Study On Publication And Political Conflicts In Late Ming Dynasty

The late Ming Dynasty is a boom period of publication as while as a cruel period of official power struggle. To a degree, publication and official power struggle are closely linked with each other. That means, the development of publication affected the form of official power struggle. For one thing, the scale of text spread is expanded by publication, and text is confronted with more open reading space, therefore the interpretation of text and publishing activity depend on the reading groups with various reading expectation, out of control of publisher. Yet judging by the advantages and disadvantages of political interests, political opponents make an issue of publication to accuse the text and publisher of endangering Confucian orthodoxy and Political orthodoxy, even involving more people. In this way, publication is involved in the political conflict and publishing accident becomes politicized, a breakthrough to persecute political opponents. For another, with obvious advantage of the spread and scale of dissemination of information, publication is an important and effective strategy, which is used to shaping political image and fight for public opinion. The political publication becomes a common phenomenon in political field. Of course, the power struggle also has an impact on publication. Publications involved in power struggles often are confronted the fate of being destroyed or amended. And the political imprints for political interest objectively promote the diversification of publishing.Referring to the method of western History of Books, this paper takes imprints involved in power struggles during late Ming Dynasty, including Wanli,Taichang,Tianqi,Chongzhen and Hongguang of Southern Ming Dynasty as the object, figures out the context of the imprints of compilation, woodblock printing, dissemination and reading, reveals participants such as author, publisher, reader, takes on how publication involved in power struggles.