Research Of Private KeShu In The Early Ming Dynasty

The engraving in the Ming Dynasty was of great number,of large distribution,and of all fields,meanwhile,its whole system and stage was clear and its binding and printing was very exquisitely,which was often praised by the later generations.Especially in the earlier period of Ming Dynasty(from 1368 AD to 1505 AD),the engraving played a prominent role in the whole book printing activity,which laid a solid foundation for the latter book engraving.Mentioning the early Ming Dynasty private carving,we all know,comparing to the latter part of that time,it was of few number,but it was fine.The background of the engraving in the earlier period of Ming Dynasty.When Ming Dynasty established,Zhu Yuanzhang,the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty,used political authority to intervene in the people's life and practiced a dictatorship policy.Besaides,its highest rulers wanted to strengthen their ideological control and advocated Neo-Confucianism in the whole country,and regarded it as a legal orthodox thought.Moreover,the rulers of Ming Dynasty implemented a more liberal publish policy,on the one hand,they encouraged the development of publishing industry and abolished the Book Tax,which released the productivity of book carving largely and promoted the prosperity and rapid development of that as well,on the other hand,they paid a strict supervision on the content of the book with its ideological rule,which unfortunately restricted the diversified development of its book industry.Furthermore,at that period,scholars were fond of the Cabinet-style Literature.They enjoyed singing praises of someone and the whole nation,and they adored the writing style of the Song Dynasty,especially appreciated the essays wrote by Ouyang Xiu,Su Shi,Zeng Gong,Gao Qi.The preference in writing of those scholars also directly stimulated the content of the book carved by the book publisher,which in turn made a great influence on the book industry.The overview of the private engraving in the early Ming Dynasty.Private engraving,which was also called home engraving,was one of the three engraving system(official engraving,bookshop printing,home engraving)in ancient China.According to the book selection through The Book of the Ming Dynasty,Version of Individual Collections in The Ming Dynasty,Jiangsu Book-Carving and Fujian Book-Carving,there were 390 kinds of private editions and about 337 businessmen engaged in the private engraving.By analyzing the identity and geographical distribution of those book publishers,it can find that the private engraving owners were those with Jinshi identity and official status who had a certain financial resources.In addition to these dignitaries,there were also many scholars and hermits engaged in the block-printing industry.Besides,it also can find that most of the engraving institutions were distributed in southern and central areas,which clearly reflected the influence of the sustainable development and the book carving policy on the book industry.The content of the books carved in the early Ming Dynasty.By analyzing the book carved by the book publishers,it can find that most of the books were written,edited and engraved by the book owner itself.Due to the influence of politic,economy,publishing policy and atmosphere of the literary world,those classic books,Confucian books and collected books of the Song and Ming Dynasty were considerable,however,there were few lyrics,novels and series of books.Besides,the engraving of those medical books became a hot spot in the early Ming Dynasty.In the early Ming Dynasty,the characteristics of the private engraved version were mainly inherited from the Yuan Dynasty,which was the same as the official engraving and bookshop printing at that time.At that period,the font of the book mainly was the calligraphy style of Zhao Mengfu of the Yuan Dynasty,the type area was wide and the book mouth was black.In addition,the format design in the early Ming Dynasty also had its own specific characteristics: first,the lines were not unified.Large print and small print both existed and the those small print were more than those large print.Second,most of the books did not have colophon.Among all those 390 kinds of books,there were only ten of them had colophons while the ten colophons were very simple and had a weak sense of advertising,which fully revealed that those private engraving were not interested in profits.The meaning of the private engraving in the early Ming Dynasty.To begin with,it made up the lack of the official engraving and bookshop engraving,and played an important role in protecting the family and rural culture,and in forming a good family and rural tradition.Meanwhile,the spirit of professional dedication and the ideal of cultural communication of those private book printers also provided an excellent spiritual sustenance to today's publisher.