The major duplicating method in this period was transcription. As books became well known and people sought them out, the book trade became a growing business. There were numerous transcribers who earned their livelihoods by transcribing books. Transcribing was a profession at the time. With the spread of papers and improvements in ink-making, unprecedented progress was made in duplicating techniques. Moreover, the invention of stamping and watercolor sealing techniques provided technical possibilities for the invention of printing technique while traditional transcribing was very popular.
Meanwhile, Chinese books and papermaking began to spread to Vietnam, Korea, Japan and other neighboring countries, greatly impacting the development of publishing in those countries.
Manual printing period (the 7th century A.D.–1840s)
From 700 to the 1840s, Chinese printing was stuck in block printing. The period is called “Manual Printing Period.” The Chinese publishing industry rose to its highest splendor during this period. Not later than the 7th century A.D, engraving, typography and registration printing were invented in China. These inventions marked a new stage in Chinese publishing that led to rapid progress in the quality and quantity of books. From then on, the Chinese publishing industry became increasingly more popular and soon developed into five systems, which were: government printing, private printing, workshop printing, temple printing and college printing. All these systems mutually influenced and stimulated one another in their development.
The government and private printing systems, with a rapid increase in the number of books published, went into an era of unprecedented prosperity. More than 14,000 works in 218,029 volumes were published during the Ming dynasty, some of which were huge classic works like Yongle Encyclopedia and Siku Quanshu.
A large quantity of huge classics, like Confucian classics, historical classics and Tripitaka, were inscribed many times. Each copy represented a significant publishing event, which showed the publishing capability during the manual printing period of ancient China.
As the production capacity grew, official and private book collections were enlarged and book collecting and protecting experience accumulated. There were many famous libraries like the Huang Shi Cheng Library and the Tian Yi Library. At the same time, not only government organizations and schools engaged in book publishing and selling, but civil book workshops undertook a more vigorous trade. In the big publishing centers around the country, there were countless book workshops. The publishing industry, with the new phenomenon like the emergence of book advertisements and copyright protection, developed as a commodity economy.
To meet the development needs of the printing industry, ancient Chinese books gradually evolved into album binding forms consisting of folding forms, butterfly-like binding, wrapped-ridge binding and thread binding and finalized the design of thread-binding form.
In this period, book circulation and trade expanded further, flourishing exceptionally. Not only government organizations and schools engaged in book publishing and selling, but also civil book workshops undertook more vigorous trade. Exchanges of publications between China and foreign counties expanded so that lots of Chinese books were exported. Papermaking and printing spread across Asia and Europe, which deeply influenced world publishing. At the end of 16th century, western missionaries started their translations and writings in China, which brought a new air to the publishing and cultural circles.
However, in the 19 th century, Chinese publishing still could not break away from manual printing and could not bring about capitalist management without a breakthrough in book content and format. As a result, Chinese publishing was left behind. After the Opium War in 1840, traditional Chinese society gradually collapsed and stepped towards modernization. With the introduction of modern western publishing techniques, a fundamental revolution took placed in Chinese publishing.
From then on, Chinese publishing went into the machineprinting period. At the turn of 20th century, many private publishing houses, like the Commercial Press and the Zhonghua Book Company, were established. China’s publishing industry finally emerged from its backward condition and began to open a new chapter of modern publication. As to the modern Chinese publishing industry, that is best left to another chapter.