Study Of The Book Publishing Of Sibao

Sibao, is another major center of book publishing after Jianyang in Fujian, in the Qing Dynasty. It rose in the late Ming and early Qing periods, prospered between the QianLong era and JiaQing era, and ceased out in the Republic of China. It had a widespread impact in the Southern China, even as far away as Southeast Asia.The thesis analyzes the book publishing of Sibao in mang aspects, by combining fieldwork with datum analysis, and using theories of typology, history, culturology, etc. In addition to study its history, the thesis makes a research on it from the publishers, books themselves and readers point of view in the historical and social environment. The thesis includes six contents below:Firstly, it introduces the history of Sibao, and the Zou and Ma lineages; Secondly, it analyzes the reasons of rise and fall of the Sibao's book publishing, then puts forward a newpoint about its rise and re-divides the historical stages; Thirdly, it analyzes the management of Sibao's book publishing, including the features of booksellers and operations of the book publishing houses, creation and inherition of publishing houses and market network; Fourthly, by giving some examples, it illustrates the imprints of Sibao and compares them with others, then summarizes their characteristics of version; Fifthly, from the reading of lower class point of view, it analyzes the types and characteristics of readers, and the relationships between them and book publishing of Sibao; Finally, it makes an objective evaluation on its status and impact. The thesis is a comprehensive and systematic research, especially makes up for the lack of research on characteristics of book version and bibliography, and inquirys the deep relationship between the book publishing of Sibao and lower readers, then points out the direction of future research to provide a reference for other researchers.