Despite the importance of books and the written word in Chinese society, the history of the book in China is a topic that has been little explored. This pioneering volume of essays, written by historians, art historians, and literary scholars, introduces the major issues in the social and cultural history of the book in late imperial China. Informed by many insights from the rich literature on the history of the Western book, these essays investigate the relationship between the manuscript and print culture; the emergence of urban and rural publishing centers; the expanding audience for books; the development of niche markets and specialized publishing of fiction, drama, non-Han texts, and genealogies; and more.

"This is your significant contribution to the study of Chinese printing history."--Dr. Soren Edgren, Princeton University, and Chinese book specialist.

In the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), China experienced far greater access to political information than suggested by the blunt measures of control and censorship employed by modern Chinese regimes. A tenuous partnership between the court and the dynamic commercial publishing enterprises of late imperial China enabled the publication of gazettes in a wide range of print and manuscript formats. For both domestic and foreign readers these official gazettes offered vital information about the Qing state and its activities, transmitting state news across a vast empire and beyond. And the most essential window onto Qing politics was the Peking Gazette, a genre that circulated globally over the course of the dynasty. This illuminating study presents a comprehensive history of the Peking Gazette and frames it as the cornerstone of a Qing information policy that, paradoxically, prized both transparency and secrecy. Gazettes gave readers a glimpse into the state’s inner workings but also served as a carefully curated form of public relations. Historian Emily Mokros draws from international archives to reconstruct who read the gazette and how they used it to guide their interactions with the Chinese state. Her research into the Peking Gazette’s evolution over more than two centuries is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the relationship between media, information, and state power.

The essays in this volume seek to flesh out the diversity of Chinese textual production during the period spanning the tenth and fourteenth centuries when printing became a widely used technology. By exploring the social and political relations that shaped the production and reproduction of printed texts, the impact of intellectual and religious formations on book production, the interaction between print and other media, readership, and the growth of collections, the contributors offer the first comprehensive examination of the cultural history of book production in the first 500 years of the history of printing. In an afterword historian of the early modern European book, Ann Blair, reflects on the volume's implications for the comparative study of the impact of printing.

Studies the history of printing in China from the invention of paper, through block printing, through paper's journey to Europe, to printing with movable type.

Ancient Chinese Inventions provides an illustrated introduction to the numerous scientific and technological inventions to which China can lay claim.

Studies the development of communications and transport in Sung and Yuan times, the formation of a nationwide market and the development of cities and markets during the Sung Dynasty, and the characteristics of commercial capital

Handbook of the Colour Print in China 1600-1800' is a ground-breaking volume of collected research into colour woodblock printed imagery produced in early modern China. The emergence and development of colour woodblock imagery occurred first in book illustrations and then in single-sheet prints. 0Leading scholars of Chinese print culture trace the emergence of a sophisticated and fully developed colour woodblock print technology between the late Ming and mid-Qing. This volume examines the impact of colour prints on Qing visual culture through interdisciplinary studies investigating literary and artistic contexts, social and economic histories, and dating through European inventoried collections. 0Richly illustrated with full-colour reproductions, this volume is an essential contribution to the future study of Chinese print and book culture.

T.H. Barrett, a leading scholar of medieval China, presents an engaging perspective on the history of printing and the intriguing story of Empress Wu (AD 625-705).

Five Hundred Years of Printing is essential reading for the book collector, the cultural historian, the professional publisher and book designer, and teachers and students of typography, graphic design and communications studies. It immediately became established as a standard work on its publication as a Pelican in 1955 and saw two new editions within twenty years.