Study On The Color Printing Books Of The Ming Dynasty

Inheriting the printing tradition of Song dynasty at the beginning , carving books of Ming dynasty gradually took on new features. Printing in Ming dynasty is famous for three technical achievements , such as bronze movable type, color printing and intersected blocks ,especially the wide use of color printing.Because color printing is as important as the inventions of engraving block and movable type, it is an indispensable part in many authoritative books on printing and publishing history. For ages, the study of color printing books focused on Min family and Ling family, who were active in Huzhou area( Zhejiang province). In fact, the color printings of Ming Dynasty are not only published by the two families in Huzhou, but also by Mao family and other publishers. Being lack of holistic advisement and systemic survey, the datum of color printings of Ming dynasty in historic bibliographies and ancient documents are inaccurate, even false. Aiming at these problems, this paper will give a comprehensive and deep textual research on the color printing books.Firstly, 10 typical pictures of color printing books are chosen at the beginning of the paper, in order to give readers a intuitionistic understanding.The paper is divided into six parts to make a textual research on the color printing books of the late Ming dynasty, by clearing up the historical materials records such as bibliographies and related documents on the color printing books, readers can know the existence of the color printing books of the late Ming dynasty. Through the analysis and comparison of the printing activies,carving characteristic and edition ect., we correct and renew historical textual recordation about the color printing books of the late Ming dynasty, and get different conclusions.The last part of the paper is excerptions of bibliography of color printing books of the late Ming dynasty.