Notes on Notes

Notes on Notes is one of the representative works in essayist and Lu Xun Literary Prize winner Lu Chunxiang's "New Interpretations of Notes" series. The first "notes" in the title refers to the literary notebooks written by men of letters from the Han and Wei dynasties through the Ming and Qing; the second "notes" refers to the reflections and new readings the author wrote after reading these old books. The book has forty sections in all, drawing on dozens of ancient works, including Records of the Western Capital, A Record of Court and Country, Records of Spirits Investigated, Notes from the Old Study, New Tales from a Mountain Dwelling, Miscellaneous Notes from South Village, The Five Miscellanies, Wanli's Wild Chronicles, and Notes from Retirement. Its subjects include historical events and figures, the evolution of institutions, examinations of historical sources and local products, the rise and fall of dynasties, and anecdotes and curiosities about men of letters. The author uses a "two-layer structure": first he retells and interprets the people and events in the old notebooks in clear modern Chinese, then he steps back to analyze and comment on them in light of today's social news and human affairs, sometimes to laughter, sometimes to reflection. He does not engage in difficult textual or bibliographical scholarship; instead, with an essayist's tone and a satirist's edge, he reads fragments from old papers into vivid human comedy, catching reflections of modern life in the gains and losses, absurdities, and wisdom of the ancients. For readers who want to approach classical notebooks but are daunted by the literary language, this is an essay collection that serves as both a guide and a source of quiet amusement, suited to casual browsing.