By Xu Xi
The term scholar often brings to mind the widely circulated saying: "A scholar is utterly useless 百無一用是書生". This phrase, originally penned by the Qing Dynasty poet Huang Zhongze, was a form of self-mockery to vent his frustration at his lack of opportunity. Over time, however, it became a common barb used to satirize educated individuals who have grand ambitions but no ability to solve practical social problems.
This raises a vital question: How should a scholar conduct themselves when the nation faces a great crisis and is plunged into chaos? Is their lifelong learning merely "talking on paper," truly "useless" during wartime? Professor Wu Zhen of Renmin University of China, in her new book The Secret Struggle: A Scholar's Wartime Cultural Resistance《暗鬥：一個書生的文化抗戰》, offers a profound answer. Using detailed archives and vivid prose, she uncovers the hidden history of scholar Zheng Zhenduo and his comrades. Trapped in occupied Shanghai during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, they risked their lives to secretly battle various forces to rescue and preserve crucial national books and cultural documents.
The Cultural Front of the War
When we think of war, most of us picture the roar of cannons, billowing smoke, and a hail of bullets on the battlefield. Yet, while the Japanese imperialists launched a military invasion to China, they also conducted a shadowy cultural invasion. Once admirers of Chinese culture, the Japanese coveted not only China's vast territory but also the cultural relics and documents that chronicled its history. In the 1930s, every Japanese invasion division had a "Geographical and Historical Archive Unit 兵要地誌資料班" specifically tasked with collecting and plundering China's local gazetteers, historical materials, maps, and classical texts to aid their military operations and occupation governance. Before an attack, they would use previously gathered intelligence to list important cultural items. Once a location was captured, they immediately launched looting operations, seizing rare books under the guise of "confiscation" and discreetly smuggling them out of the country to prevent future Chinese efforts at recovery. During the war, many rare and invaluable editions were lost to foreign lands.
The Jiangnan region (south of the Yangtze River) had long been a land of prosperity and scholarship. Wealthy merchants and families with a passion for culture built famous libraries, such as the Tianyi Pavilion in Ningbo, the Jiaye Hall in Huzhou, and the Baoshan Tower in Suzhou, housing enormous collections of precious ancient texts. Following the region's fall in late 1937, countless families were forced by their circumstances to sell their ancestral collections. This led to a massive dispersal of books into Shanghai, then the largest market for antique books in the south.
Meanwhile, the Japanese military secret service in Shanghai established the "Committee for the Reception of Books and Documents in Occupied Territories," which targeted both public and private collections for valuable books. Some research institutions from the puppet state of Manchukuo and the United States also flocked to Shanghai, hoping to seize the opportunity to acquire books.
Zheng Zhenduo and the "Society for the Preservation of Documents"
Zheng Zhenduo, then the Dean of the College of Arts at National Jinan University, was a famous book collector himself. Seeing the country's precious ancient texts being lost to foreign hands, he was heartbroken. He resolutely sold his own collection and even took out loans to raise money for the nation to purchase documents. His efforts came to fruition in 1938 when he strenuously lobbied and brokered a deal for the Ministry of Education to purchase sixty-four volumes of the
Manuscript Edition of Ancient and Modern Zaju《脈望館鈔校本古今雜劇》. This national treasure, whose value was considered comparable to the oracle bones of Anyang or the Dunhuang manuscripts, was thus saved from being shipped overseas. Zheng Zhenduo's selfless action resonated with many other scholars. In January 1940, with the support of Jiang Fuchong, the director of the Central Library, scholars remaining in the "Solitary Island" of Shanghai, including Zhang Yuanji (Chairman of Commercial Press), He Bingsong (President of National Jinan University), Zhang Shouyong (President of private Guanghua University), and Zhang Fengju (Professor at Sino-French University)—secretly formed the Society for the Preservation of Documents 文獻保存同志會.
Their mission was to "collect rare books in times of war and chaos, and guard national documents against the destruction of the ages". They worked in secret, battling the various forces coveting China's rare books and serving the nation by acquiring and preserving them. Although the members had different roles, Zhang Yuanji was already in his seventies, and He Bingsong and Zhang Shouyong were busy with their presidential duties. Thus, 42-year-old Zheng Zhenduo became the actual head of the rescue work. He contributed the most effort and often risked his life to negotiate prices directly with book dealers.
A Battle of Wits and Expertise
Acquiring ancient texts for the nation required more than just patriotic fervor and money; it demanded professional knowledge in authenticating different editions and the worldly wisdom to deal with booksellers. Among the cultural figures stuck in Shanghai, Zheng Zhenduo was indeed the best candidate for the job.
He was in his prime, dedicated and responsible. His passion for collecting and his extensive knowledge of book editions made him highly capable. Years of frequenting antique bookstores had made him intimately familiar with the trade's rules, earning him a high reputation among book dealers and collectors. In price negotiations, Zheng Zhenduo would appeal to the national conscience of the book dealers and collectors while respecting commercial rules, ensuring that intermediaries and book vendors could still profit. As a result, when good books surfaced, people were willing to contact him first, allowing the Society for the Preservation of Documents to often complete transactions before their competitors even became aware.
With financial support from the Ministry of Education and the Sino-British Indemnity Fund Committee, the Society fought a secret war of wits against the enemy. In less than two years, from early 1941 to late 1942, they acquired and preserved approximately 100,000 volumes of ancient texts, including about 48,000 volumes of rare editions dating from the Song and Yuan dynasties. This quantity was comparable to the rare books held by the National Peiping Library at the time—in other words, they successfully preserved the equivalent of a national-level ancient texts library.
The Perilous Journey to Safety
After the books were purchased, securing them became a major headache, as enemy forces were hunting the precious collection. Initially, Zheng Zhenduo and his colleagues scattered the purchased books in their homes and various locations within the foreign concessions. Using an underground network within the postal service, they secretly circumvented Japanese inspections and sent the books in small batches by land to the Central Library in Chongqing. However, this method was cumbersome, limited in quantity, and after June 1940, Chongqing itself became unsafe due to multiple bombing raids by the Japanese, which destroyed several libraries.
When Japan, Germany, and Italy signed a military alliance on September 27, 1940, joining the Axis powers, the British and French concessions in Shanghai faced imminent invasion. The team agreed to select a batch of rare editions and quickly transport them to Hong Kong for temporary storage, to be moved inland once the situation stabilized. Through Zheng Zhenduo's careful planning, in the summer of 1941, over three thousand works were divided into more than 1,700 parcels. Using secret connections within the Customs Service, they managed to bypass inspections and send the packages, one after another, to Hong Kong.
The recipient of this shipment in Hong Kong was Xu Dishan, Zheng Zhenduo's long-time friend and then head of the Chinese Department at the University of Hong Kong. Upon receiving his friend's letter, he unhesitatingly accepted the heavy responsibility, storing the books at the Fung Ping Shan Library at the University of Hong Kong (now the University Museum and Art Gallery at 90 Bonham Road).
Tragically, Xu Dishan died suddenly of a heart attack on August 4, 1941. His colleagues, Chen Junbao(Director of the Fung Ping Shan Library) and Ma Jian(Professor of the Chinese Department), took over the custody of the books. As the war escalated, the situation in Hong Kong grew increasingly tense. To prepare for the worst, the Central Library planned to ship the ancient texts to the United States and temporarily store them in the Library of Congress. However, the process of stamping each book with the official library seal caused a long delay, and they missed the ship.
On December 8, 1941, the Japanese attacked Hong Kong, and on December 25, the colony fell. Three days later, the Japanese military police discovered the 111 cases of ancient texts, which had been prepared for shipment to the U.S., during a search of the Fung Ping Shan Library. The Japanese seized them and transported them to the Imperial Library in Ueno, Tokyo. Nevertheless, Zheng Zhenduo and Chen Junbao never forgot about the books that had fallen into enemy hands. Immediately after the victory of the war, Chen Junbao began the process of recovery. After learning the books' whereabouts from a British friend, he immediately informed the Ministry of Education. The Nationalist Government sent a special representative to Tokyo to demand their return. The books bore the collection seals of the Central Library and the Sino-British Indemnity Fund Committee. Coupled with the catalogue compiled by Zheng Zhenduo and the unit number of the Japanese forces that seized the books, provided by Chen Junbao, the Japanese had no way to deny the theft. In May 1947, over 30,000 volumes of the plundered rare ancient texts finally returned to China.
The Secret Struggle
During the eight years of the full-scale War of Resistance, many scholars and intellectuals relocated to the interior to continue teaching and cultivating talent.
Zheng Zhenduo, however, chose to remain in Shanghai, secretly acquiring books and documents for the nation. Old friends like Ba Jin and Ye Shengtao wrote to urge him to leave, but due to the need for secrecy, he couldn't reveal the work he was doing, leading to much misunderstanding and criticism.
To ensure safety, Zheng Zhenduo and other participants often maintained single-line contacts, and he himself was often at the center of the "secret struggle" without a complete picture of the overall effort. For a long time, our understanding of this period relied mainly on the recollections of Chinese participants. Many details remained unclear, and the true extent of the danger they faced was not fully appreciated, leading to an inadequate assessment of their immense contribution.
Professor Wu Zhen spent over a decade traveling to major libraries and archives in Japan to find relevant historical materials. By comparing and analyzing both Chinese and Japanese historical records, she has painted a comprehensive and in-depth picture of the risks and hardships Zheng Zhenduo and the Society for the Preservation of Documents undertook to save the nation's precious documents.
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, revisiting this hidden history of cultural resistance reveals the absurdity of the saying "a scholar is useless". Scholars also cherish the ambition to serve the nation. In a time of national crisis, patriotic scholars not only take up arms, but they also use their professional knowledge to serve the country and ensure the continuation of the Chinese cultural lifeline.
Xu Xi is a literary scholar teaching at BNBU, Zhuhai. Xu holds a PhD from HKU.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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