. Much the same story applies to bamboo, another im-
61
portant Minbei product.
There were a number of silver and iron mines in the mountains of Min-
62
beL The mining of silver began in the Tang. In the late fifteenth century, sil-
ver mines were in operation in Chongan, ]ianyang, Zhenghe, and Shouning,
and iron mines and works in ]ian' an, Ouning, Pucheng, Songxi, and Zheng-
he.63 Apparently, the amounts extracted were never very large, and most of
the silver went directly to the government. Indeed, in the late Ming, silver was
being imported from the coast to the Minbei region, partly to pay taxes.
Many of the miners and foundry workers were from ]iangxi or Zhejiang
across the border; the miners had a long tradition of participation in rebel-
m
lions, including the one led by Fan Ruwei ifr. ffifb (1130-32) during the early
Southern Song and another led by Ye Zongliu ~ffH~& (1442-48) in the
Ming, which was started by miners in the Xianxia mountains along the
Fujian-Zhejiang border. 64
Finally, the heterogeneous set of dialects spoken in Minbei serves as an-
other proof of its long and complex history of interaction with the outside
world. For example, although most of the dialects belong to the Western Min
group, that of Pucheng is unique and cannot be classified any more specifi-
65
cally than a "Southern Chinese" dialect. And the Western Min dialect of
Shaowu differs from those of ]ianyang, ]ian'ou, Chongan, and others in the
 Introduction 23

pronounced Gan-Kejia influence on it, which is not surpnsmg given

Shaowu's proximity to ]iangxi and the route between the two areas over Shan
Pass. Even the other Western Min dialects, such as those spoken within the
]ianning area, differ from one another in ways that may reflect not only inter-
action with outside regions but also the uneven distribution of roads and wa-
terways within the region.
The peculiarities of the Minbei area are evident even from this cursory
overview of its geography. Administratively, it has been part of Fujian for
over a millennium, but its economic, social, and cultural ties with the Jiang-
nan region have been extremely important. It was a relatively remote area, ac-
cessible only through difficult mountain and water routes, and yet it main-
tained numerous ties with the outside world throughout the late imperial
period. It was, except during the Southern Song and Yuan, a cultural and
economic backwater, but nevertheless it managed to sustain one of the most
important printing industries in the country. In many ways, the geographic
and historical contradictions of Minbei are mirrored in the ]ianyang book
trade. In exploring the publishing industry in the next six chapters, we can
also gain a better understanding of the area as a whole.
 2
The Physical Appearance
ofJianyang Woodblock Imprints

No study on the history of the publication and consumption of the block-

printed book can neglect examining the materials and techniques of its pro-
duction and its physical appearance. Understanding the physical nature of
the book is essential in turn to knowing how publishers produced their im-
prints and how readers were affected by their reading materials-the ways
they looked at, read, punctuated, and skimmed the pages of these books. All
too often, however, such information has remained the purview of rare book
experts and has been relegated to entries in bibliographies and book cata-
logues for use in identifying a particular edition. Even the vocabulary of this
body of knowledge, necessary for discussing the history of the Chinese book,
is relatively unfamiliar to many China scholars (and for this reason is intro-
duced below). The purpose of this chapter, however, is not to repeat infor-
1
mation found in great detail in the literature but to discuss technical matters
specifically relevant to ]ianyang imprints, such as the paper, ink, woodblocks,
block carving, as well as such aspects of the appearance of these works as the
format and layout of the text, calligraphic styles, punctuation, and illustra-
tions. Much of this information comes from examining the imprints them-
selves, an essential exercise in the traditional Chinese connoisseurship of
books (banben xue) but not one that has been employed in correlation with
other historical and modern sources to provide an understanding of the
 The Physical Appearance offianyang Woodblock Imprints 25

socioeconomic history of Chinese books and printing, something this chap-

ter will try to do by focusing on }ianyang.
Moreover, as this study shows, developments in the technology of book
production and in the form and appearance of the Chinese imprint are useful
indicators of changes in the book market and readership throughout the late
imperial period. An awareness of these changes will in turn help us under-
stand the practices of commercial publishers and, on a broader level, the in-
volvement of these publishers and their customers in the cultural, social, and
economic trends of their times. Specifically, the discussion below, based
largely on the history of the }ianyang book trade, argues that the exigencies of
the book trade led to changes in the production and the physical appearance
of these books more often than did technical developments in paper-making,
block carving, and printing, which were relatively rare after the Song. Indeed,
the evidence suggests that technological modifications, far from determining
changes in book production and appearance, were in fact themselves driven
by commercial and cultural trends.
Consequently, this chapter falls into two distinct parts. The first deals
with the materials and techniques of book production, which were much the
same throughout China in any given period and in many ways had reached
the peak of technical advancement in the mid-eleventh century. Thus, much
of what this section says about }ianyang imprints is also applicable to books
published elsewhere in China, and the historical continuities are more obvi-
ous than the changes. The second part discusses the features of a Chinese
block-printed page, with special attention to those frequently found in }ian-
yang imprints. We will consider not only how the nature of woodblock
printing in general affected the appearance and arrangement of the text and
image but also how commercial publishers in particular designed and modi-
fied the elements of the printed page to suit their various purposes. Here, in
addition to brief descriptions of some relevant historical developments, we
will raise a number of issues about the publishing, selling, and reading of
books, to which we will return in subsequent chapters.

Materials Used in Book Production

Paper
According to relatively late sources, such as the 1886 work Min chan lu
yi IMJ gg~~ (Record ofFujianese products) of Guo Bocang ¥~{SJ.!i, almost
all ]ianyang books, from the beginning in the Northern Song, were printed
on paper made from bamboo. 2 Although no pre-Ming source specifically
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
 De Leeuw had geen vinger, waarmee hij het geschenk kon
aanvaarden. Hij glimlachte zeer vriendelijk en verlegen, en verzocht
of Anton het hem eens wilde laten zien. Anton pakte het voorzichtig
uit en deed hem een kristallen bierglas zien, waarop met sierlijke
krulletters de woorden: „Tot eene gedachtenis aan Anton Lanting”
gegraveerd stonden. Had zijn kind niet zoo onophoudelijk gekraaid,
De Leeuw zoude stellig zeer getroffen geweest zijn, en zich in
dankbetuigingen uitgeput hebben. Thans was hem dit onmogelijk.
Daarenboven werd er op dit oogenblik luide gescheld. Omdat er
niemand thuis was, zette de dankbare leerling zijn geschenk op den
schoorsteenmantel, en ging openen. Hij keerde terug met een brief.
Op verzoek van De Leeuw verscheurde hij de enveloppe, en liet den
brief aan zijn meester zien.
Deze herkende aanstonds de hand. Het was eene nota van Tjerko
Meindert Hattinga, wijnhandelaar: „voor aan UEd. geleverden wijn
volgens rekening.... ƒ84.40.” Onderaan stond: „NB: Meld mij v ó ó r
u w v e r t r e k, wanneer ik over dit sommetje kan beschikken!” De
Leeuw fronste de wenkbrauwen, liet de nota vallen en schudde zijn
kind zoo heftig op en neer, dat het luider dan ooit begon te kraaien.
Anton Lanting, die reeds lang hunkerde om te vertrekken, en die den
armen teekenmeester vrij ondankbaar vond voor zijn fraai geschenk,
haastte zich weg met een:
„Nu, ik wensch u het beste, meneer! mijn complimenten aan
mevrouw!”.
„Dank je wel, Anton!”—en met den linkerarm zijn welp
vasthoudend, drukte De Leeuw met aandoening, haast en
verlegenheid de hand van zijn vertrekkenden leerling. Wat zij verder
elkaar toeriepen, had niemand kunnen verstaan, het luid geschrei
van de kleine maakte het onmogelijk. Zoo spoedig Anton vertrokken
was, hoopten zich de donkere wolken op De Leeuw's voorhoofd
samen.
„Stil kind! stil!”—schreeuwde hij met de uiterste drift.—„Frederike
mag niet uitgaan! Neen, ze mag niet uitgaan! Ik verbied het! Ik wil
het! Dat lamme geschreeuw! Stil dan toch.... zwijg!”
 En een oogenblik later met de uiterste moedeloosheid zijn hoofd
schuddend, fluisterde hij:
„O God! was ik maar grutter gebleven!”

VI.

De heer Mr. Johan van der Lely bewoonde een zeer deftig huis in
de hoofdstad der provincie. Juist met het klokkenspel van twaalven
treedt hij deftig in 't zwart zijn huisvertrek binnen, waar zijne
echtgenoote met stil ontzag zijne komst verbeidt in gezelschap van
een koffiekan, die niet loopt, en den witten poedel, die slaapt.
Zwijgend zet de Rechter der arrondissements-rechtbank zich neer.
Voordat hij echter de lippen zet aan den eersten kop koffie, zegt hij
met zijne daverende stem:
„Waar blijft Frans?”
„Ik begrijp het niet, misschien heeft hij straf op het Gymnasium!”
„Kom, kom! een jongen van zeventien jaar en vlug als Frans wordt
nooit gestraft. Bovendien er moest niet gestraft worden op het
Gymnasium! Ik heb het den Rector laatst gezegd. Als een jongen
zich onbehoorlijk gedraagt, is het altijd de schuld van den docent!”
„Maar Johan....”
Dreunend werd de huisdeur toegeworpen, er klonken snelle
stappen in de gang. Met een luid galmenden uitroep trad Frans van
der Lely binnen. Hij was een lang opgeschoten knaap geworden, zag
er rood opgezet uit, als zijn vader, en trok snel een stoel naar de
tafel, om zijn kop koffie te ledigen.
„Hoe kom je zoo laat, jongen?”
„Ik heb in de Slijtersstraat staan kijken naar eene verkooping van
een inboedel!”
„Waarom?”
 „In 't begin maar om zoo eens te kijken, maar gauw zag ik een
paar dingen, die ik heel vreemd vond. U herinnert zich wel dien
meneer de Leeuw, waarbij ik in Valendam een poos teekenles had?”
„Ja, voor een halfjaar zoo wat is hij hier komen wonen!”
„Nu, het was zijn inboedel!”
Mr. Johan van der Lely verzonk een oogenblik in deftig gepeins.
Frans vervolgde:
„Ik zag het aan de schilderijen en teekeningen in waterverf. Er
was ook eene massa nog vrij aardige en nieuwe meubels bij,
stoelen, tafels, een wieg....”
„Maar was dat alles van meneer de Leeuw, Frans?”—vroeg zijne
moeder.
„Zeker! Ik sprak een man aan, die er bij stond, en die zei, dat het
boeltje voor schulden moest verkocht worden. Daar waren er van
hier en uit Valendam, die geld van De Leeuw moesten hebben!”
De Rechter der arrondissements-rechtbank had intusschen den
loop zijner gedachten vervolgd. Plechtig, maar luid, viel hij nu in:
„Ik heb het hem wel voorspeld! Daar was in Valendam niets te
halen, 't was een ellendig nest in mijn tijd, en het zal het nog wel
zijn. Eene hoofdplaats van een kiesdistrict, waar ze zoo'n kwast,
zoo'n babbelaar naar de Tweede Kamer hebben gestuurd! Zoo'n
liberaal van den kouden grond! Bah!”
„Ik heb maar medelijden met zijne arme vrouw en zijn arm
kind!”—fluisterde mevrouw van der Lely.
„En ik mocht De Leeuw wel!”—voegde Frans er bij.—„Hij was heel
goed en hartelijk voor zijne jongens, en hij teekende toch zoo kwaad
niet?”
„Hij schreef ten minste zeer net!”—merkte de heer des huizes aan.
—„Dat bleek uit zijne nota's!”
„Gunst, Johan!”—viel zijne echtgenoote in.—„Gisteren vertelde je
me, dat eene klerksplaats op de provinciale griffie vacant was, en
dat iemand je gevraagd had naar een geschikt persoon. Help nu die
arme menschen daaraan!”
„Hm! hm.... Zou hij niet te trotsch zijn.... een kunstenaar klerk te
maken? Maar.... nu ja, ik wil het wel eens probeeren. Hij heeft onzen
Frans teekenen geleerd.”

Een jaar, na dit gesprek, in den vroegen zomerochtend snelden

twee personen, die beiden van verschillende kanten der straat
kwamen, te X.... naar elkaar toe. Eene opgewekte en hartelijke
begroeting volgde.
„En wat kom jij hier in den vroegen morgen doen, Van
Schilferen?”
„Van alles zoo wat, amice! Ik kom e m p l è t e s maken voor mijne
huishouding, want in Juli trouw ik. Bertha is allerliefst. En dan moet
ik ook bij den postdirecteur zijn.... daar is eene kleine verwarring op
mijn kantoor geweest! Ik zal 't wel goed maken! A propos! Het
Leeskabinet heeft een paar van mijne verzen geplaatst! En hoe
maak jij het, De Leeuw?”
De oud-teekenmeester Hendrik de Leeuw, nu zeer eenvoudig in 't
zwart gekleed, antwoordde kalm:
„Och, het gaat me redelijk! Ik ben klerk op de provinciale griffie
door de protectie van meneer van der Lely geworden. Ik neem nog
een paar andere besognes van schrijfwerk waar, en verdien
omstreeks negenhonderd gulden in 't jaar. Dat is nog weinig, maar ik
ben weer met mijn oom den grutter verzoend, en dat helpt in de
huishouding!”
„Bij al de Goden! Is 't mogelijk? Ben jij klerk geworden? Heb jij de
kunst vaarwel gezegd? Neen, dan dien ik mijne Muzen trouwer! Een
bundel verzen ligt klaar, en als de zaak met het postkantoor goed
afloopt, dan draag ik hem op aan den Minister van financiën! En jij
klerk, De Leeuw! hoe is 't mogelijk?”
De Leeuw glimlachte, en antwoordde:
 „Neem me niet kwalijk, ik moet aan 't werk. Men kan die zaken
verschillend beschouwen. Een eerlijk beroep trouw te vervullen is
voor den man zonder talent beter dan plichtverzuim bij gebrekkige
en leelijke kunstoefening. Goeden morgen! Als ik aan de griffie wat
voor je doen kan, reken op mij. En denk er aan: n ' e s t p a s
p o ë t e q u i v e u t!”
 Mijnheer Apollo en de menschen in Beötië.

I.

Hier begint de waarachtige historie van mijnheer Apollo,

den wonderbare, en hoe hij aankwam in Beötië.

't Was maar eene zeer gewone herberg. Het uithangbord was
vroeger op prachtige wijze donkerblauw geschilderd, en te midden
van dien blauwen grond schitterde weleer eene zon van echt
verguldsel. De tijd had de kleuren veel kwaad gedaan, de zon was
koperrood geworden, en scheen steeds op het punt van onder te
gaan. Duidelijkheidshalve schilderde men er weleer nog bij: I n d e
Z o n, opdat niemand zich vergissen mocht. De herberg was van
meer opschriften voorzien. Eene witte plank met zwarte letters riep
den voorbijganger toe: L o g e m e n t e n S t a l l i n g , W e d . F.
C . v a n d e r Z w a a g. Het Logement had maar eene verdieping,
met een soort van opkamertje boven den hoofdingang. Toch was het
een groot huis met zeer ruime kamers, stallen en een grooten tuin.
Bovendien was de Z o n de eenige fatsoenlijke herberg van
Oosterwolde, een soort van klein stedeke in het Noorden van ons
vaderland.
Voor de deur van dit logement stond bij 't vallen van de duisternis
eens guren November-avonds van het jaar 1849 een reiziger met
eene groote menigte bagage. Eene kar, door vier sjouwers onder
veel geschreeuw en gemor voortgeduwd, droeg voornamelijk eene
enorme houten kist, die hoog opstond en door een paar solide
koffers in evenwicht werd gehouden. Een fraai valies, een reisdeken
en andere kleinigheden verrieden, dat de reiziger een zeer
welgegoed man was. Met zeker ongeduld trok hij aan den koperen
belleknop van de glazen deur. Eene lange vrouwelijke gestalte
opende weldra.
„Kan man dat hierein brengen?”—vroeg de reiziger met
uitheemsch accent.
„Wat 'n groote kist!”—antwoordde de gestalte.—„Droag 'm moar in
't veurhuus!”
Dit was tot de vier sjouwers gesproken, die met tragen spoed de
koffers naarbinnen brachten, en eindelijk onder toezicht van den
reiziger ook de kist van den wagen tilden. Verscheidene malen riep
de vreemde heer iets in zijne taal, terwijl hij angstig de kist
ondersteunde; eindelijk plaatste hij haar met behulp zijner mannen
in het breede voorportaal. De vrouwelijke gestalte had een koperen
blaker met walmende vetkaars ontstoken, en deze verspreidde een
zwak licht in 't ronde. Daarna stonden de sjouwers stil met de hand
aan de pet. De vreemdeling tastte snel naar geld, en gaf ze een
gulden. De mannen zagen elkaar even snel aan. De kleinste van hen
riep:
„Doar ken' wie 't nijt veur doun!”
Een ander voegde er bij:
„Twij kwartjes de man!”
De vreemdeling tastte wederom snel naar geld, en gaf nog een
gulden. De vier sjouwers klompten de gang uit, en de vrouwelijke
gestalte met den blaker schudde deftig het hoofd, 't was „veul te
veul.”
Intusschen werd eene groote dubbele deur in de gang geopend,
waardoor een stroom van licht naar buiten golfde. Onze reiziger
richtte zich aanstonds naar dat licht. Hij trad eene ruime kamer
binnen, welke de g e n i u s l o c i met den naam van „jachtweide”
bestempeld heeft, anders gezegd: de gelagkamer van 't logement.
Aan den open haard brandde een vroolijk turfvuur. Met
opgewektheid trad hij naar 't vuur, en strekte zijne voeten uit, die
verstijfd schenen, hoewel de hooge reislaarzen met bont gevoerd
waren. Het gezelschap in de „jachtweide” gluurde met groote,
eenigszins schichtige nieuwsgierigheid naar den nieuw aangekomen
gast. Dit gezelschap bestond vooreerst uit de vrouw met den blaker,
die ook binnengetreden was, en op een soort van buffet aanliep,
waar zij met een koperen domper haar licht uitbluschte. 't Was eene
groote, vrij deftige matrone, geheel in 't zwart gekleed, met een
breed wit voorschoot, waaronder zij nu hare handen en armen
verborg, terwijl zij tegen het buffet, aldaar „tapkast” genoemd,
aanleunde. Opmerkelijk was in deze figuur een gouden hoofddeksel
of oorijzer met „stiften”, waarover eene fijne kanten muts, die met
plooien naar de schouders afdaalde. Vervolgens waren er twee
jongere vrouwen, evenals deze gekleed, maar met grijze of bruine
kleedjes zonder voorschoot, terwijl ook oorijzer en kanten muts twee
bolronde, blozende gezichtjes omlijstten. Eindelijk zaten er aan een
tafeltje, ter zijde van den haard, drie mannen in zwarte jassen van
een everlasten stof, zwarte vesten, zwarte dassen, zonder
linnengoed en met lompe vetlaarzen. Zij bliezen allen dikke
rookwolken uit lange Goudsche pijpen en hadden wijn in flesschen
en glazen voor zich.
Allen hielden het oog onafgebroken op den reiziger. Niemand
sprak. Het voorwerp van hunne oplettendheid scheen zich weinig om
hunne tegenwoordigheid te bekreunen. Hij warmde zijne voeten,
daarna zijne handen, geeuwde een paar malen zeer luid, en wreef
zich in de handen. Bij het turfvuur kon men duidelijk de ringen zien
flonkeren aan zijne vingers. Daarna zag hij vluchtig in 't rond,
wendde den rug naar 't vuur, en sloeg zijne blikken naar de
vrouwen. Hij droeg een ruimen pels met grijs bont en op zijne borst
schitterde een groote diamant in eene das van donkerblauwe zijde.
Al de personen in de „jachtweide” schenen den blik des
vreemdelings te willen ontwijken, want ieder keek schuchter voor
zich.
 De man met den grijsbonten pels liep nu langzaam naar de
„tapkast”, en bleef voor de vrouw in 't zwart staan.
„Wed'we van der Zwaag, nicht waar? Kan ik eene goete kammer
bekommen?”
„As meneer blieft! Wil meneer de koamer zijn? 1) Hillegie steek den
bloaker op!” Dit laatste was tegen een der bolronde gezichtjes
gezegd. Deze prevelde, of men eerst „de kachel op meneers koamer
nijt most anleggen,” en de vreemdeling, die haar scheen te
begrijpen, riep:
„Ja schön, etwas heitzen!”
Daarna keerde hij tot het vuur terug. De weduwe van der Zwaag,
die niets van 's mans taal verstond, gaf evenwel order, dat de kachel
op de logeerkamer zou worden aangelegd, zij had den toon van
zijne stem begrepen. Hillegie, eene gewestelijke verhaspeling van
Hillegonde, verliet de „jachtweide”. De man met den grijsbonten pels
zag nu naar het andere bolronde gezichtje, en, terwijl hij flauw
glimlachte, streek hij de blanke vingers met fonkelende ringen door
zijn lang en prachtig krullend zwart hair. Hij poogde haar aan te zien,
doch zij keek zeer bedaard naar het fijne en witte zand, dat over den
planken vloer der „jachtweide” was uitgestrooid. Daarom deed hij
opnieuw twee stappen naar de „tapkast”, en vroeg, ditmaal aan het
jonge meisje:
„Hept ihr ook cognac?”—met den dubbelen nadruk op de eerste
lettergreep van het woord cognac.
Het jonge meisje zag hare moeder aan, en deze nam een karaf
van wit glas, waarop met sierlijke gulden krulletters „Cognac” te
lezen stond. Toen de weduwe daarna een zeer klein glas van grof
maaksel nauwelijks gevuld had, bracht hare dochter het den
voornamen heer. Deze zag het aardig gezichtje zeer genadig aan,
glimlachte met zijne schitterende blauwe oogen, en nam het glaasje
met een zwierigen zwaai. Eenigen tijd keek hij naar het vocht in het
glas, daarna goochelde hij het vliegensvlug naar binnen. Niemand
sprak intusschen een woord, de drie rookers en drinkers bleven met
drieste verbazing rondzien, de vrouwen bleven onbeweeglijk bij de
„tapkast”.
Eindelijk kwam Hillegie terug. De kachel brandde. De weduwe van
der Zwaag nam nu andermaal haren blaker, en ging den vreemdeling
voor naar zijne kamer. Zij had er eigenlijk maar eene, maar die was
allerkeurigst. Zij moest er zelve de eer van ophouden. Nauw waren
zij beiden vertrokken, of de drie drinkers bij den haard zagen
elkander deftig aan. De dikste van het drietal blies eene reusachtige
rookwolk uit, en riep:
„Wat 'n wind het 2) dij kerel!” De magerste dronk zijn glas uit, en
sprak na eene kleine poos:
„Zeker zoo'n mofsche koalhans!”
De derde eindelijk blies rookwolken weg, en dronk tevens zijn glas
uit, terwijl hij wederom na eene poos opmerkte:
„Pas moar op, Hillegie! moak, dat je de kerel zien centen kriegt!”
„Doar bin' wie nijt bang veur, meneer Jellemoa! Veur 't brengen
van zien koffer hettie twij gulden geven!”
„En nou vraagt meneer om een karaf vol cognac met woater en
suker! Gauw wat!”—riep de weduwe, die met zekere haast
binnenstoof.

1) Zien.
2) Heeft.

II.

Hier begint de vestiging van meneer Apollo, den

wonderbare, in Oosterwolde en zijne eerste
kennismaking met de Beötiërs.
 Halfelf in den voormiddag. De vreemde heer, die den vorigen
avond in de Zon is komen logeeren, heeft luid gebeld. De weduwe
van der Zwaag is nog ontoonbaar in haar morgengewaad en zonder
oorijzer, maar hare jongste dochter Géésien, eene verminking van
Gesina, „het de muts al op.” Met zekere nieuwsgierigheid wipt de
vroolijke deerne de trappen op, die naar het boven den hoofdingang
gebouwde pronkvertrek leiden. Na een zacht tikken op de deur,
treedt ze haastig binnen en vraagt:
„Het meneer scheld?” 3)
De reiziger knikt allervriendelijkst ja. Hij staat van zijne tafel op,
waar de rest van zijn ontbijt valt waar te nemen. Hij is nog ruim zoo
zwierig gekleed als den vorigen avond.
„Ik woude u etwas vragen, mijn liebes kind!”—zegt hij.—„Geeft het
bij u ook een groote vertrek, waar damen en heeren versammelen?
Voor concerten, ballen, theaterstukken....”
„Veur 'n bal? Joa, meneer! Bi ons!”
„Bij u? Ach zoo! Dat is kostlich!”
„'s Winters heb' we drij bals van de groote sociëteit en twij van de
burgers! Zummers heb' wie mit peerdemarkt en mit harddroaverij
nog twijmoal bal....”
De zwierige reiziger loopt even zijn vertrek op en neer. Hij
glimlacht steeds even aanmoedigend. Daarna blijft hij in eene
schilderachtige houding bij de tafel staan, beide armen over de borst
kruisend. Gesina gaat intusschen voort met hem op te sommen
hoevele voortreffelijkheden zich in de Zon vereenigen. De slotsom is,
dat er beneden eene groote zaal is, waarin gedanst wordt, en zeer
zelden ook een concert wordt gegeven. Meneer behoeft niet te
twijfelen, of de zaal groot genoeg is, want in den vorigen winter
hebben zelfs de „komedianten” uit X, de hoofdstad van de provincie,
er gespeeld. Gesina glimlacht even, en voegt er bij:
„Moar meneer is toch zeker nijt bi de komedianten?”
„Gewis, niet, mijn liebes kind! Aber.... wie is toch ihr naam?”
 „Géésien!”
„Gretchen! Ach zoo! Das is een prachtvolle naam! Al onze
schönste jonkvrauwen heeten Gretchen! Nu, Gretchen....”
De reiziger deed twee stappen van de tafel, en roerde even op
zachte wijze de vingertoppen van „Gretchen” aan. Daarna zag hij
haar met zijne helderblauwe schitterende oogen zoo innemend aan,
dat het jonge meisje, vuurrood van verlegenheid, tevergeefs poogde
eenige stugheid aan den dag te leggen. Meneer wilde beneden de
zaal zien. Snel springt Gesina vooruit, meneer ijlt haar na, maar
heeft haar toch eerbiedig de hand gedrukt. Beneden loopt het
„liebes kind” zoo vreeslijk snel door de gang, dat haar grijs kleedje
aan de groote kist blijft haken. Doch ze getroost zich liever een
goeden winkelhaak, dan dat meneer met zijne drieste oogen haar
komt helpen. Zoo is ze een tweetal trappen opgevlogen, heeft de
deur geopend, en staat nu boven. Meneer volgt haar, en treedt haar
ter zijde in een zeer ruim vertrek, dat vrij wel op een bal- of
concertzaal zou gelijken, indien het niet veel te laag van verdieping
ware.
In gedachten wandelt hij dit vertrek op en neer. Gesina leunt
tegen een biljart, 't welk met een wit stofkleed is overdekt, meneer
gluurt een raam uit naar den zonderlingen, spitsen toren met blauwe
leien, die een der sieraden van Oosterwolde uitmaakt. Daarna zegt
hij:
„De kammer is kostlich, Gretchen! Voortreflich! Hept u niet een
paar kerl', om mijn te helfen an die groote kist hier te bringen?”
„Gretchen” denkt even na. De vreemde heer wil een kist brengen
op de groote zaal, waar de „Heeren” om halftwee sociëteit houden—
kan dit? En wat zit er in die kist? Als er zich moeilijke gevallen, of
onoplosbare vragen voordoen, neemt Gesina als brave dochter altijd
het advies van moeder. Snel loopt ze naar de deur en roept:
„Meneer blieft even wachten! Ik zel even zijn!”
De vreemdeling blijft alleen. Hij plaatst zich weder bij een venster.
Het volle daglicht schijnt over zijne rijzige gestalte. Niemand kan met
recht volhouden, dat hij wezenlijke knapheid en innemendheid mist.
Zijne trekken zijn fraai, zijn gelaat in rust heeft bijna eene edele
uitdrukking. Het hooge, blanke voorhoofd, de fijne gebogen neus, de
purperen lippen, waarom een glanzig zwarte knevel krult, de
zeldzaam lange, fijne en behaagziek verwarde hairlokken, die,
meestal achter het oor weggestreken, naar de schouders golven, dit
alles vormt hem tot een knap man. Zijne oogen zijn wel fraai blauw
en schitterend, maar de uitdrukking mist waardigheid. Zij werpen
wat al te vrijmoedige blikken in 't rond, daar blaakt een vuur in van
zinnelijke driestheid en ijdel zelfvertrouwen. Meestal evenwel is dat
vuur getemperd door de half gesloten oogleden en den
allereerbiedigsten lach, die elk zijner woorden vergezelt.
Voor het stedeke Oosterwolde is hij veel te zwierig gekleed. Zijn
keurige sluitjas van donkere kleur doet maar een zeer klein deel van
het hooge sneeuwwitte vest en der lange blauwe zijden das te
voorschijn komen. Genoeg evenwel, om de kolossale diamanten
speld te doen fonkelen, waarnaast een helder groen en rood lint in
zijn knoopsgat schittert, eene ridderorde van den Vorst van
Lichtenstein.
Geruime poos staat hij aan het venster te turen. Eene breede
straat, half plein, half rijweg, strekt zich voor hem uit. Huizen van
ééne verdieping, zonder eenig bijzonder kenteeken, maar
kleinsteedsch van de grondvesten tot aan de daksparren, een paar
lindeboomen boven een tuinmuur, de spitse toren, een paar
kwajongens op groote houten klompen, een paar boeren met drie
runderen, een paar kippen, die ijlings wegvluchten, dit is het
tafereel, 't welk zich aan onzen Lichtensteiner Ridder voordoet.
„Philister, und noch einmahl Philister!”
Terwijl hij dit met zekere bitterheid binnensmonds prevelt,
naderen snelle voetstappen. De weduwe van der Zwaag met Hillegie
en Géésien, allen in oorijzer en kanten muts, treden de zaal binnen.
„Wol meneer de kist in de zaol brocht hebben?”—vraagt de
kasteleines.
 „Ach ja! Laat maar een paar kerl kommen!” Doch zoo snel ging de
weduwe niet tot het ontheiligen van hare zaal over. Met een vloed
van woorden betoogde ze, dat de „Heeren” er sociëteit hielden en of
de kist niet in de gang kon blijven. Zij was verbijsterd over het
schoone kostuum en de voorname manieren van haar gast, maar
vroeg toch luide, wat er dan toch eigenlijk in die kist was.
„Mijn klavier!”—zei de vreemdeling snel.
Moeder en dochters zagen elkander aan, en begrepen de zaak
maar half. Met een voornamen glimlach voegde hij er thans bij, dat
zijn „klavier” moest ontpakt worden, dat het niet veel plaats innam
en zeer „famos” was. Maar spoedig, zeer spoedig. De kasteleines
had dikwerf hooren verhalen, dat voorname vreemdelingen, vooral
Engelschen, de eene of andere zonderlinge liefhebberij aankweeken,
en daarom meende ze nu, dat deze niet zonder zijn „klavier” zou
kunnen leven. Fluisterende met hare dochters, werd er nu besloten
den staljongen en den tuinman te laten roepen. Haar gast was
intusschen reeds in het voorportaal en poogde de pianokist van den
muur te schuiven. Met groote voorzichtigheid, terwijl nog twee
keukenmeiden, wier zilveren oorijzers en zwarte kousen—zij hadden
hare klompen op hoog bevel achtergelaten—een zweem van
glimlach bij den klavierman deden ontstaan, op het ijverigst
medehielpen, werd nu de groote en zware kist, naar de zaal
gedragen. De Lichtensteiner Ridder gaf allerlei bevelen in zijne
moedertaal, die niemand recht begreep, doch de kist stond weldra
zonder ongeval bij een der vensters. In een ommezien had hij zelf
de planken losgemaakt en ontdekte nu voor de verbaasde lieden uit
de Z o n eene fraaie pianino. Met groote bedrijvigheid deed hij de
houten bekleedselen wegbrengen, had hij het instrument geopend
en liet hij plotseling een stroom van luide en grillige akkoorden door
de zaal galmen. Het stuk was wat ontstemd, weldra had hij er de
vergulden luchters afgelicht, de pianino van voorwand ontbloot, en
een stemsleutel ter hand genomen. Hierop ving hij ijverig aan te
stemmen.
De kasteleines, de meisjes, de keukenmeiden, de staljongen en de
tuinman bleven op eerbiedigen afstand staan luisteren. Misschien
was er in geheel Oosterwolde maar één piano, die met deze kon
wedijveren, bij den Burgemeester. En die hadden de meeste hunner
nooit gezien. Als de vreemdeling soms eensklaps met beide handen
de volle kracht van zijn stuk liet doorklinken, zagen zij elkander vol
verbazing aan. Weldra was de zuiverheid van toon hersteld. Zonder
naar zijne hoorders om te zien, wier tegenwoordigheid hij evenwel
had opgemerkt, ving hij aan met eene vlugge, aangename melodie
te doen hooren. Plotseling viel hij in met eene vrij zwakke, doch
dragelijke tenorstem een Duitsch lied aan te heffen. De kasteleines
en hare huisgenooten hielden den adem in. De beide jonge meisjes
volgden met vroolijke blikken den zanger. Dat hadden ze nog nooit
zoo gehoord! Zoo mooi kon juffer Martha van den Burgemeester niet
zingen! Hoor, hij zwijgt. Twee forsche akkoorden, alles is stil. Meneer
rijst op, en sluit de pianino. Het publiek deinst af, en verdwijnt met
groote overhaasting uit de zaal.

3) Heeft meneer gescheld?

III.

Hoe Mr. Willem Snijders in den kring der zijnen gewoon is

aan de koffietafel te regeeren.

Oosterwolde was een plattelandsstadje met een drieduizend

inwoners, eene arrondissements-rechtbank, beroemde veemarkten,
een weinig nijverheid en veel ongetrouwde meisjes. Men was er
uren ver van alle groote of grootere steden. Al het verkeer met de
omliggende plaatsen werd levendig gehouden door een paar
goedaardige trekschuiten. Een telegraafkantoor werd door niemand
gehoopt, en ieder Oosterwoldenaar van geboorte begreep, dat er
nooit eenige de minste kans voor een spoorweg zou komen
opdagen. Het stedeke had daardoor een zeker vast karakter
verkregen, waarom elk eenigszins buitengewoon voorval aanstonds
de algemeene belangstelling wekte. Men zag er niemand vreemds,
dan de boeren en boerinnen uit den omtrek, de eersten met
ouderwetsche hoeden en zilveren tabaksdoozen, de laatsten met
gouden hoofdijzers, „stiften” en lompe oorhangers. De doortocht van
een man met een draaiorgel, of van een troep nomadische Duitsche
horenblazers, maakte eene geweldige gebeurtenis uit. Al wat
Oosterwolde aan straatjongens bezat, schaarde zich rondom het
vreemde verschijnsel op de straat, terwijl de vaders der gezinnen
met al hun personeel op de stoep hunner woningen post vatten.
Eene zekere stoffelijke welvaart was in Oosterwolde evenwel niet
te miskennen. De handel in vee en landbouwvoortbrengselen,
waarvan de stad meer en meer stapelplaats werd, bracht veel vertier
aan. Winkeliers, logementhouders en procureurs deden er schoone
zaken, 't welk zich zichtbaar aankondigde in de netheid en frischheid
der meestal kleine huizen. Heerenhuizingen van twee verdiepingen
vond men er wel, maar die behoorden tot de uitzonderingen. Eene
der aanzienlijkste lag juist aan 't eind der breede straat, die het
heerenlogement de Zon onder hare sieraden telde. Dit huis lag, een
eind van de andere woningen in den omtrek verwijderd, in de
schaduw van twee reusachtige kastanjeboomen. 't Was stevig en
hecht gebouwd, maar de architect had bijzonder weinig goeden
smaak aan den dag gelegd. Goede smaak was in 't algemeen in
Oosterwolde zeer duur. De huizing nu, met de kastanjeboomen als
wachters voor den ingang, was bij ieder bekend en beroemd, daar
woonde de Burgemeester.
Mr. Willem Snijders, van beroep advocaat en notaris, had met
koninklijk goedvinden de eereplaats in de Oosterwoldsche
magistratuur bezet. Op het oogenblik, waartoe onze waarachtige
historie thans genaderd is, vinden wij hem in zijne vroolijke en
welingerichte huiskamer. De familie gaat koffie gebruiken. Bij de
zilveren kan treffen we mevrouw Snijders aan, eene zeer bedrijvige
en drukke, maar extra vroolijke en gulle dame van diep in de veertig
met zeer ongehoorzaam lichtbruin hair, 't welk ze voortdurend met
eene snelle beweging onder de muts wegschuift. Voorts ontmoeten
we nog twee jonge dames, Martha en Mina, die al onze aandacht
waard zijn. Martha is eene beroemde schoonheid, Mina had te
grooten neus, om voor mooi door te gaan. Martha was eene flinke,
lief glimlachende jonkvrouw met ongemeen fraaie blonde, lange
krullen. Mina was niet zoo mooi, maar ieder hield bij uitstek van
haar. Zij was mevrouw Snijders plaatsvervangster in alle huiselijke
zaken van gewicht, en de afgod van hare talrijke jongere zusters en
broers. Een deel van dezen zit ook aan de koffietafel, rondwangige
meisjes met lange witte schorten, en twee mannetjes met blond
krullend hair en inkt aan de vingers.
Voorzitter was daar evenwel de Burgemeester zelf, Mr. Willem
Snijders in eigen persoon. Deze brave magistraat was zeer klein, had
kleine vlugge, grijze oogen, een klein kaal voorhoofd en kleine grijze
bakkebaarden. Hij was even levendig als zijne vlugge gade, sprak
niet zoo rad, maar daarom te gewichtiger. Hij achtte zich zelven zoo
gelukkig en tevreden, als een zeer rijk man in Oosterwolde maar
eenigszins zijn kan. Hij had geld genoeg, om in Amsterdam of Den
Haag equipage te houden, maar zijne familie en die zijner vrouw
behoorden tot de Oosterwoldsche patriciërs, en daarom had hij geen
het minste denkbeeld naar de Heerengracht of den Vijverberg te
verhuizen. Eerzucht had hij in zekere mate: bij alle dingen, die zijn
huis en familie betroffen, moest solide weelde en onbesnoeide
ruimte heerschen. Voor 't overige bemoeide hij zich met niets, zelfs
niet met de politiek. Eene candidatuur voor de Tweede Kamer had
hij van de hand gewezen, alles, wat hij misschien van dien aard
wenschen mocht, stond in betrekking tot zijn maagdelijk knoopsgat.
't Had juist twaalf geslagen. Mevrouw Snijders schenkt de
dampende koffie in, Mina snijdt een stuk koek voor de meisjes en
knaapjes, die heel stil moeten blijven zitten, want vader leest de
„oprechte” Haarlemmer. De mooie Martha heeft een boek naast haar
kop koffie, en werpt er ter sluik een blik in. Zij leest eene
verbazende hoeveelheid romans in 't jaar, meest alle uit het Engelsch
vertaald en vol brave helden en heldinnen.
Mr. Willem Snijders legt de krant neer, en zegt:
„Geen nieuws vandaag! Uit Leeuwarden wordt veel gepocht over
een groot concert!”
 „Dat mag wel! Concerten zijn heel prettig in Leeuwarden!”—zegt
Martha, die den vorigen winter in Frieslands hoofdstad heeft
gelogeerd.
„Litholf en nog zoo'n snuiter!”—vervolgt de Burgemeester.
„Hier is nooit eens concert!”—antwoordt de dochter.
„Kom, kom!”—valt moeder in.—„Hier is het Nut, en bals en allerlei
pretjes! Ik zou er niet voor in Leeuwarden willen zitten!”
„Ja, mama dweept met Oosterwolde, dat weet ik wel!”
De mooie Martha had dit met eenig humeur gezegd. Opmerkelijk
was het ook, dat mevrouw Snijders eene andere uitspraak van hare
moedertaal bezigde, dan hare dochter. Mama sprak eenigszins in den
trant der kasteleines uit de Zon, en Martha had de uitspraak van een
duur kostschool in Gelderland, waar zij drie jaren was „gesoigneerd.”
De Burgemeester vond het niet aangenaam, als er verschil van
meening was onder de zijnen. Hij hield veel van zijne knappe
dochter, hij pronkte graag met haar in bijeenkomsten van het
Oosterwoldsche publiek, maar de zienswijze van zijne vrouw en de
liefde voor zijne stad deden hem elke minachting van deze laatste
ernstig tegenspreken.
„Hoor eens, Martha! Ik vind het niet aardig, dat je zoo van
Oosterwolde spreekt! Jij bent de dochter van den Burgemeester! En
wat de concerten betreft....”
Juist werd de deur geopend, en bracht de „kamermeid” Stientje
een kaartje aan den Burgemeester. De heer Snijders zag het
onverschillig in, maar maakte plotseling eene beweging van
verwondering.
„Daar heb je het al!”—riep hij uit.—„Hoor eens, welk bezoek wij
ontvangen:

Prof. Maximilian Brandt von Hohenburg, Fürst. Hofpianist und

Director des Fürst. Theaters zu Lichtenstein-Vadoetz.
 „Stientje!”—gaat de Burgemeester voort,—„laat meneer in de
voorkamer! Deksels een professor! En ik in mijne grijze ochtendjas!
Dat kan onmogelijk! Ik vlieg, om mijn rok aan te trekken!”
De Burgemeester was niet gewoon dagelijks vele professoren in
Oosterwolde te ontmoeten, en dan zoo'n aanzienlijk man!
Intusschen gevoelde hij genoeg van zijne
burgemeesterswaardigheid, om zich niet bedremmeld voor zijn
bezoeker te vertoonen. Zijn rok en witte das, welke laatste hij
dagelijks droeg, stonden hem in dit goede voornemen bij, zoodat hij
uiterst deftig de deur van zijne voorkamer ontsloot, en den
diepbuigenden professor een stoel aanbood.
„Professor Maximilian Brandt von Hohenburg, de Lichtensteiner
Ridder met de pelsjas, thans resideerende bij de weduwe van der
Zwaag in de Z o n, heeft de eer zich bij den „genadigen” heer
Burgemeester te vervoegen met tweeërlei doel. Hij reist voor zijn
genoegen door het westen van Europa, en bezoekt thans Nederland.
Zijne vorstelijke genade, de Vorst van Lichtenstein, heeft hem deze
kunstreis opgedragen, om zich van de tegenwoordige ontwikkeling
der toonkunst in het westen van Europa een helder denkbeeld te
vormen. Vorst Johan II is een zeer verlicht Maecenas, waarvan Herr
von Hohenburg slechts de nederige dienaar is.
Maar Herr von Hohenburg beoefent ook in alle nederigheid de
kunst. Hij is professor aan de vorstelijke kunstacademie van zijne
vorstelijke genade. Hij is vorstelijke hofpianist en directeur der
muziek van de vorstelijke opera te Lichtenstein-Vadoetz. Het is zijn
voornemen in alle plaatsen van Nederland, die hij bezoekt, bij
uitzondering één concert te geven. Als de „genadige” heer
Burgemeester denkt, dat een klavierconcert in zijne stad eenigen
bijval mocht verwerven, dan....”
Herr von Hohenburg heeft dit alles in zeer vloeiend en hoffelijk
Duitsch gesproken. De Burgemeester van Oosterwolde houdt zich
ferm, maar is lang niet op zijn gemak. Duitsch spreken is volstrekt
zijne gewoonte niet. Een gek figuur maken kon een man van zijne
waardigheid nog veel minder, vooral tegenover zulk een diplomatisch
kunstenaar als de heer von Hohenburg, zeker een edelman, en dan
met zoo iets roods en groens in zijn knoopsgat.
„Vergun me, meneer de Professor, dat ik in mijne moedertaal u
antwoorde....”
„Bitte, bitte, gnädige Herr!”
„Ik geloof, dat er hier in Oosterwolde een zeer dankbaar publiek
voor pianomuziek zou gevonden worden, en we hebben een vrij
goede zaal in de Z o n bij vrouw van der Zwaag.”
Herr von Hohenburg beaamt de woorden van den „genadigen
heer Burgemeester”, daar hij echter Duitsch blijft spreken, en geene
moeite doet zich in hetgeen hij Hollandsch noemt uit te drukken,
zullen wij hem hier als tolk ter zijde staan.
„Ik zou u echter raden, meneer de professor, om vooraf eene lijst
bij de notabele ingezetenen rond te zenden, men is zoo zeldzaam in
de gelegenheid iets goeds te hooren!”
„Ach! ik vraag duizendmaal om verschooning, genadige heer! Ik
moet u nog iets mededeelen! Ik behoor niet tot de zoodanige
artisten, die concerten geven voor geld. Mijne kunst heeft edeler
doel. Ik laat een entrée betalen, om na aftrek van de noodzakelijke
kosten het batig saldo in de armenkas te storten!”
Mr. Willem Snijders, die tot nog toe met het denkbeeld, dat de
Duitsche professor voor geld concerten gaf, zich zelven een riem
onder het hart had gestoken, gevoelde nu, dat alle bewustheid van
meerderheid hem ontzonk. Hij glimlachte nog vriendelijker dan te
voren, en verzekerde meneer den professor dat hij zijne komst in
Oosterwolde op hoogen prijs stelde.
Herr von Hohenburg had gebogen, gelachen, en de kamer rond
gezien. Bij het ontdekken eener pianino had hij met
onweerstaanbare losheid zich naar het stuk begeven, het geopend
en als gedachteloos een paar akkoorden gegrepen. Plotseling weer
naar zijne stoel terugsnellend, riep hij uit:
„Ik vraag duizendmaal om verschooning, genadige heer! Ik heb de
slechte gewoonte, als ik een klavier zie, aanstonds naar de toetsen
te grijpen....”
„Integendeel! Ik hoopte reeds, dat u ongemerkt zou hebben
doorgespeeld!”
De beide heeren putten zich van weerszijden uit in tallooze
hoffelijkheden. De slotsom was eindelijk, dat de beroemde professor
von Hohenburg zich nogmaals voor de pianino plaatste, en na onder
menigte van sierlijke zwenkingen met hoofd, lichaam en armen, een
stroom van luidklinkende melodiën door het pronkvertrek van den
Oosterwoldschen Burgemeester deed ruischen. Mr. Willem Snijders
was geheel verrukking. Hij wist niet hoe hij zijn voornamen gast zou
danken. Hij verhaalt, hoe zijne oudste dochters beiden wat aan
muziek doen. Intusschen phantaseert Herr von Hohenburg verder.
De Burgemeester zou waarlijk, als meneer de professor er niets
tegen had, zoo gaarne mevrouw Snijders en zijne oudste dochters....
De professor vraagt duizendmaal verschooning voor de hooge eer....
De Burgemeester heeft gebeld. Weldra verschijnen de drie dames,
die in de aangrenzende kamer geene noot van de muziek verloren
hebben.
Zoo spoedig zij de kamer binnentraden, had Herr von Hohenburg
zijne sierlijkste en innemendste buiging gemaakt. Met een snellen
blik had hij het mooi gezichtje van Martha waargenomen en in stilte
een paar Duitsche woorden gemompeld, die zeer plat, maar zeer
vleiend voor de dochter des Burgemeesters waren. Beide meisjes
hadden echter eene te schuchtere natuur, om in het eerste
oogenblik veel op den schitterenden heer te letten, door haar vader
met veel omhaal van naam en qualiteiten deftig aan haar
voorgesteld. Herr von Hohenburg vroeg eenige duizenden malen om
verschooning, aan de „gnädige Frau Bürgemeisterin” en aan de
„gnädige Fräulein.” Hij had maar even aan de pianino geraakt, en
het was zijn noodlot, dat hij onwillekeurig bleef spelen. Mr. Willem
Snijders wilde vrouw en dochters gaarne op de hoogte brengen van
al de verdiensten des vreemden professors, en voerde hem weder
naar het klavier terug.
 Toen speelde de bereidwillige en edelmoedige kunstenaar eene
uitvoerige phantasie met gedruischmakende fortissimo's, en zwenkte
hij allerbevalligst heen en weer op de lage pianotabouret. Martha
volgde hem oplettend, en was in diepe aandacht verzonken. Het
knappe gelaat van den Duitscher, de geniale wijze van het hoofd te
buigen, terwijl zijne linkerhand soms plotseling de over zijn
voorhoofd vallende zwarte hairen wegwierp, het merkwaardig
uitheemsche, 't welk zijne geheele gestalte een soort van
tooverglans schonk, dit alles maakte op haar eenvoudig, maar stil
dwepend gemoed een zeer diepen indruk. Daarbij kwam, dat zij het
niet bijster ver in de muziek gebracht had, en vol verbazing de
vaardigheid van den vreemdeling waarnam. Deze eindigde nu snel
zijn woesten storm van tonen, en stond glimlachend naast de
dames. Ieder zweeg met dankbare waardeering. Herr von
Hohenburg begreep, dat hij het best deed onder dezen indruk te
vertrekken. Hij sluit de fraaie pelsjas over al de pracht van zijn
uitgezocht kostuum, en greep de coquette parelgrijze
handschoenen.
De Burgemeester uitte een stroom van vriendelijke
dankbetuigingen, hij had niet vermoed, dat er zulk een schat van
fraaie geluiden in zijne pianino verborgen was.
„Ach zoo!”—antwoordde de schitterende professor.—„Ik vraag
duizendmaal om verschooning, maar uw klavier is zeer zwak van
toon! Hollandsch fabrikaat, geloof ik, zeer middelmatige
instrumenten. Neen, dan hebben we er beter in Duitschland.”
„Maar ik ben met mijne piano zeer tevreden!”—viel Martha
plotseling met haar kostschool-Duitsch in.—„Wij zijn in onze kleine
stad niet zoo scherp van gehoor! Bovendien de piano is pas nieuw,
en uit de fabriek van Schulz te Leeuwarden!”
„Ik waag het niet u tegen te spreken, mein gnädiges Fräulein!
Maar ik hoor, dat u kunstenares is, en men heeft recht op het
edelste en schoonste, zoodra men zulk eene bekoorlijke kunstenares
is, als u.... Ik vraag duizendmaal om verschooning! Duizendmaal!
Genadige Vrouw! Genadige heer Burgemeester! Genadige Freules!”
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