Publishing, Society and Culture in Pre-Modern China: The Evolution of Print Culture

Abstract

Inoue Susumu 井上進, Chu mgoku shuppan bunkashi: shomotsu to chi no fu m kei 中国出版 文化史: 書物と知の風景 (A Cultural History of Chinese Publishing: Books and the Landscape of Knowledge). Nagoya: Nagoya University Press, 2002. history of the chinese book 1The last decade has witnessed a surge of interest in the study of Chinese publishing and book culture. To be sure, these are not by any means new topics. There is, first of all, a long and rich tradition of book study in China itself. 2 The modern scholar Cao Zhi 曹之, in his introductory text on the study of Chinese books, traces the origins of this tradition back to the Han 漢 (206 BCE-220 CE), to the cataloguing efforts of Liu Xiang 劉向 (77-76 BCE). 3 This early passion for books (and records about books) is reaffirmed throughout the course of Chinese history in the rich store of catalogues and bibliographies produced not only by government command, as with the Yiwen zhi 藝文志(Literary annals) sections of the dynastic histories and the famous Qinding Siku quanshu zongmu tiyao 欽定四庫全書總目提要 (Annotated general catalogue of the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries, authorized by the emperor) produced under the Qianlong 乾隆 emperor (r. 1736-1795), but also by individual book collectors and bibliophiles. 4 In addition to these large-scale catalogues I would like to thank Joseph McDermott for his very useful comments on an earlier draft of this review.