Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-n8gtw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-07T02:07:06.251Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Dance of “Old” and “New” in Chinese Print Culture, 1860s-1955

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2017

Cynthia Brokaw
Cynthia Brokaw*
Affiliation:
Brown University E-mail: cynthia_brokaw@brown.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Argument

Scholars of modern Chinese publishing and book culture focus on the dramatic transformations that took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the new technologies that enabled “mass” printing and the development of “modern” genres of print. They often neglect the fact that xylography remained a working technology through much of the Republican period and even into the People's Republic of China. Here I examine the continued use of woodblock printing and the continuing popularity of “traditional” textual genres from two perspectives. First, from a “bottom up” perspective, I examine the production and sale of woodblock texts in rural markets, often in the face of efforts by both the Republic and the People's Republic to prohibit their use. Second, from a perspective from the top, I consider the deliberate choices made by the government, some elite book collector-publishers, and Daoist and Buddhist devotees to print certain works xylographically.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 30 , Issue 3: From Qing to China: Knowledge Systems in Transformation , September 2017 , pp. 281 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Andrews, Julia, and Shen, Kuiyi. 1998. “The Modern Woodcut Movement.” In A Century in Crisis: Modernity and Tradition in the Art of the Twentieth Century, edited by Andrews, Julia F. and Shen, Kuiyi, 213–225. New York: Guggenheim Museum.Google Scholar
“Baogao chuli Chongqingshi Wenhuaju guanyu shoujiao jiushu de baogao” 報告處理重慶市文化局關於收繳舊書的報告 [Report on Handling the Report of the Chongqing Cultural Bureau on the Collection of Old Books]. 1953. In Chuanbei renmin xingzheng gongshu xinwen chubanchu, Jianchuan 川北人民行政公署新聞出版處, 建川 [Office in Charge of News and Publishing of the People's Government of Northern Sichuan, Jianchuan] 54, juan 29, number 41. Sichuan Provincial Archives.Google Scholar
Borthwick, Sally. 1983. Education and Social Change in China: The Beginnings of the Modern Era. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Brokaw, Cynthia. 2007. Commerce in Culture: The Sibao Book Trade in the Qing and Republican Periods. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Asia Center.Google Scholar
Brokaw, Cynthia. 2010. “Commercial Woodblock Publishing in the Qing (1644-1911) and the Transition to Modern Print Technology.” In From Woodblocks to the Internet: Chinese Publishing and Print Culture in Transition, circa 1800 to 2008, edited by Brokaw, Cynthia and Reed, Christopher A., 39–58. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brokaw, Cynthia. 2015. “Regional Publishing and Late Imperial Scholarship: The Zunjing shuyuan 尊經書院 of Chengdu and Scholarly Publication in Late-Qing Sichuan.” In Imprimer autrement: Le livre non commercial dans la Chine imperial, edited by Bussotti, Michela and Drège, Jean-Pierre, 597–635. Geneva: Librairie Droz.Google Scholar
Sibin, Cao 曹思彬, Weixiong, Lin 林维熊, and Zhi, Zhang 张至, eds. 1983. Guangzhou jinbainian jiaoyu shiliao 广州近百年教育史料 [Historical Documents on the Last Hundred Years of Education in Guangzhou]. Topical issue of Guangzhou wenshi ziliao zhuanji 广州文史资料专辑 [Special Edition of Materials on Guangzhou Culture and History]. No volume or issue number provided. In the Guangzhou Municipal Library.Google Scholar
Chengdu shizhi – Tushu chuban zhi 成都市志 – 图书出版志 [Chronicle of Chengdu City – Chronicle of Books and Publishing]. 1998. Edited by Chengdushi difangzhi bianzuan weiyuanhui 成都市地方志编纂委员会 [Editorial Committee for Chronicle of Chengdu City]. Chengdu: Sichuan cishu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Esposito, Monica. 2009. “The Daozang Jiyao Project: Mutations of a Canon.” Daojiao: zongjiao, lishi yu shehui 道教:宗教, 歷史與社會 [Daoism: Religion, History and Society]. 1:95–153.Google Scholar
Eyferth, Jacob. 2009. Eating Rice from Bamboo Shoots: The Social History of a Community of Handicraft Papermakers in Rural Sichuan, 1920–2000. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Asia Center.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fu Chongju 傅崇矩. 1987 [reprint of early twentieth-century edition]. Chengdu tonglan 成都通覽 [Comprehensive Overview of Chengdu], volume 1. Chengdu: Ba Shu shushe.Google Scholar
Galikowski, Maria. 1998. Art and Politics in China, 1949–1984. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.Google Scholar
Guang'anxian shudian zhi 廣安縣書店志 [Chronicle of Guang'an County Bookstores]. 1986. Edited by the Guang'anxian Xinhua shudian 广安县新华书店志 [Xinhua Bookstore of Guang'an County]. No publisher provided. In the Yuechi County Library.Google Scholar
“Guanyu chuli fandong, shenguai, yinluan shuhua de zhishi” 關於處理反動,神怪,淫亂書畫的指示 [Directive on How to Handle Reactionary, Superstitious, or Licentious Books and Paintings]. 1954. In Chuanbei renmin xingzheng gongshu xinwen chubanchu, Jianchuan 川北人民行政公署新聞出版處, 建川 [Office in Charge of News and Publishing of the People's Government of Northern Sichuan, Jianchuan] 54, juan 29, number 58. Sichuan Provincial Archives.Google Scholar
“Guanyu chuli jiu lishu de banfa” 關於處理舊曆書的辦法. 1954. In Chuanbei renmin xingzheng gongshu xinwen chubanchu 川北人民行政公署新聞出版處, 建川[Office in Charge of News and Publishing of the People's Government of Northern Sichuan, Jianchuan] 54, juan 34, number 16. Sichuan Provincial Archives.Google Scholar
“Guanyu chuli ziying muke shupu de chubu fang'an” 關於處理私營木刻書鋪的初步方案. In Chuanbei renmin xingzheng gongshu xinwen chubanchu 川北人民行政公署新聞出版處, 建川 [Office in Charge of News and Publishing of the People's Government of Northern Sichuan, Jianchuan] 54, juan 34, number 13. Sichuan Provincial Archives.Google Scholar
Guo Yong 郭勇 and Zhang Liping 張麗萍. 2000. “Sichuan Cungu xuetang ji Sichuan Guoxue xuexiao kaolüe” 四川存古學堂及四川國學學校考略” [Investigation of the Sichuan Cungu College and the Sichuan National Studies School]. Shuxue 蜀學 [Sichuan Studies] 3:27–44.Google Scholar
Guo Shuyu 郭书愚. 2008. “Sichuan Cungu xuetang de xingban jincheng” 四川存古学堂的兴办进程 [Initiation and Workings of the Sichuan Cungu College]. Jindai shi yanjiu 近代史研究 [Researches on Modern History] 2:83–102.Google Scholar
Hanchuan xianzhi 漢川縣志 [Chronicle of Hanchuan County]. 1992. Beijing: Zhongguo chengshi chubanshe.Google Scholar
He Longxiang 賀龍驤. [1906]1971 [reprint]. “Jiaokan Daozang jiyao shuhou” 校勘道臧輯要書後 [Postscript on Collating the Essentials of the Daoist Canon]. In Chongkan Daozang jiyao 重刊道藏輯要 [Essentials of the Daoist Canon, Reprinted], vol. 1. Taipei: Kaozheng.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric, and Ranger, Terence, eds. 1984. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hummel, Arthur, ed. 1945. Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Hung, Chang-tai. 1997. “Two Images of Socialism: Woodcuts in Chinese Communist Politics.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 39.1 (January):34–60.Google Scholar
Hung, Chang-tai. 2011. Mao's New World: Political Culture in the Early People's Republic. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
“Jiang Xun” 姜尋: https://baike.baidu.com/item/姜 (last accessed April 24, 2017).Google Scholar
Kiely, Jan. 2010. “Spreading the Dharma with the Mechanized Press: New Buddhist Print Cultures in the Modern Chinese Print Revolution, 1866–1949.” In From Woodblocks to the Internet: Chinese Publishing and Print Culture in Transition, circa 1800 to 2008, edited by Brokaw, Cynthia and Reed, Christopher A., 185–210. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lao Xiang 老向 (Wang Huandou 王煥斗). 2000. “Guanyu kang Ri Sanzi jing” 关于抗日三字经 [On the Anti-Japanese Three Character Classic]. In Lao Xiang 老向, 292–293. Beijing: Huaxia chubanshe.Google Scholar
Liao Youping 廖幼平. 1985. Liao Jiping nianpu 廖季平年譜 [Annalistic Biography of Liao Ping]. Chengdu: Ba Shu shushe.Google Scholar
Link, Perry. 1981. Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies: Popular Fiction in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Cities. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Link, Perry. 2000. The Uses of Literature: Life in the Socialist Chinese Literary System. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu Xiaomin 刘效民. 2005. Sichuan fangke quben kaolüe 四川坊刻曲本考略 [Investigation of Commercial Songbooks of Sichuan]. Beijing: Zhongguo xiqu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Liu, Yonghua, 2013. Confucian Rituals and Chinese Villagers: Ritual Change and Social Transformation in a Southeastern Chinese Community, 1368–1949. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luo Cheng 羅琤. 2010. Jinling kejing chu yanjiu 金陵刻經處研究 [Research on the Jinling Sutra Cutting House]. Shanghai: Shanghai shehui kexue yuan chubanshe.Google Scholar
McDermott, Joseph P. 2006. A Social History of the Chinese Book: Books and Literati Culture in Late Imperial China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaren, Anne E. 2005. “Constructing New Reading Publics in Late Ming China.” In Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China, edited by Brokaw, Cynthia and Chow, Kai-wing, 152–183. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLaren, Anne E. 2008. Performing Grief: Bridal Laments in Rural China. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.Google Scholar
“Mianzhu nianhua cun” 绵竹年画村 [Mianzhu Nianhua Village]: http://baike.baidu.com/item/绵竹年画村 (last accessed March 24, 2017).Google Scholar
Quansun, Miao 繆荃孫, Changshou, Wu 吳昌綬, and Kang, Dong 董康, eds. 1997. Jiaye tang cangshu zhi 嘉業堂藏書志 [Chronicle of the Jiaye tang Book Collection]. Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Mittler, Barbara. 2012. A Continuous Revolution: Making Sense of Cultural Revolution Culture. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Asia Center.Google Scholar
Mori Yuria 森由利亞. 2007. “Jūkan Dōzō shūyō; to Shinchō Shisen chi-iki no shūkyō” 重刊《道臧輯要》と清朝四川地域の宗教 [Reprinting Essentials of the Daoist Canon and Local Religion in Qing Dynasty Sichuan]. In Chūgoku koseki ryūtsūgaku no kakuritsu – ryūtsū suru koseki – ryūtsū suru bunka – 中國古籍流通の確立──流通する古籍 − 流通する文化── [The Circulation of Ancient Texts in China—Circulating Ancient Texts, Circulating Culture], ed. kenkyūjo, Chūgoku koseki bunka 中國古籍文化研究所 [Research Institute of Chinese Ancient Texts and Culture]. Tokyo: Yūzan kaku.Google Scholar
Nanchong diqu wenhua yishu zhi 南充地区文化艺术志 [Chronicle of Culture and Art in Nanchong District]. N.d. Edited by Nanchong diqu wenhua yishu zhi bianzuan weiyuanhui 南充地区文化艺术志 [Editorial Committee of the Chronicle of Culture and Art in Nanchong District]. No publisher given. In the Yuechi County Library.Google Scholar
Pan, Jianguo. 2008. “Metal Typography, Stone Lithography and the Dissemination of Ming-Qing Popular Fictions in Shanghai between 1874 and 1911.” Frontiers of Literary Studies in China 2 (4):561–582.Google Scholar
Peng Hanran 彭瀚然. 1971 (reprint of 1906 edition). “Chongkan Daozang jiyao bianyan” 重刊道臧輯要弁言 [Preface to Essentials of the Daoist Canon, Reprinted]. In Chongkan Daozng jiyao 重刊道藏輯要 [Essentials of the Daoist Canon, Reprinted], vol. 1. Taipei: Kaozheng.Google Scholar
“Pi Cungu xuetang shoushou eryuan shuji zhunyu li an” 批存古学堂收受二院书籍准予立案 [Registering Permission for the Cungu College to Receive the Books of the Two Academies]. 1911. In Cungu xuetang dang'an 存古學堂檔案 [Archives of the Cungu College], juan 33, number 6. Sichuan University Archives.Google Scholar
Rawski, Evelyn S. 1979. Education and Popular Literacy in Ch'ing China. Ann Arbor MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Reed, Christopher A. 2004. Gutenberg in Shanghai: Chinese Print Capitalism, 1876–1937. Vancouver: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Shen, Kuiyi. 2004. “The Modernist Woodcut Movement in 1930s China.” In Shanghai Modern, 1919–1945, edited by Danzker, Joanne Birnie, Lum, Ken, and Shengtian, Zheng, 262–289. Munich: Museum Villa Stuck.Google Scholar
Sichuan shengzhi – Chuban zhi 四川省志 − 出版志 [Chronicle of Sichuan Province – Chronicle of Publishing], volume 1. 2001. Edited by Sichuansheng difangzhi bianzuan weiyuanhui 四川省地方志编纂委员会 [Editorial Committee for the Chronicle of Sichuan Province]. Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Stapleton, Kristin. 2000. Civilizing Chengdu: Chinese Urban Reform, 1895–1937. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Asia Center.Google Scholar
Tang, Xiaobing. 2008. Origins of the Chinese Avant-Garde: The Modern Woodcut Movement. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wang, David Der-Wei. 1997. Fin-de-Siècle Splendor: Repressed Modernities of Late Qing Fiction, 1849–1911. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang Gang王纲. 1991. “Qingdai Sichuan de yinshuye” 清代四川的印书业 [The Printing Industry of Qing Era Sichuan]. Zhongguo shehui jingjishi yanjiu 中国社会经济史研究 [Research on Chinese Social and Economic History] 4:62–70.Google Scholar
“Wode chuangye gushi” Jiang Xun: Zai Mofan shuju, xunzhao jiu shiguang 《我的創業故事》姜尋:在模範書局, 尋找舊時光 [“The Story of My Enterprise” Jiang Xun: At a Model Bookstore, Searching for Old Times]:https://read01.com/zxoB52.html (accessed April 25, 2017).Google Scholar
Wu Ge 吳格. 1997. “Qianyan” 前言 [Forward]. In Jiaye tang cangshu zhi 嘉業堂藏書志 [Chronicle of the Jiaye tang Book Collection], edited by Quansun, Miao 繆荃孫, Changshou, Wu 吳昌綬, and Kang, Dong 董康, 1–7. Shanghai: Fudan daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
吳虞, Wu Yu. 1984. Wu Yu riji 吳虞日記 [Diary of Wu Yu]. 2 volumes. Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe.Google Scholar
Xiaoman, Xu. 2005. “’Preserving the Bonds of Kin’: Genealogy Masters and Genealogy Production in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang Area in the Qing and Republican Periods.” In Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China, edited by Brokaw, Cynthia and Chow, Kai-wing, 332–367. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu Zhaoding 許肇鼎. 1981. “Zunjing shuyuan keban yinshu yuanwei” 尊敬書院刻版印書原委 [The Story of Zunjing Academy Publishing]. Sichuan tushuguan 四川圖書館 [Sichuan Library] 1:29–32.Google Scholar
Yan Yonghe 閻永和. 1971 (reprint of 1906 edition). “ Chongkan Daozang jiyao yuanqi” 重刊道臧輯要緣起 [Origin of Essentials of the Daoist Canon, Reprinted]. In Chongkan Daozng jiyao 重刊道藏輯要 [Essentials of the Daoist Canon, Reprinted], vol. 1. Taipei: Kaozheng.Google Scholar
Yan Yunmo 严韵谟. N.d. “Biyuan dushu lou” 贲园读书楼” [Biyuan Study Tower] Unpublished manuscript in the possession of the author.Google Scholar
Ying Changxing 应长兴 and Li Xingzhong 李性忠. 2008. Jiaye tang zhi 嘉业堂志 [Chronicle of the Jiaye tang]. Beijing: Beijing tushuguan chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yuechixian erqinggongye zhi 岳池县二轻工业志 [Chronicle of the No. 2 Light Industry of Yuechi County]. N.d. Edited by the Yuechixian erqinggongye zhi bianzuan weiyuanhui 岳池县二轻工业志编纂委员会 [Editorial Committee for the Chronicle of the No. 2 Light Industry of Yuechi County]. No publisher given. In the Yuechi County Library.Google Scholar
“Yuechixian mukeye qingkuang diaocha baogao” 岳池縣木刻業情況調查報告 [Report on the Investigation into the Condition of the Woodblock Printing Industry in Yuechi County]. 1954. Appended to “Guanyu Chengdu, Nanchong liangshi muke shuye diaocha de jianyao qingkuang baogao” 關於成都, 南充兩市木刻書業調查的簡要情況報告 [Report on the Basic Conditions of the Woodblock Book Industry in the Two Cities of Chengdu and Nanchong]. 1953. In Chuanbei renmin xingzheng gongshu xinwen chubanchu 川北人民行政公署新聞出版處, 建川 [Office in Charge of News and Publishing of the People's Government of Northern Sichuan, Jianchuan] 54, juan 34, number 11. Sichuan Provincial Archives.Google Scholar
Yuechixian shudian zhi 岳池县书店志 [Chronicle of Yuechi County Bookstores]. 1986. Edited by Sichuansheng Yuechixian Xinhua shudian 四川省岳池县新华书店 [Xinhua Bookstore of Yuechi County, Sichuan]. No publisher given. In the Yuechi County Library.Google Scholar
Zelin, Madeleine. 2006. The Merchants of Zigong: Industrial Entrepreneurship in Early Modern China. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Zhao Yusha. 2017/2/9. “Plans to Teach Qing Dynasty Book Sparks Fight over Culture and Obedience.” Global Times: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1032212.shtml Google Scholar