古籍鱼尾起源问题研究综述与新探
Review and New Research on the Origin of the Fish Tail in Ancient Books

鱼尾是古籍版式中的重要符号，对版本鉴定意义重大，但其起源尚无定论。目前学界主要有三种观点：一是起源于模仿和代替契口；二是源自纸张折叠需要；三是源于古代契券，由鱼符合而为一创造。文章对这些观点进行分析，认为第一种观点中版刻兴起时图书装订方式及界栏用途表明鱼尾难从简册形制找起源；第二种观点中象鼻对折功能更优且鱼尾对称或源于建筑美，故不认同其源于对折需求；第三种观点因鱼尾说法出现晚且与鱼无生物联系而存疑。同时提出可从宋代服饰、事物等出发探寻鱼尾起源，结合文献分析推测鱼尾或与旗帜有关，最初功能是标示醒目，但目前证据尚不充足，有待更多出土文献解答。
Fishtail is an important symbol in the layout of ancient books, which is of great significance to edition identification, but its origin is still inconclusive. At present, there are three main viewpoints in academic circles: one is that it originated from imitation and substitution; Second, it comes from the need of paper folding; Third, it originated from ancient deeds, which were created by combining fish symbols into one. Based on the analysis of these viewpoints, this paper holds that the way of book binding and the use of the boundary column when the edition engraving rose in the first viewpoint indicate that it is difficult to find the origin of fishtail from the form of simplified books; In the second view, the elephant trunk has better folding function and the fishtail is symmetrical or comes from architectural beauty, so it does not agree that it comes from folding demand; The third view is doubtful because the fishtail theory appeared late and has no biological connection with fish. At the same time, it is suggested that the origin of fish tail can be explored from the costumes and things in the Song Dynasty, and it is speculated that the fish tail is related to the flag by literature analysis. Its original function is to mark the fish tail eye-catching, but the evidence is not enough at present, which needs more unearthed documents to answer.