After the 19th century, the traditional publishing system started to decline and collapse. At the same time, modern profit-driven publishing houses emerged, developed and promoted the development and reform of society in unprecedented ways.
Missionaries and foreign merchants set up publishing agencies with capitalist features. These enterprises provided examples and guided the modernization of China’s publishing industry. The most famous were the Mohai Book House, Yinghua Book House, Meihua Book House, The Christian Literature Society for China and the Shanghai Newspaper Press, among others. These publishing agencies used advanced publishing strategies, technology and management from the west and promoted the transition of China’s publishing from traditional to modern.
After the rise of the “Westernization Movement” in the 1860s, influenced by new publishing agencies of the west, the Qing Dynasty government established translation schools and official book bureaus comprising of the Translation Department of the Jiangnan Arsenal, the Beijing Translation School, The Jinling Book House, the Zhejiang Book House, the Jiangsu Book House and so on. These new organizations were markedly different from the traditional official publishing industry.
From the end of the 19th century to the early years of the 20th century, the general mood of society in China changed and private publishing agencies emerged. In 1882, Xu Hongfu and Xu Run set up the Tongwen Book House in Shanghai, the first private modern publishing enterprise founded by Chinese with private funds. After that, a group of private modern publishing enterprises like the Feiying School, Hongwen Book House and Jishi Book House emerged. At the same time, some traditional private book houses changed themselves into modern publishing agencies.
The founding of Commercial Press in 1897 marked a new development stage in China’s modern private publishing. In 1906, the first book industry chamber of commerce was set up in Shanghai with 22 new publishing agencies as members. After the founding of Commercial Press, many new private publishing agencies sprung up such as Zhonghua Book House, Civilization Book House, World Books, Dadong Book House and Kaiming Book House. Market-oriented and guided by modern publishing concepts, these book houses used modern machine-printing and resorted to various and flexible modern operation models to fulfill their social responsibility as publishers while maximizing their commercial profits. They became the mainstay of modern Chinese publishing and led to a new prosperity in modern Chinese publishing.
Among the numerous private publishing agencies, Commercial Press and Zhonghua Book House are the most influential and have the longest history. In 1936, 9,438 books were published and republished. Of those, Commercial Press published 4,938 and Zhonghua Book House 1,548. These two presses published 6,486 books or 69% of all the books in the country.
Commercial Press and Zhang Yuanji
Commercial Press was established by Xia Ruifang, Bao Xian?en, Bao Xianchang and Gao Fengchi and others in Dechangli, Jiangxi Road in Shanghai in 1897. At the beginning of the 20th century, in step with the New Culture Movement that advocated vernacular writings, Commercial Press set up new publications, edited and published many books about new thoughts and emerging culture. Besides introducing western learning and publishing versions of Chinese classics, Commercial Press also edited and published many textbooks and copies of ancient books. More importantly it trained plenty of editorial staff that went on to found or lead some famous publishing agencies early in the 20th century. Commercial Press went from being a small printing house to become the largest new publishing enterprise in the history of modern China, mostly thanks to the leadership of Zhang Yuanji.
Zhang Yuanji (1867–1959) was originally from Zhejiang Province. He was a famous sinologist, historian and the most influential publisher in modern history. In 1920, at the invitation by Xia Ruifang, Zhang Yuanji joined Commercial Press. He regarded the development of education as his duty.
In 1903, He took over the post of director of the communication and translation institution of Commercial Press. He took over as manager in 1916. By 1926 he had become president of the press, a post he held until his death. During his 50-year publishing career, Zhang Yuanji made outstanding contributions to the modern publishing industry, culture and education.
As a great publisher with groundbreaking ideas and well versed in both Chinese and western cultures, Zhang Yuanji was erudite, well-informed and insightful with daring and resolution as well as strong patriotic passion and a sense of social responsibility. Taking advantage of the emergence of new learning and the abolishment of the imperial civil examination system by the Qing Government, he formed a team to write and edit new textbooks.
Under Zhang Yuanji’s leadership, the first textbook for primary school was published in 1904. The book broke new ground in the history of modern Chinese education. After that first effort, textbooks published by Commercial Press became popular across the country. Zhang Yuanji also devoted himself to introducing western cultures and bringing new knowledge into China. He carefully chose and organized the translation and publication of a large group of academic and literary classics from abroad. Among them, the Origin of the Species translated by Yan Fu (1854– 1921)and La dame aux camellias translated by Lin Shu, which had profound influence.