"Revised Notes on Human Words - A Study of Cultural Works"

Author: Wang Guowei, edited by
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-09-01
Features:
1. This book is compiled based on the original manuscript of Words on Human Life. The entries are arranged in the order of the original manuscript, and the text follows the original. In many cases, the quoted text in the manuscript differs from the original text of the works quoted. For the sake of caution, no changes have been made. However, incorrect characters in names have been corrected and explained with annotations. Several entries and sentences deleted from the original manuscript have been retained as they are, with annotations explaining their deletion.
2. Words on Human Life has had multiple editions, among which the edition with notes by Mr. Xu Tiufu and revisions by Mr. Wang You'an (the 1960 edition of Xuefeng Cihua · Words on Human Life published by People's Literature Publishing House, hereinafter referred to as the "standard edition") is the most complete. The standard edition is divided into three volumes: "Words on Human Life," "Deleted Manuscripts of Words on Human Life," and "Appendix to Words on Human Life." Volume I is the Wang-style manuscript published in Journal of National Essence. Volume II consists of several entries extracted by Mr. Zhao Wanli and Mr. Wang You'an from the original manuscript of Words on Human Life. This book includes the entire content of Volume I and Volume II of the standard edition, as well as 13 additional entries: the 24th, 26th, 28th, 50th, 58th, 64th, 65th, 89th, 90th, 92nd, 93rd, 109th, and 122nd. The 63rd entry in Volume I of the standard edition is missing in the manuscript and is included as the last entry of this book. For the convenience of readers comparing with the standard edition, the corresponding entry numbers of the standard edition are indicated for each entry in this book [e.g., 1(24), meaning the first entry of this book corresponds to the 24th entry of "Words on Human Life" in the standard edition; 13(1), meaning the 13th entry of this book corresponds to the first entry of "Deleted Manuscripts of Words on Human Life" in the standard edition.]
3. This book consists of two parts: "Annotations" and "Notes." The "Annotations" explain the significant differences between the text of this book and the standard edition (individual entries are cross-referenced with Wang Guowei's Small Talks on Literature). The "Notes" are supplemented and revised based on previous annotations. All quoted texts are sourced. When the same book is cited multiple times in the notes, the version is indicated only on the second and subsequent citations.
4. This book was completed under the guidance of Mr. Zhou Zhenfu. Sincere gratitude is extended to him! However, due to the theoretical and knowledge limitations of the annotators, this book is bound to contain numerous shortcomings and errors. We sincerely invite experts and readers to criticize and correct them.