On Publishing Culture In Qing Period In Hubei And Hunan Provnices

The publishing history is to make a research on the materialization, copying, saving and popularizing of various aspects of culture history such as the history of ideology, the history of philosophy, the history of literature, the history of historiography, the history of science, the history of learning and so on. At present, the research on the regional history of publishing is gathering a good momentum now, but most of the research and books focus on certain regions such as Beijing, Shanghai, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui. As for the publishing history in Hubei and Hunan Provinces, few make a research on it, except for some descriptions appearing in related books and articles. The dissertation tries to discuss the development situations of the publishing industry in the Hubei and Hunan Provinces through the angle of cultural geography, and probe into the cultural characteristics, revolution, cultural function and social contributions of the publishing industry in the Hubei and Hunan Provinces. In the process of research, I adopt a combination of case analysis and subject discussion. After an analysis of the firsthand literature of Qing Period, I try to present a complete and vivid picture of the publishing history in the Hubei and Hunan Provinces, and offer a historical reference for the current development of publishing in the Hubei and Hunan Provinces.First, the dissertation discusses the historical, geographical and cultural position of the publishing industry in Hubei and Hunan provinces, and its social and cultural environment, and the factors of publishing content. The publishing industry is the one focusing on content, which needs culture as a support. Without culture as its source of content, the publishing industry would like water without source, or a tree without root. Till the early and middle times of Qing Period, the neo-confucianism and statecraft became prosperous because of the support of Qing government, and gradually they became dominant schools in the regional culture of Hubei and Hunan Provinces. To the 19th century, different schools appeared and become prosperous one after another as western countries broke into China with gunboats, opium and other commodities. Thus, Chinese traditional culture experienced huge shake at that time, and Hubei and Hunan Provinces are in the center of the shake as the two are located in the middle reaches of the Yangzi River, in the middle area between civilized southeast coastal provinces and undeveloped northwest and southwest provinces. Various kinds of culture such as missionary culture, westernization culture, reformation culture, revolution culture and citizen culture collided with each other and constituted a prosperous picture of culture development in the Hubei and Hunan Provinces. All these culture offered constant content source and support for the publishing industry of Hubei and Hunan Provinces. The development of papermaking material and industry is the material basis of and the development of printing industry, which is also the prerequisite for the development of publishing industry in the Qing period, in the Hubei and Hunan Provinces. Thus, the dissertation will discuss these two industries specifically.Second, the dissertation is going to offer a general development condition of the publishing culture in the Hubei and Hunan Provinces through discussing the three systems of the Chinese ancient publishing industry, which are official printing, private printing and workshop printing. The general condition includes the way and size of official printing, private printing and workshop printing, the number and variety of printing, the reason of the prosperity of printing, the characteristics of the printing content, the social and cultural function of printing, the printing group of officers and scholars, the group of private printers and the printing group of workshop.Third, the dissertation discusses the general situation, the characteristics of content and cultural function respectively; the development of cartology and map publishing in the Hubei and Hunan provinces, especially the map publishing organizations such as Hubei Mapping Bureau, Wuchang Mapping academy and Yaxin Mapping Association is going to be analyzed one by one. Besides, the dissertation is also going to analyze specifically and comprehensively how the men of that time to compile, print maps and manage publishing business, and their contributions to the culture development.The books, statements and almanacs printed by the peasant government of the taiping heavenly kingdom are listed as rare books as their scarcity and historic value. The dissertation is going to discuss the publishing activities of the taiping heavenly kingdom in the Hubei and Hunan provinces, including the variety, number, content and shape of books printed by the peasant government and the social influence and culture function of these books.Finally, the dissertation discusses the publishing organizations and activity of missionary in the Hubei and Hunan provinces, and the reason for its prosperity as well as its management characteristics and social function.