時報
- Two Great Special Offers
- Zhongfu Bank Dividend Payment Notice
- Fanshan’s Manuscripts of Poetry, Lyrics and Prose
The selected advertisements in Shibao’s September 29, 1926 issue presented offers for books and everyday financial services. The Commercial Press offered English idioms and philosophy reference books at reduced prices with commemorative book vouchers, stressing that only two days remained. Zhongfu Bank listed lending, remittances, foreign exchange and several forms of savings. Guangyi Book Company promoted Fanshan’s literary works through paper quality, cased sets, discounts, mail orders and a network of branches.
This edition covers the three supplied advertisements from the September 29, 1926 issue of Shibao. The Zhongfu Bank excerpt is partial and of low reading confidence; its dividend heading survives, but payment details are not supplied. Explicit [?] markers are retained. Postal and telegraphic notices, some bank provisions, university notices and other advertising text could not be read completely because of small type, merged ink or faint printing. Unconfirmed OCR text is excluded.
Translation
Two Great Special Offers
Two great special offers—only today and tomorrow remain! A Complete Collection of English Idioms with English and Chinese Explanations: regular price 6 yuan, special price 4 yuan, with a complimentary commemorative book voucher worth 0.80 yuan. Dictionary of Philosophy: regular price 5 yuan, special price 3.20 yuan, with a complimentary commemorative book voucher worth 0.60 yuan. After the offer expires, these books will be sold at their regular prices and no book vouchers will be given. The Commercial Press.
Zhongfu Bank Dividend Payment Notice
[?] Our bank handles deposits and loans of various kinds, remittances, and collection and forwarding of funds on clients’ behalf. We also conduct foreign exchange business. Our savings department accepts demand deposits, fixed-term deposits, and installment savings payable in a lump sum at maturity. [?]
Fanshan’s Manuscripts of Poetry, Lyrics and Prose
[?] The entire work is finely printed on superior white Chinese lianshi paper, bound in six volumes and enclosed in one cloth-covered case. Regular price: 2 silver yuan; special price: only 1.20 yuan. Mail orders require an additional 0.13 yuan per set for postage. Fanshan’s Complete Works: all 24 volumes, regular price 4 yuan, now 40% off, postage extra. Fanshan’s Collected Poems and Prose: all 10 volumes, 1.40 yuan, now 40% off, postage extra. Fanshan’s Works Outside the Collected Edition: all six volumes, 1.20 yuan, now 40% off, postage extra. Fanshan’s Fair-Copy Poems and Prose: all two volumes, 0.45 yuan, now 40% off, postage extra. A Selection of Fanshan’s Seven-Character Poems in the Amorous Style: all four volumes, 1.20 yuan, now 40% off, postage extra. Published and distributed by Guangyi Book Company, central section of Qipan Street, Shanghai. Branches: Beijing ● Guangdong ● Hankou ● Changsha ● Jiangxi ● Kaifeng.
Context
How discounts and vouchers encouraged reference-book purchases
The Commercial Press advertisement combines an immediate saving, an additional book voucher and a deadline. The English idiom collection falls from 6 to 4 yuan, while the philosophy dictionary falls from 5 to 3.20 yuan: buyers save 2 yuan and 1.80 yuan respectively before counting the vouchers. The vouchers, worth 0.80 and 0.60 yuan, add an incentive tied to book buying. For these two reference works, the promotion therefore appeals both to the cost of the present purchase and to the prospect of obtaining additional books. The announcement that regular prices will resume and vouchers will cease after tomorrow gives readers a reason to purchase promptly. These terms explain the sales strategy, although the advertisement does not report its results.
A bank serving both savers and customers moving money
Zhongfu’s service list suggests an appeal to people with different financial needs: ready access to deposits, saving for a fixed term, accumulating money through small installments, borrowing, and moving funds across distances and currencies. Its savings department places gradual accumulation alongside the bank’s lending and payment services. A retrospective institutional history provides a comparison from early twentieth-century Shanghai: Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank, founded in 1915, encouraged saving through demand-savings accounts that could be opened with one yuan. The small opening sum reduced the amount needed to begin using a bank. Zhongfu’s installment savings similarly offered a way to build a balance gradually, while remittances, collections and foreign exchange addressed customers’ payment needs. The comparison helps explain the range of services without implying that Zhongfu used the same one-yuan opening threshold.
Fine materials and discounted literary sets
Guangyi presents Fanshan’s manuscripts as a physical book set as well as a literary text: superior white paper, six separately bound volumes and a cloth-covered case make the quality claim tangible. Its advertisement also places this set alongside several other collections of Fanshan’s writings. A library catalogue records an earlier example of Guangyi’s production: a 1919 fourth edition bearing the title Fanshan’s Complete Works, comprising 24 thread-bound volumes in four cases, with a listed price of 4 silver yuan. The volume count and listed price match those of the Complete Works advertised in 1926, connecting the offer to an existing publication history without establishing that the advertised copies were that edition. The advertisement combines this presentation of collected works with discounts and mail-order terms. Its branch list gives buyers additional points of access beyond the Shanghai address.
Original
兩大特價
兩大特價只餘今日明日英華合解英文習語大全定價六元特價四元贈送紀念書券八角哲學辭典定價五元特價三元二角贈送紀念書券六角期滿以後照定價發售且無書券贈送商務印書館
中孚銀行發給股息廣告
[?] 本行經營各種存款放款匯款代理收解兼辦國外滙兌附設儲蓄處收受活期定期及零存整付 [?]
樊山詩詞文稿
[?] 全書用中國上白連史紙精印分訂六册布套一函定價大洋二元特價祇收一元二角函購各加寄費一角三分樊山全集全廿四册定價四元特價六折郵費另加樊山詩文集全書十册一元四角特價六折郵費另加樊山集外全書六册一元二角特價六折郵費另加樊山清稿詩文集全書二册四角五分特價六折郵費另加樊山七言豔體詩鈔全書四册一元二角特價六折郵費另加上海棋盤街中市廣益書局發行分局 ● 北京 ● 廣東 ● 漢口 ● 長沙 ● 江西 ● 開封