Li Zongwu - The Art of Thick and Black

Author: Li Zongwu
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-09-01
Features: First published based on the complete manuscript of "The Thick Black Book" as the treasure of the Taipei Library. Truly grasp the essence of Li Zongwu's original "The Thick Black Book" through the words. Renowned Taiwanese historian Xu Zhuoyun personally wrote the preface for this book. This publication also includes prefaces written by Lin Yutang, Baoyang, and Nan Huaijin for this book. "Among the books of Chinese and foreign literature through the ages, not having read Li Zongwu's 'The Thick Black Book' is indeed a regret in life!" — Lin Yutang "The excellence of this book lies in telling the Chinese people how heavy the inner grief and suffering of a genius are toward the declining world." — Baoyang "The morality of the Thick Black Book master is not at all thick or black; on the contrary, it is very sincere and upright." — Nan Huaijin "Our Li family's four eccentric geniuses — Laozi (Li Er), Li Zhuozhu, Li Zongwu, and Li Ao." — Li Ao
In the first year of the Republic of China, I wrote an article titled "The Thick Black Book." After that, I wrote some more texts. In the sixteenth year, I compiled them into a volume titled "Zongwu's Random Talk," which included an article titled "My Views on Solving Social Problems." In the seventeenth year, I expanded it into a standalone book titled "Discussion on Social Problems." In recent years, I had some new thoughts, so I scattered the texts I had written over the years and combined them with my new thoughts in a style, titled "Random Talks on the Thick Black Book." Starting from August 1, 1929, I wrote one or two paragraphs every day and published them in Chengdu's "Huaxi Daily." Each volume contained about 20,000 words, and every two volumes were printed as a standalone book. Now, I have completed six volumes.
I originally wrote these texts out of boredom for leisure. I had no fixed plan on how long to write or when to stop. If I felt happy, I would write for a long time; if not, I could stop at any time. However, the wording was too scattered, which might bore readers. What most people liked was listening to me talk about the Thick Black Book. Therefore, I slightly revised the standalone book of "The Thick Black Book" printed in Beijing in 1923 and reprinted it for everyone to read. Many people advised me to reprint "Zongwu's Random Talk" and "Discussion on Social Problems." I felt that there were many places in the two books that needed, and I thought it would be troublesome to modify them one by one. So, I casually wrote them in the Random Talks, and readers only needed to read the Random Talks without reading the other two books, as the ideas and points that should be were already integrated into the Random Talks.
In the sixteenth year, when "Zongwu's Random Talk" was published, Li Chengbo and Zhou Yanshang wrote prefaces. In the seventeenth year, when "Discussion on Social Problems" was published, Wu Yujiang, Hao De, Yao Qinru, and Yang Zaiyun all wrote prefaces. They were all listed at the beginning of the book, as a brief introduction to the Random Talks, so that readers could understand the general content. If they had no time, they didn't need to read the Random Talks.
I had already sent two copies of "Zongwu's Random Talk" and "Discussion on Social Problems" to the Sichuan Library. But I remembered that there were still several copies at home, so I took them and mailed them to Nanjing, Beijing, and other libraries for storage, so that the Random Talks I wrote now would still be consistent with my past thoughts.
First published based on the complete manuscript of "The Thick Black Book" as the treasure of the Taipei Library. Truly grasp the essence of Li Zongwu's original "The Thick Black Book" through the words. Renowned Taiwanese historian Xu Zhuoyun personally wrote the preface for this book. This publication also includes prefaces written by Lin Yutang, Baoyang, and Nan Huaijin for this book. "Among the books of Chinese and foreign literature through the ages, not having read Li Zongwu's 'The Thick Black Book' is indeed a regret in life!" — Lin Yutang "The excellence of this book lies in telling the Chinese people how heavy the inner grief and suffering of a genius are toward the declining world." — Baoyang "The morality of the Thick Black Book master is not at all thick or black; on the contrary, it is very sincere and upright." — Nan Huaijin "Our Li family's four eccentric geniuses — Laozi (Li Er), Li Zhuozhu, Li Zongwu, and Li Ao." — Li Ao