While Chu Chen took the books out of the package one by one, Uncle Wu and the others beside him carefully examined each book as it emerged. They were basically able to confirm that they were genuine.
Twenty minutes later, Chu Chen had opened all five oil-paper packages. Aside from the four volumes of Four Tones of the Ape and one volume of Nanci Xulu, the thickest package also contained some letters. Based on everyone's examination, they appeared to be correspondence between Xu Wei and several friends exchanging ideas on scholarship.
After looking over the manuscripts and letters, Uncle Wu's face was full of admiration. He said, "Setting aside these precious letters, the fact that Xu Wei's manuscripts of Four Tones of the Ape and Nanci Xulu could have been preserved so completely until now is already extraordinarily rare and difficult."
Zhao Xueyi sighed. "Exactly! I think the reason these manuscripts and letters were sealed so securely was very likely to prevent them from being destroyed. Perhaps the collector never expected them to remain stored away for so long, which allowed them to be preserved so completely until today."
Hearing this, Fang Jinbo asked in confusion, "Why would Xu Wei's books have been destroyed?"
Qi Baofu said, "You should know about the literary inquisitions of the Qing Dynasty, right? Xu Wei's Four Tones of the Ape was a banned book at the time."
"Leave one's seat for fear of hearing about literary inquisitions; write books only to make a living."
These were lines from Gong Zizhen's Ode to History. Their general meaning was that one left the gathering midway because one feared hearing news and discussions about literary inquisitions, and that writing books was merely a means of making a living.
Throughout history, quite a few scholars had been convicted