A Study On Book Editing Thoughts In Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty is the key period of feudal society to great changes in China Song Dynasty lasted 320 years (from 969 to 1279), often be considered as a weak time because of the passive position in the diplomacy. But the culture of this period was most flourishing in the whole feudal society, with literature, art, academic, science and technology developing unprecedentedly. The developed culture in Song Dynasty was reflected in production with abundant content and various forms. There were not only many books on Confucian classics, history, philosophy and belles-letters, but also many publications on the agriculture, the mulberry, the medicine and the calculation, moreover also large size encyclopedia counts by thousand volumes, which formed the first systemic and large scale books publication peak in our ancient times and manifested the Song Dynasty writers and scholars'edition consciousness and skills. Song Dynasty's edition was close related with the then social being and social contradictory. We should study on Song Dynasty's edition and understand that times'edition and publishing work from a strategically advantageous position. That is extremely meaningful for us to study the books'edition thoughts history, explore the characteristics of ancient books publication culture, and understand the change and the development of Song Dynasty culture, as well as the evolution and the progress in our country ancient times edited active, from the deep level. The article includes six parts:The first part discusses the Song Dynasty books edition's progressive social conditions. Song Dynasty's books edition thoughts first is restrained the Song Dynasty scciety's time background, specifically which is political, economical, cultural, the science and technology' influence to the edition thought. Studied from the political angle, the ruler took the books edition as one kind of dominant method, and the feudal writers regarded it as another method to participate in government and deliberate over governmental affairs. Looking from the angle of economy, prosperous commercial economy urged the books marketability, and the books edition started to become a tool to make a living and profit. Looking from the cultural angle, the free and progressive academic thought lays the good foundation maturely for the edition thought. Looking from the technical angle, the papermaking technique and the printing method widespread application urges Song Dynasty's edition publication enterprise rapid development.The second part discusses the practice foundation of Song Dynasty books edition thought. The practice is the understanding foundation. Acquaintance originates and obtains the examination in practice. Therefore for summarize the Song Dynasty books edition thought; we must understand the books edition practice. This chapter summarizes six aspect edition practices:the annotation and definition on Confucian classics, achieving mastery through a comprehensive study on history data, reorganization on comprehensive encyclopedia, collection and reorganization on literatures, compiling on ancient lost books, collection on series books and so on. In the discussion period, at first I will explain the edition character of those acts, then I will discuss the development and characteristics of all kinds of edition practice.The third part analysis the book edition objective of Application and Statecraft. Application and Statecraft were the mainstream value orientation on the books edition in our ancient country, which was also same in Song Dynasty. This part explains the meaning of Application and Statecraft firstly, showing how it instructed the edition practice as the edition objective, and then narrates general character and individuality with various editors' practice.The forth part analyzes the principle of "Harmonization and Digestion" for data collection and edition. From the point of view of edition, "Harmonization and Digestion" principle emphasizes the full occupancy on data, and requests harmonization and digestion to them. Through the choice of material and the style design, the editor enables the original material to obtain the progressive promotion and become the new books. This chapter will introduce and analyses this thought, point out the conception was coming from Confucius' consciousness of Succession and Transformation on history, which was developed by later scholars into a important academic viewpoint related to various periods such as methodology, epistemology and so on. In the Song Dynasty, Zhengqiao firstly summarized the conception of "Harmonization and Digestion" systematically and deeply, and applied it into edition practice. From the point of view of edition, the main contribution of the conception of "Harmonization and Digestion" was that it widely instructed the Song person target-oriented to collect material, and carried on books edition correctly with those material.The fifth part analyzes two contradicted thoughts on how to annotate and definite on Confucian classics, namely, "the interpretation according to the context and the original meaning" and "the interpretation according to themselves". Although in Song Dynasty the thought opened and the academic was free, scholars still did not dare to establish a new ideology by oneself, or to affront the sages and past worthies directly. In Song Dynasty the progress on academic research basically was established on transformation to the traditional Confucian thoughts. They read over the classical text, made the interpretation according to themselves, and explained by the annotation form. Annotation belongs to edition essentially. Therefore sometimes it had both the edition nature and the work nature simultaneously, when Song Dynasty scholar explained oneself in the annotation.The sixth part points out that in Southern Song Dynasty edition subject consciousness tended to be clear, and gave birth to the edition professional phenomenon. Especially in Southern Song Dynasty, with the books'marketability, editor's edition subject consciousness was starting to be clear and urged edition to be a kind of special profession. At the same time, two excellent professional editor, Chenqi and Zhuxi, appeared. This chapter will elaborate emphatically the two editors'edition thought, then introduced their rigid manner to edition practice and the scientific edition method.At last, I will carry on the summary to the Song Dynasty books edition thought, appraise the promotion effect of edition thought to the Song Dynasty culture and the status and contribution in our country edition thought history.