世界日報
- Bound Volumes of the World Daily Supplement
- Notice from Lawyer Gao Rang
- List of Books Sold on Commission by This Paper's Publishing Department
The World Daily of Beijing on 22 October 1926 promoted bound monthly volumes of its literary supplement, edited by Peking University professor Dr. Liu Bannong. The advertisement praised their fine printing, about 120 pages and more than 150 pieces per volume, and an equal balance of learning and enjoyment, and it listed Volume 1 contents such as Indian fables, a short play, poems and diaries. A lawyer announced that the board of the Beijing Securities Exchange had engaged him to recover money owed to it, giving debtors one month from 15 October to repay principal and interest. The paper's publishing department also listed books it sold on commission, priced from 0.15 to 0.50. This reading covers these three items and leaves the page's medicine advertisements and Sibu Congkan prospectus unread.
This reading covers three legible items on the page: the supplement advertisement, the lawyer's notice and the book list. The supplement advertisement was read with low confidence; gaps are marked [?], and the price figure for each volume is missing. The lawyer's name appears as 高穰 in the heading and 高穠 in the notice text, and the notice excerpt also contains fragments of neighbouring advertisements. The dark-background medicine advertisements, the small-type book lists, the Sibu Congkan prospectus and parts of a telephone bureau notice are largely illegible and are not translated.
Translation
Bound Volumes of the World Daily Supplement
World Daily. Bound Volumes of the World Daily Supplement. The World Daily Supplement is edited by Dr. Liu Bannong, professor at Peking University, and most of those who write for it are likewise among the most accomplished scholars of the day. Each bound volume gathers a month's contents into a single book. Printing and binding are both extremely fine, entirely different from the ordinary crude volumes bound from old newspapers. Each volume runs to about 120 pages and contains more than 150 pieces. The contents are rich, giving equal weight to learning and to enjoyment: something every young person should have in hand for the hours after class.
Volumes 1, 2 and 3: each copy sold at a net price in silver dollars, plus postage of 2 fen.
Volume 1: A Scene in Wartime; [?] Indian Fables 20 [?]; Bandit (fiction); The Snow God (short play); Seven Poems of Homesick Feeling; Liang Rengong's Kidney Removal; Four Miscellaneous Essays; Light Songs [?]; ...'s Songs; In the Little Restaurant; Mr. Zhou; The Shopkeeper Said; Lu [?] Diary; Instant Diary; [?] Preface; Zhengsan Dian; Translated Songs [?]; ... Pieces; Village Prose [?]; Love Songs of [?]...
Notice from Lawyer Gao Rang
General distributor: World Daily, Beijing.
Notice from Lawyer Gao Nong. I, the undersigned lawyer, have been commissioned by the board of directors of the Beijing Securities Exchange to handle the recovery of debts owed to the Exchange. All outstanding debts must be repaid, principal and interest, within one month from October 15. This is hereby declared.
... subscription: still at the subscription price, with no increase.
Books sold on commission by this paper's publishing department. This paper's publishing department sells on commission valuable books of every kind published in China.
List of Books Sold on Commission by This Paper's Publishing Department
Books sold on commission by this paper's publishing department. This paper's publishing department sells on commission valuable books of every kind published in China. The list of books entrusted to this paper for sale is summarized below.
Title / Author / Net price
Journal of Law and Politics, eighth-anniversary issue: 0.35
Zhizhu, Lu Xin: 0.15
[?]passant's Poems: 0.50
Drifting Clouds, Lü Yunqin: 0.40
Title: The Sino-French Educational World; Ou'erla; Dream Traces; Dawn Breeze
Context
Dr. Liu Bannong, the editor named in the advertisement
The advertisement sells the bound volumes on the name of their editor, 'Peking University professor Dr. Liu Bannong.' Liu was a Chinese poet and linguist and a leader in the May Fourth Movement. His doctorate was recent: he gained his PhD in 1925 at the Institut de Phonétique de la Sorbonne, University of Paris, and returned to China the same year to begin a university teaching career. In 1926, shortly after his return, he accepted an invitation from his old friend Cheng Shewo to run the World Daily Supplement. By stressing both 'Dr.' and 'professor,' and by claiming that most contributors were accomplished scholars, the advertisement used Liu's new academic standing as its main selling point.
How the supplement balanced learning and enjoyment
The advertisement promises 'equal weight to learning and to enjoyment' and lists Indian Fables among the contents of Volume 1. That series ran from the supplement's first issue, translated by Liu Beimao and checked by Liu Bannong. The literary scholar Yuan Yidan, examining the supplement's contents, concludes that although Liu framed it as instruction through entertainment, he leaned toward 'learning' rather than 'enjoyment.' Yuan also notes that the editorship lasted only a little over half a year, and calls it a farewell performance by the returning 'warrior' of the New Culture movement. The three volumes already on offer in October 1926 are thus a record of a venture that would prove short-lived.
Cheng Shewo's paper and an old ally's objection
The supplement appeared in a paper built by the newspaperman Cheng Shewo, who founded World Evening News, World Daily and World Illustrated. Liu's arrangement with Cheng drew protest from within his own circle. When the supplement was announced, Qian Xuantong wrote to object that he did not want his writing to keep company with 'Mingzhu' and 'Chunming waishi.' Liu replied that his supplement had nothing to do with the World Daily's Mingzhu supplement, edited by Zhang Henshui. The exchange shows that one newspaper ran two distinct supplements, and that Liu's New Culture friends wanted his to be kept clearly apart from the other.
The Beijing Securities Exchange and its outstanding debts
The lawyer's notice states only that the Exchange's board had engaged him to recover money owed to it, and that debtors had one month from 15 October to repay principal and interest. It names no debtors and does not say how the debts arose. The institution had been a pioneer: according to an economic overview by Ping Li, the Beiyang government enacted a securities transaction law in 1914 and in June 1918 founded the Beijing Stock Exchange, the first securities exchange in China. Li also describes how a speculative boom ended when stock prices slumped sharply and many exchanges and trust companies collapsed, beginning the 1921 'unrest of trust companies and exchanges.' These accounts do not describe the Beijing exchange in 1926. The notice shows the exchange, eight years after its founding, turning to a lawyer to call in its accounts; whether the debts dated from the 1921 slump or from later trading cannot be determined from the page.
The Sibu Congkan prospectus beside the notices
The same page carried a dense prospectus for the Sibu Congkan, and the line about subscriptions remaining 'at the subscription price, with no increase' that intrudes into the lawyer's notice appears to come from a neighbouring subscription advertisement. The Sibu Congkan was a collection of 504 works in 3,134 volumes published by the Commercial Press between 1919 and 1936. It reproduced its texts by photolithography, which yielded better editions than any typeset editions then available. Its three series appeared in 1922, 1932 and 1936. A subscription offer printed in October 1926 therefore came four years after the first series and six years before the second; the legible fragments do not show exactly what was being offered.
Original
世界日報副刊合訂本
世界日報世界日報副刊合訂本世界日報副刊， 爲北大教授劉半農博士主編， 担任撰述者， 亦多一時績學之士， 合訂本乃彙集一月所載， 裝爲一冊， 印刷裝潢， 均極精美， 與尋常以舊報裝訂， 形式粗劣者， 完全不同， 每冊約一百二十頁， 作品在一百五十種以上， 內容豐富， 講學與趣味并重， 青年課餘， 所當人手一編也。 第一卷第二卷第三卷每本實售大洋加郵費二分郵第一卷戰時的一幕 [?] 印度寓言廿 [?] 匪 (小說) 雪神 (短劇) 鄉感七首梁任公割腎雜文四篇輕歌 [?] 的歌小飯店裏周先生掌櫃道陸 [?] 日記馬上日記 [?] 序正三點譯歌 [?] 篇鄉文 [?] 物的情歌
律師高穰啟事
總發行所北京世界日律師高穠啟事本律師承北京證券交易所理事會委託辦理收回外欠事件所所有欠款自十月十五日起務於一個月內將本息歸還以外特此聲明次預約仍照預約價不加本報出版股代售書本報出版股。 代售國內各種有價值之圖書
本報出版股代售書目
本報出版股代售書本報出版股。 代售國內各種有價值之圖書日委託本報代售之書目。 摘要錄左。 書名著者實售價目法政學報八週年紀念號 ○， 三五治注盧信 ○， 一五 [?] 泊桑的詩 ○， 五 ○ 漫雲呂沄沁 ○， 四 ○ 書名中法教育界歐兒拉夢痕曉風