What are the three flavors of "Sanwei Bookstore"?

"Sanwei Bookstore" is widely known for Lu Xun's famous work "From Baicao Garden to Sanwei Bookstore". There are many opinions on the meaning of "three flavors". The author of this article is the grandson of Mr. Shou Jingwu who taught at the "Sanwei Bookstore". Regarding the meaning of "three flavors", his explanation may better reflect the original meaning of "three flavors".

Sanwei Bookstore was originally a bookstore where my ancestor taught in his private school. Regarding the meaning of "three flavors" in Sanwei Bookstore, I would like to talk about some facts for reference.

The origin of "Sanwei Bookstore"

After my ancestors settled in Shaoxing, at the time of my great-great-grandfather Shoufenglan, he opened a "Shou Tongsheng" by Jing Lake outside the side gate of Shaoxing. Hotel, with wine making as its industry. Later, due to extortion by corrupt local officials and local tyrants, the winery's operation was finally unsustainable, and it had to close down. So Fenglan Gong came up with the idea of ??setting up private schools and schools, firstly to make a living, and secondly to stop his descendants from working in industry and commerce. In order to follow the path of setting up private schools and schools, Duke Fenglan first invited famous teachers to sit at his home and teach ancient books and calligraphy to his son Shou Yunqiao. Yun Qiaogong studied hard, and in the future he not only became proficient in calligraphy, but also practiced hard in calligraphy. Later, Yun Qiaogong invited teachers to give lectures to his two sons, Shou Zhouqi and Shou Jingwu. After successful studies, they all made a living by teaching (Shou Jingwu inherited his ancestral business and opened a private school in Sanwei Bookstore to teach for life, and was honored as "Mr. Shou" by Lu Xun).

Because he was well aware of the corruption in the officialdom and the dangers of the officialdom, Fenglan Gong issued regulations and only taught the "Four Books", "Five Classics", "The Hundred Schools of Thought" and other ancient literary books left by the ancients in the Sanwei Bookstore. It is not allowed to teach the knowledge content required to obtain imperial examination titles such as test poems and eight-part essays. In other words, Sanwei Bookstore was not designed to cultivate officials for the Qing Dynasty. This good intention must not be heretical at the time (much less likely to be recorded in writing). However, Duke Fenglan instructed his son Shouyunqiao (that is, Duke Yunchao) to put a plaque with the name "Sanyu Bookstore" on it when he bought the house. When the word "yu" is changed to the word "flavor", the meaning of the "three flavors" is clarified: "clothes are warm, vegetable roots are fragrant, and poems and books have a long taste." Take these three sentences as the teaching policy of the private school, and use them to This is an ancestral family rule passed down from generation to generation. Children and grandchildren must abide by it seriously, and they are not allowed to become officials in the Qing Dynasty. We must be willing to be ordinary people, rely on our own labor, and be willing to live a poor life. It should be said that the children and grandchildren have abided by this purpose of Duke Fenglan very well. In the scholarly family inherited by the Shou family for several generations, the two elders, like my grandfather Jingwu Gong and my father Shou Jianlin, only passed the examination. After he became a scholar in the county and obtained the qualification to be a private school teacher, he no longer took the imperial examination and taught in the "Shoujia Mentai" for life. My uncle Shou Xiaotian also only passed the examination until he was elected, and no longer sought other fame. Although based on his profound knowledge, it was easy to get a position and become an official.

However, everything changes and things are unpredictable. There is still a descendant in the Shou family who is unwilling to abide by the ancestral precepts. A grandson of Duke Yunchao, my uncle Shou Zhulin, wants to leave. Another way. He enthusiastically participated in the imperial examination. And when the exam period was about to come, he escaped from the confinement room set up by his father to prevent him from taking the exam, hung a rope from the upstairs window where he was locked, and escaped to take the exam. In the end, he won the first place in the imperial examination and was appointed as the magistrate of Nong'an County, Jilin. This violation of ancestral precepts greatly angered my grandfather, who called him "unfilial" and even expressed his disapproval of this "unfilial son" for a long time. The strength of my grandfather’s “three flavors spirit” is evident.

There are many opinions about the "three flavors" in Sanwei Bookstore

As mentioned before, the original meaning of "three flavors" is "warm cloth, fragrant vegetable roots, and long flavor of poetry and books", that is, It contains the purpose of the ancestors when they founded the private school. Although it is a family rule that must be followed, it must not be leaked to the outside world because of its anti-Qing consciousness. After Sanwei Bookstore attracted people's attention due to Lu Xun, they naturally became interested in the meaning of "three flavors". When someone asked Shouzhu Lin, he replied: "The taste of reading scriptures is like rice beams, the taste of reading history is like delicacies, and the taste of various schools of thought is like glutinous rice." That is to say, the three flavors are used to describe the reading of three kinds of ancient books. . But this statement makes many people find it difficult to believe and agree with it. This is because Sanyu is cited in the "Three Kingdoms·Dong Yu Biography": "Winter is the remainder of the year, night is the remainder of the day, cloudy and rainy is the remainder of the sun.

"It was originally meant to teach people to cherish time and study diligently. Why change "Sanyu" to "Sanwei" and use taste to describe ancient books to persuade people to study? Some people doubt that a well-educated scholar like Shou Jingwu Scholars - "the most upright, simple and knowledgeable people in this city" (Lu Xun's words), how can they use "meat", "meat sauce" and the like to describe studying? It makes sense to use a plaque for a restaurant or pub as a plaque for a bookstore, but this explanation seems far-fetched. In addition, there are also some researches that "Sanyu" means "after-work, after-dinner, after-tea", and there are even references to "Sanyu" written by Li Shu in the Song Dynasty. In "Handan Bibliography": "The taste of poems and books is Taigen (gravy used in ancient sacrifices), the history is Zhezu, and the son is glutinous rice." It is for the three flavors of books. "There are so many of these. A "Three Flavors" plaque has been interpreted to have so many flavors, which is probably something our ancestors never expected.

Time flies by. Look. In this situation of divergent opinions and disagreements, I felt that I should clarify the truth. Now I no longer have to stick to the family rules and keep silent about the ancestral teachings, so I wrote a book in the "Shaoxing Lu Xun Research Special Issue" detailing my childhood in the "Sanwei Bookstore". Since I received enlightenment education, I have been immersed in everything I have learned, especially the "Three Flavors Spirit" that my grandfather Jing Wugong, my father Shou Jianlin, and my uncle Shou Xiaotian taught me more than once, that "clothes are warm, vegetables are fragrant, and poems and books are delicious." The deep impression left in my mind since childhood

The original meaning of "three flavors" should not be obscured

Many benevolent people have worked hard to explore the meaning of three flavors. To a certain extent, it comes down to advising people to cherish their time and study seriously. However, these three flavors are not the other three flavors. From the perspective of respecting historical facts, I think we should seek truth from facts. The original meaning of "Sanwei" should not be allowed to be misrepresented, or even evolved to cover up the establishment and development of Sanwei Bookstore, the purpose of running a school, and the original appearance of teaching people in the classroom.

There is no limit to the sea of ??learning and exploration. There is no end to it. Recently, I learned about new information about "Three Flavors" from the vast ancient local chronicles. I would like to add this to the following: During the Shunzhi period of the early Qing Dynasty, a Gansu person named "Wang Wangwang" who was an official in Wenlinlang, because of Unable to endure the strife of the officialdom, he resigned and lived in seclusion in the countryside. In his later years, he wrote a painting of the nave and two couplets for someone. What was written on the nave was actually "the cloth is warm, the roots of the vegetables are fragrant, and the poetry and books are delicious". It is more than 160 years before the establishment of Sanwei Bookstore! It can be seen that these three ancestral sayings passed down by Duke Jingwu must have been seen by Yun Qiaogong, and they felt the same way, so they borrowed them. The content of "Three Flavors".