尺牘

Find an amazing book on the shelf of my father-in-law: 分類尺牘大全. It was published in 1967 - the year that I was born.

"尺牘" is the traditional term of letter writing. For those of a younger generation, it was a compulsory subject when people of my age were in the primary school. We were taught how to properly address the others and what format we should use. It is, in short, a sign that people in the old days were more serious when they communicate.

And because everything is handwritten and the function copy-and-paste has not been invented, we must appreciate what is important and learn how to summarize.

PS. The book is - alas, the letters are - written in traditional Chinese (文言文), and in the eyes of a modern physician, all the business letters become very poetic.