Study On Publishing Of Reference Books In The Republic Of China Based On The Social History Of Knowledge

The period of the Republic of China was the transition period from traditional society to modern society.On the one hand,the ancient culture was crumbling,on the other hand,the Western civilization was coming.Managing old information and absorbing new information became general trend of the cultural world in the Republic of China.Reference books developed rapidly during the period of the Republic of China which as a tool for managing information.This paper focuses on four aspects of reference books of the Republic of China:publishing characteristic,publishing motive,publishing ecology,public opinion.And this paper discusses change of reference books from the ancient to the modem,and the influence of Western civilization on reference books in the process.In a word,analyzing reference books of the Republic of China from the perspective of the social history of knowledge,we can see that the power was intertwined from editors,private publishers,government,academic institutions.All of these promoted the process of information management during the period of the Republic of China.The body part of this paper is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is the introduction,expounding origin and value of the research,literature review,target and method of the research and so on.The second chapter follows timeline,explaining the transformation of reference books with age,especially focus on the period of the Republic of China.The third chapter is about motive force of publication of reference books,discussing the phenomenon of mass publication of reference books caused by marketing demand in the Republic of China.The fourth chapter introduces the production of reference books,which focus on editors' perspective.The fifth chapter is about the discussion of public opinion.The paper discusses the publication of reference books in the Republic of China from the perspective of the social history of knowledge,the behavior of publication of reference books was influenced,not only the Western civilization,but also specific social environment.