Traceability of Foshan Adhesive Printing

Printing is one of the the Four Great Inventions in ancient China. Printing promotes the popularization of education and the promotion of knowledge. The cheap price of books enables more people to acquire knowledge. It helps some people of low birth improve their social status and promote the outlook on life and world of the general public. Therefore, it can be said that printing is a groundbreaking invention in the history of human communication studies and a glorious chapter in the history of human civilization.

Research has found that the Guangfo region was at the forefront of the introduction of modern Western printing industry, due to its profound tradition of engraving books and geographical conditions of being "ahead of the west wind". The Guangfu area of the Qing Dynasty held a leading position in book carving nationwide, with the number of bookstores ranking third only to Beijing and Suzhou. There are six important places for book carving in the Qing Dynasty, two of which are Guangzhou and Foshan. Adhesive printing

Since the mid-18th century, Foshan, Guangzhou, and Chaozhou have become the three major centers for printing books in Guangdong, and also one of the most important commercial distribution centers for woodblock prints in Guangdong. In the mid Qing Dynasty, Foshan's woodblock printing industry was as famous as Guangzhou and was also the most important printing center in China at that time. The preserved Foshan woodblock New Year paintings are a witness to the glorious history of the printing industry in Foshan during the Qing Dynasty.  

For today's readers, the most commonly encountered modern printing products are book and magazine printing, newspaper printing, and packaging material printing. However, few people know that Foshan was one of the important publishing places in the late Qing Dynasty, and the books carved even spread to Southeast Asia, making contributions to cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries. Now, let's walk into the Foshan Literature Library of Foshan City Library together and explore the prosperity of the printing industry in Foshan during that period. Adhesive printing

gathering place

Foshan Bookstore Concentrated Fude Shop

Liu Shuping, an expert in ancient book research at Foshan Literature Museum, has been engaged in the study of Foshan printing industry for many years and has published multiple papers. Her research results have been widely cited in academia. In order to conduct research on this topic, Liu Shuping consciously collects and places the Foshan Fang engraved editions on a bookshelf while organizing ancient books.

The so-called Foshan Fang engraved edition refers to books carved by merchants from Foshan bookstores.

Throughout the history of woodblock printing technology in China, it was widely applied in the Song Dynasty, and its rapid development ultimately formed a tripartite pattern of official engraving, workshop engraving, and private engraving. Official engraving refers to the engraving of books by central and local government offices; Private engraving refers to the engraving of books by individuals such as officials, scholars, and gentry, as well as by temples, Taoist temples, and family ancestral halls; Fangke refers to the carving of books by bookstore merchants.

On the bookshelf, there is a Foshan style engraved edition of "Commentary on the Ancient Texts of Hanwen Hall". After the baptism of time, this book has a quaint yellow brown color, but the title is clear and the handwriting is neat and strong. It is labeled as "Foshan Dadi Street".

Liu Shuping explained that the "Commentary on Ancient Texts" is a book used for ancient imperial examinations, and readers have a reading demand. The profit oriented Foshan Engraving Workshop will meet the market demand by printing such examination materials.

What is Dadi Street? Originally, Dadi Street, together with Fulu Street, Shiren Back Street, and Seventeen Rooms, belonged to Fude Shop. Foshan was divided into 24 shops since the Ming Dynasty and gradually developed into 28 shops during the Qing Dynasty, with bookstores concentrated in Fude Shop.

The "Foshan Street Brief" during the Daoguang period shows that Fulu Village in Fude Shop mainly engaged in the business of "exchanging gold beads and precious stones, and selling books from Suzhou and Hangzhou", many of which were daily necessities for the people, with a wide range of content, and the printing industry had not yet become a market.

But by the end of the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the paper, book, and printing industries in this region had made significant progress, and the related pen and stationery industries had also developed here, forming a certain scale and influence.

According to the "Zhongyi Township Annals of Foshan", in the late Qing Dynasty, 22 waterwheel offices (government departments) were established among the 28 shops in Foshan, while other offices were based on each shop. Only the bookstore was established as a waterwheel office based on one industry, in the 31st year of the Guangxu reign, at the Tanxiang Academy. There is no record in the history of Tanxiang Academy, so it is speculated that it should be located in Fude Pu.

Liu Shuping inferred, "The bookstores in Foshan survived and developed in an area where industry, commerce, and residential areas were mixed, against the backdrop of the flourishing of books, printing, and paper industries. They were distributed from north to south in Seventeen Rooms, Dadi Street, Fulu Street, and Shiren Back Street

big data

Foshan Fangke Bookstore selects best-selling book and magazine stores

Liu Shuping classified and counted the nearly 200 Foshan engraved editions she had mastered, attempting to trace the truth scattered in the historical fog through data.

In terms of the number of bookstores in Foshan, although industry expert Zhang Xiumin's "History of Chinese Printing" mentioned that there were more than 20 bookstores in Foshan at that time, Liu Shuping believes that this data is incorrect. She found in the statistics that there were 76 bookstores in Foshan during the Qing Dynasty, including the English Hall, Youwen Hall, Hanwen Hall, and Wenhua Pavilion on Dadi Street; The Cangjing Pavilion, Changhua Hall, Hanwen Hall, Huawen Bureau, Ruiwen Hall, Xiuzhu Studio, Wenguang Tower, Tianbao Tower, English Hall (Bookstore), Baohua Pavilion, and Zhengtong Bookstore on Fulu Street; Seventeen rooms of Wenhua Bookstore, Tongwentang, and Zilin Bookstore; The nearby literary hall on Shenren Back Street; The Qinxiang Pavilion on the street. Among them, Hanwen Hall has two engraving sites, located on Dadi Street and Fulu Street, with Tongwen Hall and Guangzhou Joint Number.

In terms of published content, Liu Shuping discovered that there are 94 types of books (including 46 medical books) in nearly 200 Foshan engraved editions that display general books, divination, Buddhist scriptures, Taoist scriptures, and medical life guides; There are 52 types of educational books, including those for the imperial examination and enlightenment; There are 47 types of literary and artistic novels (37 types of wooden fish books); There are 15 types of writings, genealogies, and local historical materials by Foshan people, as well as 4 academic classic works such as the complete works of Mr. Wang Yangming and the seventeen histories of Meng Qiu.

From this, Liu Shuping inferred: "In Foshan during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the best-selling books were undoubtedly life guide books (mostly medical books), educational books, novels for people's entertainment, lyrics, etc. Publishers would carefully choose the texts they published, and they would publish confirmed bestsellers, those carefully selected works with universality and practicality

Inventory the 'most'

The book market is full of market atmosphere

Liu Shuping also presented several "firsts" of Foshan Bookstore in her research results, opening up a historical picture full of market atmosphere for people.

The earliest commercial printing activities in Foshan should have emerged before the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. The earliest Foshan Fang edition that Liu Shuping saw was He Mengyao's "Yijie" printed by Tongwentang in the 16th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign (1751). Other contemporary editions include Wenshengtang's "Foshan Zhongyi Township Annals" in the 19th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign (1754) and Wenguanglou's "Four Books Supplementary Annotations and Preparatory Edict" in the 32nd year of Emperor Qianlong's reign (1767). Foshan's square carving reached its peak in the mid to late Qing Dynasty and lasted until the 1940s, when it completed its mission and withdrew from the stage of history.

The oldest and longest running bookstore in Foshan is Tongwentang. Printing activities began in the early Qing Dynasty Qianlong period, and Tongwentang continued to engrave books until the Republic of China, especially during the reigns of Emperor Guangxu, Emperor Xuantong, and the Republic of China. Tongwentang ceased operations in the mid-1930s and was replaced by the Huang family, who opened the "Longwentang" bookstore.

The most effective marketing method for publishers in Foshan is to use advertising to promote themselves. For example, they can engrave the name, address, and hall number of their bookstore on their publications, and some even engrave their business scope. The title page of the book "Summary of Good Literature" printed by Chen Yongtai Printing Store in Foshan reads: "Our store prints various sizes of notices, meeting books, industry rules, annual accounts, contracts, good books, scriptures, good prescriptions, etc. The machine printed handprints are beautiful and exquisite, like being visited by customers. The price is restrained, and we have laid a new door number, Shiwu, Fengsheng Street, Foshan, Guangdong.

In addition, publishers timely seized the curiosity of the public and printed words such as "XX Hall Machine Board", "XX Hall Electric Board", "New Engraved Machine Print", "Please recognize this Hall Machine Board" on the cover to highlight the uniqueness and novelty of our printing method, making "Machine Board" a new version term popular in Guangdong as a new version term in the field of version studies. The issue of "Machine Board" has attracted widespread attention and research in the publishing industry in recent years.

Spread overseas

Foshan engraved book witnesses the history of Sino foreign exchanges

In addition to cultivating the local book market, the Qing Dynasty Foshan Bookstore also expanded its business scope overseas, making historical contributions to cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries.

Yan Yan, a doctoral student majoring in Ancient Literature at the School of Literature, Jinan University, found in her research that since the middle of the Qing Dynasty, Foshan has been known as one of the three major printing centers in Guangdong, along with Guangzhou and Chaozhou. Foshan Bookstore, as the "concentrated area of Guangdong and Guangxi bookstores", has a wide range of printed books for sale, not only in various provinces in southern China, but also widely spread in Hong Kong, Macao, and Southeast Asia.

Yan Yan's research is based on Vietnamese Han Nan literature. Han Nan is a Chinese vocabulary that refers to the traditional Vietnamese language document system, which uses a mixture of Chinese characters and the N ô m script to mark Vietnamese.

In the existing Han Nan literature in Vietnam, the works printed by Foshan Bookstore include official history, geography books, and popular literature, such as "Da Nan Shi Lu Zheng Bian", "Huang Yue Di Yu Zhi", "Nan Qi Six Provinces Di Yu Zhi", "San Zi Jing Yan Yi", "Qian Zi Wen Yan Yi", "Xin Zui Ci Zha"

Yan Yan found that the N ô m script opera and novels carved in Foshan not only had a positive impact on cultural exchanges between China and Vietnam, but also promoted the further dissemination of Chinese novels in Vietnam. For example, Foshan Bookstore participated in the printing of Ruan You's "Jin Yunqiao Zhuan", Ruan Jian annotated and performed "Wang Jin Zhuan Guoyin" and "Wang Jin Zhuan Yanzi" in Chinese, Xu Yuanmo translated "Vietnamese Jin Yunqiao Song Translated into Chinese Ancient Poetry Seven Character Rhythms", Li Yuhan translated "Jin Yunqiao Chinese Character Yanyin Song" and "Jin Yunqiao Record", etc. With the spread of Ruan You's "The Legend of Jin Yunqiao", the original book of Qing Xin Cai, "The Legend of Jin Yunqiao", has also been sought after in Vietnam

As research deepens, many questions entangle Yan Yan. Apart from Vietnam, which countries do Foshan Bookstore have engraved editions in overseas? How are these books transported overseas? Why has Foshan become one of the overseas book printing centers? What impact has Chinese popular literature had on Vietnamese literature? Yan Yan believes that due to limitations in data, some issues still need further exploration. Only after excavating and organizing more historical materials can more in-depth research be conducted.

In the view of researchers like Liu Shuping and Yan Yan, in recent years, the research potential of Chinese books has been increasing. The academic circles in the United States and Japan have continuously developed research on the history of books in the Qing Dynasty of China. Returning to the countryside, the printing industry in Foshan during the Qing Dynasty is a treasure worth exploring