Book Publishing And Cultural Transmission

From 1898 to 1911, many new businesses sprang up in china. The new private publishing houses were one of them. This kind of publishing houses mainly published books of Western learning (a late Qing Dynasty term for Western natural and social sciences), which promoted the communication of new knowledge, new ideas and new concepts in late Qing, and facilitated the knowledge transformation and social progress in modern China. Taking the Civilization Press as an example, this paper examines the philosophy and social science books by the Press to make a profile of the translation and publication of the Western learning books from the perspective of publishing history, thus summing up the characteristics of books' publication. Meanwhile, this paper further reveals the impact of publication on social culture and national politics through the analysis of books'characteristics. In addition to the Introduction, Conclusion, the full text is divided into four parts.The introduction part reveals the status of this topic, and describes what academic achievements have been made and what needs further study. On this basis, this paper makes a clear research idea, sort out the historical materials and define some related concepts.Chapter one mainly introduces the history of Civilization Press, its activities, its founder and so on, making an outline of new private publishing houses in Late Qing. Besides, the publication of philosophy and social science books is examined from publication years, publication procedures and so on, outlining the transmission path of Western learning books in Late Qing.Chapter two sorts out 130 kinds of philosophy and social science books by Civilization Press from 1902 to 1904 from five categories:politics and law, history and geography, philosophy, education and others, each with a simple introduction. In addition, the overall characteristics of the books are discussed from the perspective of category, content and influence.Chapter three focuses on the translators of these books. The paper first introduces these translators from an overall view, and then analyzes their characteristics in detail from age, region, education background, ideas and proposals, etc., thus revealing the background of translation and publication, making a further understanding of the contents of these books.Chapter four mainly examines the characteristics of the contents of these books and analyzes what they express in order to reveal the effect of new private publishing houses in cultural transmission and enlightenment of new ideas, as well as deepen the understanding of politics and culture in the early period of reform in late Qing Dynasty from the perspective of books'publication.In general, the large translation and publication of philosophy and social science books boosts the knowledge transformation and enlightenment of new ideas in Late Qing. While the case study of Civilization Press makes us further understand the important impacts of new publishing industry on the social transition of Modern China.