What is the main point of The Book of Pipe and Cone?

The Pipe and Taper is large in size and refined in thought, but this "body" is not the "body" of the "system of thought" that is commonly seen, rather it is embodied in the unique dissolution and fusion of the traditional systems of thought of the East and the West. Qian Zhongshu, who takes "to open up" as his highest ideal, has no intention to put up another fence outside the fence. To borrow Schopenhauer's language, a book of "Guanjiezhi" is not like an ordinary "system of thought", "there must be a structural connection, that is, there is always a part that holds up the other part, but the latter does not, in turn, hold up the former". In fact, there is no difference between starting with Volume IV and Volume I. There is also little difference between starting on page 300 of Volume I and starting on page 1 of Volume I, since there is no difference between "holding up" and "being held up" between them. People often rely on the book's catalog arrangement, imagine that the author has a grand academic planning, a systematic clean-up of China's pre-Qin cultural canon planning. Poor! Although Mr. Qian's talent, pen and ink through the place, will be like spring rain over the forest, so that the object of a new, not to restore the old view, but the book's chapters, seems to be more just to raise the head of the words of the "said by", a framework to accommodate the text, so that Mr. Qian, the sky is the sky, rocking the three-thousand operation of the idea, as a reservoir reservoirs to store the role of the river. Therefore, the word "think fine" after "body big" has never been reflected in the second volume of the first volume of the unfolding of the third volume of the second volume of the evolution of the fourth volume of the book and the cage, no, it is improvised, randomized, and the study of dense thoughts always unfolds synchronously with the pages in front of us, and the brilliant insights are often reflected together with the sages under the pen at the same time. Qian Zhongshu has broken 10,000 volumes, and his chest is full of treacherous clouds and a myriad of weather, which is a "walled city", but it is reflected in the text, in the specific taste and feelings, and what Mr. Qian is interested in seems to be more of a "point" of advancement, rather than a "surface" of unfolding. Therefore, I am afraid that it would be wrong to try to summarize from the Guanjiezhu (管锥编), which is not easy to be understood throughout the ages. I say that "Guanjiezhi" has the scale of an encyclopedia, it should also be recognized that the writing of "Guanjiezhi" is also "encyclopedic", i.e., the pursuit of the absolute accuracy of each entry, rather than making all the entries in the service of a concept.

If we have to find a thread running through the Guanjiezhi, it may be this one: to bridge the East and the West, and to integrate the ancient and the modern. Strictly speaking, this is not the main line in the sense of the system, but the strong embodiment of the spirit of power, this spirit is diffuse, penetration rather than interpretation, layers in the book, so in the face of the "pipe cone compilation", readers can look across into the mountain side into the peaks, and enjoy the left and right of the benefit. Simply put, you don't need to hold the courage to read through the "Dictionary", you can open the volume at will. The opening of the volume is bound to be beneficial, as for the deeper to get its deep, shallow to get its shallow, depending on each person learning to create, since it is a different story.

Revisiting the question of the ancient texts of the Pipe Cones.

While it is a headache to insert a number of variant characters into the Guanjiezhi, which makes the reading of the book complicated, a little perseverance will reveal that the language, which seems to be rejected by others, is equally applicable to the modern judgement that it is "highly readable". Mr. Qian's good background in early childhood education makes his literary language, like his vernacular, built on a foundation of purity and sophistication from the very beginning, and his unparalleled Western culture makes this purity and sophistication give birth to a kind of unprecedented logical power. When we think that logic is the weak point of the Chinese language, and that the strength of the Chinese language is in generating poetic rather than rational discourse (Japan's Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Yukawa Hidetoshu, is y concerned about this, and has mentioned that he only uses Japanese, which is similar in nature to Chinese, in his daily life, and once he thinks about the field of subatomic particles, he will definitely switch to English), then we have nothing but admiration for Qian Zhongshu's ability to give a new function to the Chinese language. I can only marvel at his ability to give new functions to the language. When it comes to reasoning in the literary language, people often instinctively think of Jia Yi's eloquent essay, "The Essay on Exceeding the Qin Dynasty", which has been included in many textbooks, and they are stunned by the exaggerated beginning of the essay. But not surprisingly, it was Mr. Qian who pointed out to us that Jia Sheng's essay was guilty of the disease of "fat words, meaning barren". What a sharp judgment! With this statement, already can be fresh eyes, if again with his spear, probe the shield of the son, then suddenly found that Mr. Qian to us, perhaps even a dedication, since since the language has never been a text, not only "words fat meaning full", rich and gorgeous, but also Chen Li on the columns, coherent and clear. It is one of the major contributions of Qian Zhongshu to make the poetic ancient Chinese language competent in rational logical deduction. Even though I do not intend to make any shocking remarks, I cannot help but think that since the creation of writing by Cangjie, this language, which has given birth to countless wonderful words, has never been fortunate enough to have met such a master of the art: as humorous as QIAN Zhongshu, as skeptical as QIAN Zhongshu, as full of discursive power, and as possessed of such a wide-ranging humanistic outlook as QIAN Zhongshu. Through "Pipe and Taper", Mr. Qian Zhongshu, who made his own great words, has in fact offered a new language to the people of China, which is a miracle of thinking, a creation of Chinese language and a blessing to the readers. Perhaps, unless Mr. Qian himself provides counter-evidence, we can only say that this is also the most suitable language to show the style of the Qian family: it is as fine as a needle, and the heart of the text is carved with dragons and worms; its reasoning is like a bamboo shoot, and the interpretation of the meaning of the silk into the buckle; its knowledge is like an old official who breaks a case, and the people and things to the eye that is to judge; its feelings are like a virgin who is in love with the spring, and the things and people touch the hand of the wind flow. Because I want to think of the language of the ancient country, the hijacking has not yet been abandoned, this self-hatred, anger, suddenly met the masters take hold of the war, do not feel the spirit of jittery, with which to kill. A party has three thousand years of civilization home base, since they are emboldened, never easy to say that the reason for the defeat, a party hidden ocean ninety thousand miles of stuff tactics, but also when there is no retreat, how is the heart of the retreat, the two sides will then each means, each showing their expertise, straight to an old and tired, Ta Yan as if the loss of the Chinese language, teasing the Yeon such as the two eight virgins, and then as handsome as a seven-foot beard. A "pipe cone compilation", it is the crystallization of the two sides of the 300 rounds of war, the verdict is: no winners and losers. Qian Zhongshu used this to test the modern vitality of the literary language, the literary language is chatting about the young man crazy, greatly out of the wind back to the old to play.

It would be a life missed if one could read such a language without it.

Lastly, a brief word about foreign languages. In fact, many of the foreign languages appearing in Pipe and Taper can be skipped and not read, and the author has embellished them in order to reflect the rigor of the scholars, in addition to showing the hobby of a "stylist". As a matter of fact, most of these foreign languages were translated by Qian Zhongshu in their entirety and occasionally in their approximations, and their function is to verify the truth of what he said and to emphasize the truth of what happened, instead of forcing the Russian readers to be proficient in French as in the case of the Russian novels. So if you have no intention of checking the authenticity of Qian Zhongshu's choice of sources, not reading these overseas symbols will not harm your understanding of the book's content. But then again, if you happen to know a foreign language, then a passing glance at Qian's translation often seems like a fortune, and you are actually reading the most exciting text. To make so many foreigners suddenly speak in Chinese, although Qian Zhongshu is not the creator, he is really the most skillful.

Take a random "exciting" example.

The end of the Battle of Waterloo is described in Thackeray's Vanity Fair. It is said to be "the most popular", and the original English reads: "Darkness came down on the field and the city; and Amelia was praying for George, who was lying on his face, dead, with a bullet through his heart. Mr. Qian's translation, even achieved a line like a divine sculptor's couple: "The night was dark, the wife in the city was praying for heaven to keep her husband safe, and on the battlefield his husband was lying on his back, with a bullet through his heart, dead." The text, the text of interest, all cool Xiao Xiao.

To cite another let a person can not help but laugh. Mr. Qian by the "Journey to the West", the eighth three monk advised the eight ring "help big brother, beat the demon" said a wonderful phrase "although not good, but also farting to add wind", associated with a British slang. The original is: "Every little helps," as the old lady said, when she pissed in the sea. the following is the translation of Mr. Qian's laughable paralysis: "The old crone small left in the sea, said: 'not without a small remedy!

Examples like this abound in the Pipe Cones.