The application and development of engraving printing 2.5

V. Book Engraving in the Ming Dynasty

(A) The political and cultural background of the development of the book-writing business in the Ming Dynasty

1. Economic prosperity, the emergence of capitalism

During the reign of the Ming Dynasty, feudal politics was further developed and consolidated. After Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, he adopted a series of principles and policies concerning the people’s livelihood. The social productivity has been improved and developed. The national economy has been restored quickly and it has gradually prospered. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the economy was deformed and the land merged drastically. A large number of farmers flowed into cities and towns, providing cheap labor for the development of handicrafts and creating conditions for the development of capitalist industry and commerce. Between the fifteenth and sixth centuries, capitalism began to sprout. With the development of capitalist industry and commerce, regional division of labor began to become apparent, and many commercial centers were gradually formed throughout the country. The spontaneous sprouting of the capitalist economy reflects the emergence of cultural consciousness. This cultural awareness of civic awareness was first reflected in the development of classical literature and the increase in arts and craft books. This essentially means the pursuit of personal liberation and the impact on the feudal system. The development of social, political, economic and cultural development and the appearance of various new factors have all inspired the book publishing and printing industry to enter a new period of development.

2. Emphasize education and actively develop schools

In order to strengthen the autocratic centralized system, the ruling class of the Ming Dynasty attached great importance to education. In the early Ming Dynasty, Guozi University was set up and Nanjing was established. Guozi was converted into a Imperial College. Yongle moved to Beijing in 18 years and still used the Imperial College of the Imperial College as its supervisor. Since then, there have been two supervisors in the south and north during the Ming Dynasty. According to the records of Nanzhaozhi, the Imperial College of the time was prosperous; it was ten miles long and the lights were bright; the scale was very grand. In addition, it actively developed local education, and various prefectures and counties throughout the country established Confucianism, formulated an eight-pronged recruiting system, and actively promoted the education of Confucianism. In addition to the "Five Classics" and "Four Books," he also studied Liu Xiang's "Saying the Garden", "Law Orders, Books, Techniques, and the Imperial System", as well as the Song Dynasty's development; Cheng Zhu's Neo-Confucianism; Zhu Xi's "Four Books and Notes", etc. It is already the basic teaching material of Yuding. After strict management and education, students can study as an official and receive generous treatment from the government. To consolidate the effectiveness of feudal autocratic services. With the development of education, there are more and more people reading books. In order to meet the needs of learning, both the government and private individuals are engaged in engraving and collecting books. The printing industry that sells books for printing books spreads all over the country and promotes the rapid development of book publishing and printing.

3. The State pays attention to the collection of books, and official and private books have made great progress

The Ming Dynasty's ruling class paid attention to the collection and preservation of books and actively solicited collections of ancient and modern literature. After the eradication of the Yuan Dynasty, the collections of the Song, Jin, and Yuan dynasties of most cities were collected and used as Nanjing, and were collected in the Wenyuan Pavilion. Wenyuan Pavilion is a national library and is managed by the Cabinet. Its collection of books is based on the Song, Jin, and Yuan. Therefore, many precious ancient books in the Song and Yuan Dynasties were preserved. During the period of Ming Chengzu, he continued to purchase books throughout the country, and the national collection of books continued to be enriched. At the time of Xuanzong, the government collected more than 20,000 books and had nearly a million volumes. After almost a hundred years of development, during the orthodox years of Yingzong, Yang Shiqi and others compiled the “Wenyuange Bibliography”, and later Zhang Jian compiled a “Choice of the Cabinet Collection”. Although the bibliographies are relatively simple, they can also be used to examine the current situation of collecting books.

With the development of social culture and education, private book collectors in the Ming Dynasty grew rapidly and private books were also developed. According to historical records, there are more than 80 private collections in one province in Zhejiang, equivalent to the sum of well-known book collectors in the Song Dynasty. Especially in the Jiajing period, Ningbo Fan Qin was most famous. Mr. Fan built Tianyi Pavilion and collected more than 70,000 volumes of books. The Ming Dynasty Local Records and Deng Ke Lu recorded its special collection. In addition, Changshu Mao Jin is best known for his books and engravings. Many book collectors not only pay attention to book collection, but also organize and catalog books. Such as Kunshan Yip's "?? Bamboo Church Bibliography", Wu Kuan "from the bookstore bibliography", Lianjiang Chendi "Shishantang Bibliography", Yinshan Luan Cheng fire industry "Yi Shengtang Bibliography", Qian Qianyi "Jiyun Lou Bibliography 》, Zhao Qimei's Pulse Museum Bibliography and so on. The large number of private book collectors also provided a large source of manuscripts for engraving and printing, which promoted the development of book printing.

4. Academic prosperity, new works of various disciplines appear

In the early Ming Dynasty, most people's writings were still in the direction advocated by the government. The science books accounted for a large proportion. Many books are only compiled for studying eight-legged texts.

As a result of economic development, the emergence of public awareness has also reflected new changes in culture. This is the unprecedented development of novels and operas. Classical novels such as The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Water Margin, and Jin Ping Mei became stereotyped or began to emerge in Jiajing. After Wanli, opera, novels, and essays became the characteristics of literature and art at that time. The illustrations in the literary books especially shine in the history of books and printing. Since then, many famous short stories have been developed.

In the late Ming Dynasty, academic activities were much more active than in the previous period, and the scope of writing was more extensive. Many works with significant academic value were also produced in science and technology.

In medicine, Zhu??s "Puji Party" collected more than 60,000 medical prescriptions and was the largest medical book in ancient China. Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" records more than 1800 kinds of drugs and more than 10,000 prescriptions. This great pharmacy monograph, which has been circulating for a long time, has had a profound impact on the world. In addition, many valuable research results have appeared in agriculture. Such as water conservancy science monograph "list of river defense". Xu Guangqi's “Agricultural Policy Book” is particularly famous. The book has more than half a million words and cites more than 300 ancient book literatures. It still has guiding significance for agricultural production. In other disciplines, there are also many famous names. For example, Song Yingxing's Tiangong Kaiwu comprehensively recorded the production and technical knowledge of agriculture and handicrafts after the middle period of Ming Dynasty. "Xu Xiake's Travels" is a highly academic geography work. During the Wanli period, when the Catholic Church began to spread into China, it had a considerable impact on Chinese culture. Natural science books and translation books began to appear in China. Such as "geometry original" and so on. The birth of numerous new works of science and literature has played a powerful role in promoting the development of academic development, technological progress, and publishing.

(II) Book Engraving in the Ming Dynasty

The engravings of the Ming Dynasty also divided the three systems of official engraving, private engraving and square engraving.

1. Engraved

The official seal of the Ming Dynasty, Zhou Hongzu's "Ancient and Modern Book Engraving" has a very detailed description. It can be described separately from the central government and the local government.

(1) The Central Government engraved the book. It is the royal government that is the royal book. Most of the books written in the name of the emperor of the Ming dynasty were related to the church ceremony. The inner government engraved book is under the charge of the esteerising supervisor and is stamped by the affiliated agency of the priest supervisor. Chengzu Yongle began. The number of initial engravings is small, mainly for the study of the inner study and the use of the eunuchs for reading and writing. Most of the contents are books such as history books, previous Confucian Confucian classics and ancient Ming Dynasty books. After the capital was moved to Beijing, Si Lijian expanded the organization and expanded the scope and number of engravings. The factory has set up in the study room; The staff in the study room were all selected from the more intelligent and stable eunuchs. These people must go through study and training in order to be able to write. Writing with Zhao Mengfu as a teacher, so; by the factory; engraved books are mostly Zhao. After the factory, each volume is available; the treasure of Guangyun; (Figure 7-41).

The feature of the factory is that the frame is large, the lines are sparse, the characters are big, and the money looks beautiful and refreshing. Paper and ink use top grade products, and the printing and ink selection of skilled workers has become a fine art of culture and art. Under the influence of the factory, other official engraved and privately carved books are also exquisitely engraved and the level of imprinting is improved. However, due to the eunuchs presided over the work, knowledge is not high, coupled with the content of the collation is not enough scrutiny, the general readers do not pay much attention to such a carved book.

Secondly, institutions such as the Central Government’s various ministries and metropolitan institutions also have books. In particular, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Industry have carved more books. In addition to engraving the "Astronomy and Engraving," Qin Tianjian supervises the Tianxiang and Calendar calendars every year. Tai hospital is the highest medical institution serving the court. It has printed such books as "Curen Acupuncture Figure", "Medical Forest Gathering", and "Ming Ming Lun Ci cited".

Third, the Imperial College of the Ming Dynasty was also an important institution for the official engraved book. The Imperial College of Nanjing received a large number of prints left by the Song and Yuan dynasties, as well as various editions of Confucianism in the Yuan Dynasty. For some old, incomplete, old writing, repair or re-engrave, new engraved. After Nanjing Jiazi supervised Jiajing, he re-engraved history books. Beijing Guozijian has less engraved books than Nanjian. According to the records of the "Guozi Jiantongzhi" and "Guozi Jianzhu", there are about eighty kinds of Beihui engravings, of which the most important ones are the engravings of The Thirteen Classics and the Twenty-One History. The former was engraved in the fourteen years of Wanli (1586) to twenty-one years of Wanli (1593); the latter was engraved in Wanli twenty-four (1596) to thirty-four thousand years (1606). In the Ming dynasty Imperial College, the Tibetan version of the film was basically printed, totaling about 300 kinds. With the number of re-engraving, new engraving, and reprint, it will greatly exceed this number. The Ming dynasty Imperial College inscriptions had a greater variety and quantity than the previous generation. However, there are many problems and shortcomings in the supervision of the Ming Dynasty. Because of the complicated source of copyrights, some books have undergone repeated repairs. This has made it difficult to achieve unity in the form of books, and the collation has not been completed. The content of engravings has been reversed, fonts have been mixed, and missed words and missing texts have occurred from time to time. This has seriously affected The quality of the book.

(2) Local government engraving. Local officials in the Ming Dynasty engraved books by the Chief Secretary of the province and by the advisor. Many prefectures and counties have published local history. Confucianism, academies, and supervision and transportation departments are also printing books. In the official script of the Ming Dynasty, it is worth noting that the government wrote the book. The Ming Dynasty adopted the system of separating the same surnames, and sealed the kings and grandchildren to all places as kings. Some of them are relatively eager to learn, like school books, and books, and because the Song Dynasty editions are mostly based on the Song and Yuan dynasties, they are of higher quality. Such as: Zhou Yongding in the Yongle period, sealed in Kaifeng, Henan, engraved with the "Puji Fang" medical books.