The Evolution Of Illustrations On The Books Printed In Song

Song Dynasty was the golden age of the development of woodblock printing, the books printed in Song play an important role in the historical process of Chinese culture The illustrations on the books printed in Song are rich subject matter, diversity, full-featured, Song versions cultural studies couldn't neglect the study of the illustrations. In this paper, the illustrations on Song engraving books are the main object of study. By examining the illustrations handed down version of the Song and literature materials, this paper study illustrated version of the Song of the relevant circumstances in a more comprehensive way. First, the subjects shown by illustrations are divided into six categories:the Buddha figures, Confucian classics, medical science and technology, stories, maps, other illustrations, every category is introduced and examined the relevant books'versions. Second, this paper focuses on the changes of the contents, inscribed bodies and features of illustrations to discuss the characteristics of the illustrations in Song, which are summarized as the three trends:from religious to secular, from the central to local, from practical to decorate. This paper benefits from research results and methods pf philology, printing history and art history, tries to study the evolution of illustrations on the books printed in Song through the document and image inspections, in the hope of understanding more about the relationship between the printing books and the social culture.