These five books are ancient books, but there are many taboos in the printing of ancient books.
Since it is an ancient book, some rules must be followed, so here is a tricky way to identify the printing age of this set of books.
That is to see which emperors' names are avoided in this book.
Therefore, now we must first examine the taboo words in the text, and this requires careful consideration.
Volume 5 of "Yan Fan Lu" written by Cheng Dachang of the Song Dynasty stated this: "In this court order, there are two taboo names: the name of the emperor of the time is the imperial name."
What does this mean? It is what we often see in Song Dynasty books. When encountering the name of the monarch at that time, the four small characters "today's imperial name" are used to avoid taboos.
Fortunately, Chen Wenzhe has a good memory. Otherwise, he had just read reports on this aspect and really couldn't remember how he identified it at that time. At the very least, most people would not remember these details.
But Chen Wenzhe is different. He likes to do appraisals, and appraisals can get achievement points.
Therefore, as long as it is information related to identification, he will remember it specially.
Now, just thinking about it for a moment, he remembered
For example, in this rhyme summary of the Ministry of Rites, there is no ink pen on the right half of the character "heng".
This is obviously to avoid the taboo of Zhao Heng, Zhenzong of the Northern Song Dynasty, indicating that the time when that set of books was engraved was during Renzong's reign or later.
And Renzong Zhao Zhen has never been encountered in the book.
This reveals that the word "Zhen" was avoided. After Renzong, Yingzong Zhao Shu, Shenzong Zhao Xu, Zhezong Zhao Xu, Huizong Zhao Ji, and Qinzong Zhao Huan did not avoid it.
Further proof is that this book cannot be later than the Northern Song Dynasty.
Based on this identification method, Chen Wenzhe quickly deduced that this book was published between the fourth year of Jingyou of Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty (1037) and the fourth year of Zhiping of Yingzong (1067).
Such a set of books must be the earliest extant copies of "The Rhymes of the Ministry of Rites" at home and abroad.
However, this inference must be combined with the material of this book.
The opening of this set of books is printed on leather paper, and the outer bark of the pounded mulberry bark is vaguely visible. Such features will definitely be regarded as important features close to the Northern Song Dynasty version.
One of the advantages of this method of identification is that it is exactly a test book, with rhymes and taboos, which is particularly strict.
If it were before, Chen Wenzhe really didn't understand much about the ancient imperial examinations.
However, this is Chang'an, and he happened to have visited the Forest of Steles before, and the most indispensable thing in the Forest of Steles is the Four Books and Five Classics!
During the previous seven days of learning how to make Jingyun Bell, he would wander around in his dreams, look at other aspects of memory, and learn some different knowledge to relax his mind.
Therefore, he casually took a look at the ancient imperial examination books recorded in the Sui Marquis Pearl.
That is to say, he has a very strong memory. Even if he just glances at it, he can still memorize a large part of it.
Now combined with this rhyme summary of the Ministry of Rites, more things can be discovered.
Chen Wenzhe knew that the Rhyme of the Ministry of Rites discovered previously was a major discovery of a classic!
Because it is an earlier version, its content is more comprehensive, because the later printed version has been deleted many times.
It is not easy for such a set of books to be handed down. It can also be said to be lucky.
Not only was the identification method somewhat lucky, but the fate of the book was also extremely lucky.
Because examination reference books like this are invalidated when the dynasty changes, and will be thrown away when they are no longer useful.
Nowadays, it is difficult for people to find a copy of the Ming Dynasty's "Three Character Classic", but the Northern Song Dynasty's "Rhymes of the Ministry of Rites" has been handed down. How lucky is this?
Of course, luck goes beyond that.
Even in the Northern Song Dynasty, this "holy classic" of rhythm, which was related to the fate of countless students, had gone through several additions, deletions, and modifications.
The Northern Song Dynasty followed the Tang system. The imperial examination not only tested the classic meaning and policy theory, but also tested poems and poems.
When Wang Anshi presided over the reform, there was no longer any examination of poems and poems, and "The Rhymes of the Ministry of Rites" was just like a useless book.
After that, when Sima Guang came to power, he resumed the practices of the previous dynasty.
At this time, the politicians wanted to restore the "Rhymes of the Ministry of Rites", but the language had changed, and there were about a dozen characters involved, so the emperor ordered people to fill in these characters.
However, not long after, it was announced that poetry and prose would not be tested, which meant that the original supplementary exams were invalidated.
The implementation of "The Rhymes of the Ministry of Rites" was already in the Shaosheng reign of the Southern Song Dynasty, and more than a hundred years have passed.
Judging from the naming of the book, this is the only one that is truly called "The Rhymes of the Ministry of Rites".
It can be said that this "Rhymes of the Ministry of Rites" was the "Xinhua Dictionary" at that time.
Each edition of the current "Xinhua Dictionary" is different, and the old edition will soon disappear.
It is this earliest, unabridged version that provides the only basis for modern people to study the evolution of ritual systems at that time and the relationship between related phonology.
In other words, many contents in this book are not available in later versions.
In this way, if future generations want to imitate it, there will be no way to imitate it, unless you are making it up, that is, just making it up out of thin air.
However, how do you edit a book like a dictionary without leaking any flaws?
Therefore, at this time, this five-volume version of the Rhymes of the Ministry of Rites should be considered the real Song Dynasty edition because of the content it records.
At this point, there is still the final step of identification, which is how to determine the "origin" of this set of classics?
You must know that even the Song Dynasty blockbuster editions are divided into folk blockbuster editions and official blockbuster editions.
This is different. Obviously, the official version must be better and more valuable.
However, no matter what time it is, the number of privately-engraved copies is the largest, and the chance of survival is greater.
For example, the set that had been preserved in China was eventually identified as a privately-engraved version.
As for this set, no matter how Chen Wenzhe looked at it, it didn't look like a folk engraving because it was so well-made.
As the saying goes, no matter what time it is, the printed copies in the private sector are not as good as the official ones.
At the very least, the typesetting and printing of the official version is more professional and not too rough. This is the difference between the folk version and the official version.
Looking at the first book, there are obvious official documents on it.
Of course, the existence of such an official document does not mean that it is an official version, but it is just a possibility.
Chen Wenzhe remembers very clearly that when the owner of the previous set of Yunlue books from the Ministry of Rites first told the experts, he said that the set of books was the official edition of the Imperial Academy of the Northern Song Dynasty.
The reason is that there are official documents on the title of that set of volumes.
In fact, the ultimatum was a narration of the words that Dingdu and others had recorded in the Zhazi.
Zazi is a kind of official document in ancient times. It is mostly used for memorial documents, the kind of things that are shown on TV.
Although there are words like "If it can be implemented, it will be sent to the Imperial College for printing and promulgation."
But this is just what Ding Du and others said when they submitted the book. It cannot directly prove that the set of books was carved by Guangyun Publishing House in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Combined with the rough binding style of the book and the presence of several fonts in the book, many experts concluded that it was not the official version of the Imperial Academy of the Northern Song Dynasty, but a private copy.
However, since it is an examination book, the content still provides authoritative official tone.