Research On Lin Suifang’s Editing Theory And Practice

Since the1980s, a new research wave of editing and publishing has risen in China. The past three decades had witnessed the emergence of a group of outstanding researchers who published a large number of papers and monographs, and achieved fruitful results. From "no science for editing" to its status as an independent discipline, many people have contributed a lot, and Lin Suifang is the most active among them.Before and after his retirement, he was engaged in the research of editorial theory and editorial practice and published millions of articles as well as several books and translations, such as Lenin and His Editing and Publishing Activities, Study on Editing and Publishing in China and Abroad, Punctuation Study and Application.His studies laid a foundation for the construction of editorial theory, provided a comparative study for editing and publishing at home and aboard in an extensive and comprehensive way and designed the framework of building the socialist editorial theory system with Chinese characteristics. His studies intensively reflected all aspects of the editing research in the past three decades.Lin Suifang’s research covered several fields. Besides editing, he also had made great contribution to publication and translation. With three decades’research on redactology as the main line, this paper focuses on his researches in the field of editing and analyzes his ideas and achievements through grouping the paper into several topics. When discussing his monographic study of editing, this paper takes into consideration the rise and in-depth study on editing in the past three decades, fully reflecting Lin Suifang’s research achievements as well as embodying the basic course of the three decades’ study on redactology. This paper makes a systematic study on linkages among each topic, describing his research progress in a certain aspect as well as revealing his overall achievements. At the same time, this study highlights the combination of "theory" and "practice", showing his attainments in theory as well as his skills in practice.Lin Suifang’s research can be grouped into the following parts.Editing theory. This topic discusses Lin’s views on definition of editing and the related ones (such as publishing, book, academic work, etc.), as well as his views on basic register, laws of editing and research on editing history. Focuses on "Two Editing" concept and "two Primacy" principle.Research on editing practice. In editorial practice, Lin Suifang paid the most attention to the research of reviewing.This paper systematically elaborates Lin Suifang’s research on editing practices, including editing and planning, reviewing, processing, post-editing. He discussed his main ideas:planning is editors’main duty, reviewing is the most significant process of editing, processing is an independent and irreplaceable part, and post-editing is an important part of the editing work. These are not ordinary requirements for the work, but the crystallization of Lin Suifang’s decades of editing experience.Research on editing standard. This topic discusses Lin Suifang’s main opinions on standard of language, numbers and measurement units, Chinese pinyin and English language.Research on punctuation. Lin Suifang held different views in some aspects with other punctuation researchers and has his unique views, which gives the punctuation research of Lin Suifang special significance. This topic emphatically analyzes the characteristics of Lin Suifang’s punctuation research by discussing the theory research and applied research of punctuation in two parts.The conclusion induces characteristics and contribution of Lin’s editing research.This study compiles Chronology of Lin Suifang’s Work (1979-2009), from which we can glimpse his works and research process.