Research On The Publishing And Engraving Activities Of The Zhou Royal Family During The Ming Dynasty

The publishing and engraving activities of the Zhou Royal Family, by virtue of large quantity and high quality, distinguished among other royal families during the Ming Dynasty, having a great impact at that time and in the later ages. The activities include those of Seignior Zhu Di and those of the same imperial clan such as prefectural governors, generals and lieutenants, ranging from the 11 th year of Hong Wu(1378 AD) when Zhu Di changed his title from the King of Wu to the King of Zhou to the 15 th year of Chong Zhen(1642 AD) when the Yellow River flooded, Zhu Gongxiao, the last seignior of the Zhou Royal Family, fled and Kaifeng was captured by the rebel army of the late Ming Dynasty. All the publishing and engraving activities of the above royal family members during this period are publishing and engraving activities of the Zhou Royal Family with no location restrictions.The main body of the thesis consists of four parts.The author defines the range and the nature of the study in the introduction, as well as put forward individual ideas on previous studies followed by the research status of the study; in the last part of the introduction the author analyzes the purpose and significance of the research.Firstly, the background of the publishing and engraving activities of the Zhou Royal Family is firstly introduced in the thesis, including general information, as well as the political, economic and cultural background. The ancients, inspired by events or emotions, wrote books with great cultural accomplishment. Apart from their interest on culture, they should also have financial capabilities. The severe system of the royalty in the Ming Dynasty restricted seigniors from political arena. For members of the Zhou Royal Family, fluctuations of the royal family caused them cherished peaceful life much more than before. For aspiring ones, how to deal with the contradiction between not contributing to the political society and not willing to idle away became their top issue. Thus, publishing and engraving activities turned into their first choice under the abundant literary atmosphere and on the solid economic basis.The second part of the thesis is the research on the achievements of the publishing activities of the Zhou Royal Family. Based on the previous study, the author sorted out 108 kinds of publishing works(subheadings included) of the Zhou Royal Family. Each generation of the Zhou Royal Family produced its own scholars who made achievements in medical science, Chinese Sanqu(a type of verse with tonal patterns in ancient China), Zaju(a kind of poetic drama in ancient China), poetry and Confucian classics studies, some of which set good examples for later generations. However, publishing works of the Zhou Royal Family were sealed in long history because of historical reasons. Most of the scholars during and after the Ming Dynasty focused on the study of engraving books rather than publishing ones. For all those reasons, the author explores publishing works of the Zhou Royal Family to recreate its cultural prosperity at that time.The achievement of engraving books of the Zhou Royal Family, aside from the above, is another major part of the thesis. Concentrating on writing scholarly books, seigniors and their descendants simultaneously laid emphasis on books’ preservation and cultural transmission, engraving some valuable books and their scholarly works. The author sorted out a total of 75 kinds of engraving books of the Zhou Royal Family, and did textual research on them.At the fourth part, the author states the major achievements made by representatives of engraving books of the Zhou Royal Family, such as Zhu Di, Zhu Youdun and Zhu Mujie, and analyzes the characteristics of those works and investigate the value of the engraving books of the Zhou Royal Family.In conclusive part, the author summarizes the main idea of the whole thesis.