Thursday, 30 October 2025
Saturday, 2 August 2025
朱維德:〈廢壘殘臺魔鬼嶺 波光輪影鯉魚門〉(1968)
朱維德:〈廢壘殘臺魔鬼嶺 波光輪影鯉魚門〉, 《香港電視》,第30期,1968年6月5日,頁56-57。
廢壘殘臺魔鬼嶺 波光輪影鯉魚門
有想携妻挈子舉家趁週末假期外出旅行、而怕舟車擠廹的,有時乘半日閒暇舒活筋骨,找尋刺淚而不願花太長時間於交通往來的,有想率領一隊學生到郊野活動,而又想節省車船費的,我為他們介紹這一個去處。
這一帶地方,說風景,有鯉魚門燈塔;說古蹟,有天后廟、魔鬼嶺與石刻;說脆奇,有殘壘炮台,說飲食,有飯店、茶室,食檔。到過鯉魚門的,會回想燈塔鄰近的巖石海濱、會嚼味天后廟一帶的恬靜寧息,亦會懷念魔鬼嶺的神秘。
鯉魚門位於新九龍半島的尖端,住在香港的到鯉魚門去要渡海。從筲箕灣興民街有小汽船載客渡海。汽船橫渡鯉魚門海峽,將達對岸,山嘴有亂巖前伸,上建燈塔,色彩鮮燦。正觀望間,汽船已入酒灣,泊岸登陸。
碼頭一帶,為鯉魚門村,食肆店舖,全集中於此。離船上岸轉右(南向)濱海而行,不久,海邊巖石聳立,燈塔建於巖頂,雄踞海口。本來海角巨石,險峭難登,但建塔時砌叠石級,堅立鐵梯,架設橫橋,遊人亦可攀臨。此塔雅號「鴛鴦塔」,春秋麗日,或單人來此,倚塔閱讀垂釣;或情侶一雙,併坐談心;或知己三五,促膝話舊。海面郵輸來去,小帆飄盪,襟胸舒暢。
離燈塔濱海東南行,經媽環村(海傍道東),過小石礦場,即抵天后宮,左鄰緊接協天宮。天后宮為海盜鄭連昌所建,傳鄭連昌乃鄭成功部將鄭建後裔,鄭建因不及撤往台灣,致流為海盜。鄭連昌盤據鯉魚門後之「鯉魚山」,勢力雄厚,兇悍善戰,故人稱此山為「惡魔山」(魔鬼嶺)。鄭連昌於海濱建天后廟,並立有小碑:「天后宮,鄭連昌立廟,日後子孫管業。乾隆十八年(按即公元一七五三年)春立。」現仍可考。天后廟附近,羣石堆叠如林,摩崖石刻頗多,有蕭雲庵之「江南烟景」,區建公之「澤流海澨」,陳昭倫之「海天攬秀」林伯聰之「香海襟喉」,陳本照之「海角潮音」及「奇石鍾靈」等,題者皆時人,亦堪遊觀。又廟後石叢間有廢鐵扶梯,為開埠初期英人所建燈塔遺迹,亦堪憑吊。
遊者如有探奇心情與攀登氣力,可於廟後覓路登山,沿山脊上行,詣魔鬼嶺。
魔鬼嶺高二二一公尺,古名鷄婆山,又稱炮台山。踞鯉魚門之北,握維多利亞港東面海門,形勢險要。第二次世界大戰前,英軍於山頂建立三大炮壘,控守港口。並特於清水灣道另闢一支路(即安得遜道),南行達此山腰,以為輸運。今時炮壘已全毀,但從遺迹仍可想見當日之規模。魔鬼嶺頗僻靜,廢堡殘台,空房破屋,叢生蔓草,特顯荒寂,令遊者生神秘感。近山頂一段,(頁56)驟視貌似萬里長城。某次余冒風雨上登,衰草纏踁,有出塞風味。登臨山巔,縱目四眺,鯉魚門海峽全露眼底,過往船艦,目標甚顯。前望南堂海峽(達康海峽),橫瀾、宋崗二島,飄浮涯涘。左隔將軍澳接田下半島,右障筆架山連紫灣北角。回顧九龍灣,機場跑道平矮如板,頓覺天地稊米,令人有出世之思。
魔鬼嶺東麓有新闢小村名流水坑,北坡有山徑轉左穿嶺南新村可回鯉魚門。若轉右可下茶果嶺出官塘。
鯉魚門碼頭有小艇出售海鮮,遊者若不願歸家舉炊者,可携海鮮至飯唐囑代辦。小輪午夜始停航,飯後緩步海濱,對岸萬家燈火,漁光點點,繁星閃閃,更覺詩情畫意。(頁57)
附圖5張。
Saturday, 5 July 2025
American Books in the Pacific: A Series of Articles on Bookshops Selling American Books in Hawaii, the Philippines and the Orient – V – Chinese-American Publishing Co. The American Book Shop
The Publisher's Weekly, Vol. 127, no. 4, June 22, 1935.
Idea for window display suggested by Michael Gross
The Chinese-American Publishing Co. is at 78 Nanking Road. So is the American Book Shop. So is
the United Book and Stationery Co. It’s all one concern with one proprietor –
Mr. Mortimer. Here’s the story.
Monday, 16 June 2025
American Books in the Pacific: A Series of Articles on Bookshops Selling American Books in Hawaii, the Philippines and the Orient – IV – The Commercial Press, Shanghai by W. S. Hall
The Publishers' Weekly, Vol. 127, no. 17, April 27, 1935.
At ten o’clock in the morning of January 29, 1932, three Japanese bombing planes came winging out of the sky over Chapei, circled and wheeled about for a time in the neighborhood of the Commercial Press and then, to the utter amazement of the Chinese who stood watching their movements, dropped six explosive shells into the main buildings. By three o’clock in the afternoon the largest printing plant in the world was ablaze. The Chinese Government made furious protest; and much has since been said, pro and con. But one thing is certain. The destruction of the plant was complete. A military maneuver it was entirely successful
Fighting continued in the vicinity
of the plant for months, and no real effort at salvage was attempted until the
withdrawal of the Japanese troops in June. On January 29, 1933, the Press
printed 32-page pamphlet entitled “One Year of Rehabilitation of the Commercial
Press, Ltd.” By Francis K, Pan, D.C.S. A panoramic frontispiece gives a view of
the Press before the destruction. Six following illustrations are – Remains
of Plant No. 1 and the Old Head Office (two shattered walls at right
angles, seeming holding each other); Section of the Letterpress Room
(six or seven presses almost covered with twisted girders, bricks and plaster);
Book Godown (warehouse) in Complete Ruins (not a book was saved); The
Oriental Library on Fire*[1]
(housing the Editorial Department of the Commercial Press and just across
Paoshan Road from the other buildings. First editions dating as far back as the
Sung Dynasty and the complete collection of Yen Fung Lau classics were
altogether lost to the flames); photographic portraits of Dr. Chang Yuen Chi,
Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Mr. Y. W. Wong, Managing Director. Then
follow 26 pages of text, a more-or-less matter-of-fact record of what had been
accomplished in one year. The loss and the dame amount to $16,000,000*[2],
3700 employees had no work and lost, many of them, their neighboring homes in
the bombardment. Nevertheless this plain story of salvage and reorganization is
an unconscious tribute, every word of it, to Chinese stolidity, Chinese
courage, Chinese persistence, Chinese philosophy or Chinese character, however
one wants to put it.
We were taken from the main office
at Honan Road, to see the work being done on the buildings at Chapei. Many of
the buildings, too dangerously damaged, were torn down altogether, and the
bricks used for new walls. Others were re-girded, patched up where needed,
plastered and gleamed like new. We (p. 1671) stood on one floor – a shambles –
little different from what it appeared after the destruction. We ascended a
flight of stairs to see a group of workmen putting the finishing touches to a
floor, completely done over. But the most amazing reclamation was that of the
machinery. I said the Press was completely destroyed. So it seemed, but that is
not literally true. One tiny mark was overlooked, or missed, by the otherwise
thorough marksmen – the machine shop. This was most fortunate, for it permitted
the repair work to proceed from the original headquarters. Result – printing
presses, cutting, sewing, casing machines and other function I could not
determine, once gruesomely smashed and twisted, now stand nicely greased,
covered with tarpaulins and ready for work! So much for calamity and how to
face it.
The Press was founded, under its
present name, in February, 1896, by the late Z. F. How, Y. U. Bau and Y. C.
Bau. There were practical printers and commenced operations with two presses in
an alley-way off Kiangse Road. Two years later they moved to a twelve-room
house on Peking Road.
At this point, realizing the job I
had on my hands, I asked if it would be possible for me to get a brief typewritten
history of the company’s progress together with a detailed account of its
present departments rather than depend on memory and scratch notes. It arrived
the next day. Here it is, carrying on from the house on Peking Road:
In 1902, a new printing
establishment was built on North Fukien Road, with a separate business office
on Honan Road. In 1903, an editorial department was established on Boone Road. In
1905, the plant was moved to the present site on Paoshan Road. Buildings were
completed fort the printing and editorial departments. In 1906, a sales
building on Honan Road was completed. In 1923, an up-to-date, spacious,
reenforced concrete printing building was added to the plant, besides several
smaller buildings in 1924, the Library and Editorial Building was completed.
The management of the company
consists of a board of thirteen directors and three auditors elected annually
by shareholders. One managing director and two managers, together with their
staff in the Head Office, supervise the activities of the company, which are
grouped under the function control of editorial, sales, and works divisions.
The company maintains two branch
printing works in Peiping and Hongkong, more than thirty branch offices, and
over a thousand agencies throughout China and in foreign countries where
Chinese colonies are found.
Editorial Division: The Editorial
Division, which was composed of a few translators in 1903 on Boone Road, now
employs about three hundred scholars who devote their whole time to writing
text-books, translating foreign books, editing and compiling magazines and
other publications. Manuscripts are also accepted from outside authors and
translators who are versed in the knowledge of various sciences. Books on all
subjects, such as ethics, politics, economics, history, geography, science,
mathematics, languages, dictionaries, and encyclopedias, have been published. Up
to February, 1930, there were already more than 30,000 books in Chinese and
other languages to the credit of the company, besides a few hundred more in the
press and under preparation.
It has also been the policy of the
editors to preserve and popularize the rare limited editions of Chinese
classics, besides publishing modern works. “The Treasury of Chinese Classics” –
a collection of more than eighty-five hundred volumes of rare editions of
Chinese classics – was reproduced by the
lithographic process in 1920 and hailed by Chinese scholars at home and abroad.
“The Complete Library” – a
collection of books published by the Company sufficient in itself to constitute
a nucleus for any public library – was issued in 1929 under the editorship of
Y. W. Wong, the present managing director, for a nominal price. It is a
monument to the publishing success of the Company and a distinct contribution
to popular education in China.
Sales Division: The Sales Division,
located on Honan Road, Shanghai, occupies a four-storied reenforced concrete
building with spacious rooms and modern equipment. In addition to the thousands
of its own publications, it sells imported books, stationery, scientific
apparatus, athletic goods, and various other educational supplies. The ground
floor is largely occupied by the company’s own publications. Scientific
apparatus, educational supplies, and imported books occupy the first floor. The
second floor is used partly for offices and partly for storerooms. A dining
room, capable of accommodating about three hundred employees, is found on the
third (1672)
One of the damaged printing buildings of the Commercial Press, Shanghai. Two-fifths of the building is under repair, the other three-fifths is still in a damaged condition.
floor. The building also has a roof garden for the
recreation of employees.
Works
Division: The printing plant occupies about twenty acres of land on Paoshan
Road and consists of ten large and thirteen small modern buildings with a floor
area of five hundred thousand square feet. All buildings are well lighted and
ventilated. Electric lights, filtered water, and a drainage system keep them in
sanitary condition. The whole plant is internally connected by an automatic
telephone system. A twenty-thousand-gallon water tank of reenforced concrete,
connected with an artesian well, furnishes the plant with water. There are more
than three thousand employees, including four hundred women, in the plant. The
company, besides these employees, engages many outside bookbinding
establishments on contract.
The
Letterpress Room and Bindery are located in one building. In the Letterpress
Room are found eighty American and English-made machines, including a battery
of over forty color Miehle presses, two-color Miehle presses, Miehle
perfectors, and a few German machines. Several rotary printing machines are
used for the production of millions of text-books every year. These are the
first rotary machines ever introduced into China for bookwork.
The
Bindery is equipped with many up-to-date automatic wire stitchers, sewing,
folding, cover-making, casing-in, embossing, backing, pressing, ruling, and
Juengst gathering, stitching, and straight-line covering machines. Most of the
women employees of the company work in this room. The making of printing
rollers and electrotype plates and type casting are done in another building.
Dozens of automatic type caster are engaged in making font types in various
sizes in Chinese, English, Russian, Japanese, Hebrew, or German, including different
kinds of fancy types.
The
main building houses the offices of the works, the photo-engraving,
lithographic printing, rotogravure, and art departments. The Lithographic Room
is equipped with dozens of two-color Mann offset presses, Harris automatic
offset presses, aluminum manchines, bronzing and dusting machines , and
flat-bed presses. Rare Chinese paintings and calendars, labels, posters, etc.,
are reproduced and printed here by the million every year.
The
Photo-Engraving Room is well lighted and completely fitted to do all kinds of
half-tone, zinc-etching, collotyping, three-color, and hydrographic mapwork.
Arc lamp, acid-blast etching machines, routing, beveling, and cutting machines
are used. A camera, one of the largest in the world, makes possible the
production of maps and charts in one section by photography. (p. 1673)
The
Machine Shop, located in another building, is equipped with drilling, slotting,
planning, and shaping machines, and two “Milwaukee” Universal milling machines,
a heavy grinding machine, a heavy-duty planer, and a 36” diameter lathe,
besides other lathes. Various types of printing presses are manufactured here
for the use of job printings all over China.
The
Educational Supply Department undertakes the manufacture of all sorts of
physical and chemical apparatus for schools and laboratories, including
kindergarten materials.
The
Chinese typewriter, which was invented by Shu Cheng-tung, is patented and
manufactured by the Commercial Press and has been adopted by most of the
government offices and modern business offices in China.
Affiliated
Organizations: The company has affiliated with it The Oriental Library, The
China Publicity Company, and number of Correspondence Schools.
The
Oriental Library, which was organized primarily for the use of the Editorial
Staff of the Company, has grown to be one of the best-equipped reference
libraries in China and is open to the use of the public. The Library subscribes
to more than 700 different kinds of periodicals from all over the world and
contains one of the most valued collections of rare Chinese books in China,
besides more than 200,000 volumes in Chinese and 100,000 volumes in other
languages.
The
China Publicity Company handles the advertising of the company and acts as
agency for all the periodicals published by the company.
The
Correspondence Schools are maintained under the direction of the Editorial Division
and were established in answer to popular demand in China. They are of very
material assistance to those who are ambitious but have not had the time to
attend regular schools. There have been over 32,000 graduates from these
schools, and they are scattered in many professions in all parts of China.
Welfare
Work: Aside from the able management that has built up this great organization,
the humane view which the Company takes towards its employees no doubt has
contributed to its success. The workmen are the highest paid in China and are
protected by a group life insurance taken out by the company on behalf of all
employees. All workmen and employees receive an annual bonus in proportion to
the record and importance of their services. A pension for the old and retired
or for the families of the deceased is also provided for. A savings department
which pays interest on money deposited by its employees is run by the company. This
encourages many an employee to spare a part of his earnings for rainy days.
Schools for the children of employees are maintained and free scholarships are
provided. In the company’s Dispensary a foreign-trained doctor and corps of
nurses attend to the sick and injured employees. A Nursery is provided for
those women workers who have to feed their babies during working hours and a
maternity allowance is given to expectant mothers. A fire brigade with modern
equipment is in constant attendance and responds even to calls from the
neighborhood.
The
Commercial Press, Ltd., is the largest publisher and manufacturer in the Far
East. The name of the Company is well known to every school child and educated
person in China, as more than seventy per cent of the text-books and reference
and general reading books in use are published by the company. Its influence
permeates the whole country through the manifold services which it renders to
the cause of education in China.
The
closing paragraph is not an over-statement and should perhaps be the end of the
story. But I think mention should be made of one of the company’s present jobs
on hand, a job which is entitled to a more serious term than that.
Its
genesis goes back to the late Ch’ing dynasty when the Emperor Ch’ien Lung
compiled, or ordered compiled, the “Sze K’u Ch’uan Shu,” a complete collection
of all publications and MSS preserved up to the time of compilation and
classified in four main divisions: The Classics, History, Philosophy and
Literature. This gigantic bibliographic-encyclopaedia grew to 79,339 volumes
comprising 3,460 separate titles. Seven sets were printed. Two of them, housed
in Yangchow and Chinkiang were burned during the Taiping Revolution, 1853. The set
in the Wen Yuan Ko Library met the same fate when the allied Anglo-French
troops destroyed Yuen Ming Yuen, Peiping, seven years later. The set in the Wen
Su Ko library t Mukden has not been perused by (p. 1674) Chinese since the
Japanese occupied the city in September, 1931.
Three
sets remain and the Commercial Press is reprinting a "First Series"
of 231 of the rare and important titles in about 2000 volumes. The price for
the set is $360 (U. S.) or £75, Sterling. The last volumes will be ready in
July, and while at the plant we saw some of the books receiving their
tide-stamps — on the bottom edges!
The raison d'etre
for this giant enterprise is simply one of preservation of priceless
literature. This first series is one of pure selection of the best titles by a
committee of fifteen bibliographers called together by the Ministry of
Education.
An idea of the extent of
the company’s publishing business may be gained by a glance at catalog New
No. 2, June 1934, 122 pages of books compiled according to the Dewey System.
The classification headings: General Works, Philosophy, Religion, Social Sciences,
Useful Arts, Fine Arts, Literature, History and Geography. The foreword
stresses the point that particular attention is being given to books that rightly
interpret the East to the West.
The Press issues each month
a house organ. I have a copy at hand, but as it’s entirely in Chinese I can say
no more than that it’s nicely printed and has an attractive cover.
I think the Commercial Press
a most extraordinary institution. I think its accomplishment in rising from
very actual ashes to its present state one of the really heroic feats of our
time. I have never met a more sincere, energetic and courteous personnel. I am
most grateful to Messrs. Wang Kung, Chow and Huang for the help they have given
me in telling me the story of the Commercial Press. I hope they and their staff
have suffered no ill effects from the lecture they invited me to give them on
American publishing – at eight o’clock in the morning. (p. 1675)
[1]* On October 8th, a group of German cultural societies in Chinese
present 3000 volumes in German as a contribution toward the restocking of the
Library. Before the fire there were 100,000 volumes in German alone.
[2]* These are Mexican dollars (Shanghai currency) worth at that time
about $4,000,000 gold.
Monday, 21 April 2025
〈石灰吟〉翻譯
于謙(1398-1457): 〈石灰吟〉
千錘萬擊出深山,
烈火焚燒若等閑。
粉骨碎身全不怕,
要留清白在人間。
英譯:
1. 丁祖馨和Burton Raffel:《中國詩歌精華:從〈詩經〉到當代》 (瀋陽:遼寧大學出版社,1986),頁190-1。
Limestone Song
It was digging, chiseling, cutting that led me into the world.
What can heating, burning, boiling do to hurt me, now?
Reduce me to dust, to powder, I'm not afraid.
So long as I remain stainless, and pure.
2. 王知還:《古今愛國抒情詩詞選》(北京:中國對外翻譯出版公司,1995),頁115。
Lime
Hacked and hammered a thousand times,
From the depth of the mountains it comes.
Through hectic heat and frantic flame,
Unperturbed it stays the same.
Flesh and bone to smithereens crushed,
It still is unafraid, unflushed,
For all it desires from its birth,
Is leaving whiteness to this earth.
3. 王晉熙等:《金元明清絕句英譯》(北京:外語教學與研究出版社,2002),頁86。
On Limestone
After severe hammering, it comes out of deep mountains;
It never minds even if burned in raging fire.
It's ever ready to turn into powder and dust;
To leave cleanliness in the world is its long-cherished intent.
4. 許淵沖:《元明清詩:漢英對照》(北京:海豚出版社,2015),頁29。
Song of the Lime
You come out of deep mountains after hammer blows;
Under fire and water tortures you’re not in woes.
Though broken into pieces, you will have no fright;
You’ll purify the world by washing it e’er white.
元末明初高僧姚廣孝(1335-1418):《逃虛類稿.雙蓮忠禪師傳》( 《四庫全書存目叢書》,《逃虛類稿》,卷四,集28-127上。(南京圖書館藏清鈔本) 《續修四庫全書》,1326,集部。別集,頁664。[清抄本,同南京圖書館藏清鈔本])
記述高僧釋信忠禪師的生平事蹟,
曰: 「安慶平章范公[濤按:范文虎,賈似道女婿,降元],舍所居宅為寺,請忠開山,遂往見公,曰:『知師得自然之智,可無語乎?』以石灰命題,即成偈曰:
工夫打就出深山,
烈火曾經煅一番;
粉骨碎身都不問,
要留明白在人間。
據史洪權(〈《石灰吟》:從僧偈到名詩〉,《文學遺產》2006 年第 5 期,頁88-94,160),該偈應作於元世祖至元二十五年(1288)至二十九年(1292)間。



