The connection and difference between the study of book history and the study of printing history
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First, The mutual connection and difference between the two independent disciplines
In the history of ancient Chinese culture, the history of books and the history of printing are extremely important components. The book records the achievements of human civilization. Its occurrence and development enable future generations to understand and inherit rich cultural heritage. The emergence and development of the printing industry has made books widely spread, making it possible to understand and inherit cultural heritage.
The development of the book business and the printing industry are closely related to the fields of social politics, economy, culture, science and technology, and promote each other. The prosperity of books and printing is a manifestation of the country's political stability, economic prosperity, and scientific and cultural development. It is a symbol of the prosperity of a country.
In terms of the history of the book business and the history of the printing business, these are two independent disciplines, each with specific research objects, scope and methods of research. The object of book history research is the entire historical process of the occurrence and development of books and books. Books are the product of the development of human society to a certain historical stage, and are tools for disseminating knowledge, exchanging ideas, and preserving culture. The conditions for its creation are to have words or symbols of thoughts; one is to have a corresponding material basis. The logo on early Chinese books cannot be called words, it is just a symbol of things, and it is not for the purpose of disseminating knowledge. At that time, with tortoise shells, animal bones, Jane and scorpion as carriers, it was impossible to mass produce. Despite this, China's original books have been produced, and along with the pace of social development, the ideological content and material formation have gradually developed, improved, and matured, and have played an increasingly important role in society. The ideological content of the book expresses the standpoint and viewpoint of the author, reflecting the experience and achievements of the social struggle; its material form reflects the level of production technology in each historical period. Therefore, the ideological content and material form of the book are always unified and move forward. The form of leaflets in China's book development to the present level has evolved over thousands of years. In a nutshell, profoundly study the nature of books and their constitutional conditions, explore the historical process of the formation and development of books, analyze the factors that determine the development of books, and reveal the status of books in the dissemination of knowledge and information and the formation of human material civilization and spiritual civilization. The role played in the process, exploring the universal law of book development, is the entire content of book history research.
Printing is a science and technology, and an application technology, has now developed into a large industrial system. The research object of printing history is the whole historical process of the occurrence and development of printing and the formation and development of printing business.
Book history is a special history, and it is also a branch of history. Its development and change are inseparable from the general background of history and its various connections and influences on the book business, so it is a cross-science with history. The history of printing is also a special history. Its development is also inseparable from the influence of the general background of history, especially the development of the history of science and technology, so it is part of the history of science and technology. From the perspective of industrial management, it belongs to the category of management science. Therefore, the history of printing is an interdisciplinary subject between natural science and social sciences. The history of books and the history of printing are also interdisciplinary, and the content of both studies involves the printing of books. Of course, the perspective and focus of the two studies are different. In the study of book history, books are the subject. As a historical stage in the development of book history, printed books appeared, and the research on printing was the second. The focus of the discussion was on the changes in books and the impact on career development after printing technology was applied to books; In the history study, the development and change of printing itself is the main body. The book is only one kind of printed matter, and the research on books is the second. Through books, the achievements and level of development of printing technology are explored.
Throughout the process of the development of the history of the book, analyzing the many factors of the progressive growth of the book business, printing should be the most crucial thing. As is known to all, in the early days of the book, which was based on the tortoiseshell bones and the golden stone, it was impossible to mass produce books. Only after paper and printing were invented, the book business was rapidly developed. In particular, the invention and application of printing have transformed the book from the way of engraving, handwriting, and extension, and leap into the era of printed books. Whether engraving or movable type printing makes mass production and reproduction of books possible. Printed books have gradually become an important stage in the development of book history, and have become one of the key contents in the study of book history. Of course, the production of a large number of printed books has gradually formed a finished product in the printing industry, which laid a solid foundation for the reform and progress of printing technology and the development of the printing industry. Therefore, the development of the book business and the printing business are mutually reinforcing, interdependent and intertwined; the study of book history and printing history is two independent disciplines, but it is also a cross-disciplinary subject. The two also cross each other and complement each other. Promote and connect with each other and shoulder the important historical mission of China's past and present dissemination of knowledge and prosperity of science and culture.
Second, the common history and current situation of the two
Although the history of books in China is long, the study of book history has a late starting point and is still a relatively young subject. In the development of research and writing about the history of books, the following characteristics are presented:
(1) Time is late. The book history research work was born in the late 19th century, that is, the end of the Qing Dynasty.
(2)Collection of historical materials. In the early days of the study of book history, most of the historical materials about books and books were recorded in the form of notes. Although there were pioneering achievements, the system was disorderly and lacked systematicity. Moreover, the essentials of the history of the book have not yet been formed, and basically belong to the category of catalogue and version studies.
(3)Thematic research. As time progressed, the study of book history gradually developed and the number of books increased. At this time, most of them introduce and elaborate on the topic of a certain period, a certain region, a certain kind of carrier, a certain type of books, the craftsmanship of book making, and the form of binding. This is an improvement, but it is still narrow and the content is not complete.
(4) The research on books after printing inventions is more than the study on the history of books before printing, and it is limited to the phenomenon. There have been many discussions on ancient issues, and the study of modern and contemporary book history is extremely weak, lacking an overall understanding of the whole process of book development and all-round.
The above phenomenon is inconsistent with the requirements of the times and the development of the discipline. Since the 1950s, the most prominent contributions to the study of the history of books have been Liu Guozhen and Mr. Qian Cunxun. On the basis of previous studies, Mr. Liu first proposed a complete (ie general history) subject system of Chinese book development history with historical development as the background, and comprehensively and dialectically expounded China from two aspects: book ideological content and material form. The generation, development, evolution of books and their role in social development summarize the scientific concepts of books, the objects and tasks of book history research, analyze the causal relationship of various phenomena in the development of books, and clarify books and The law of the development of the book industry has gradually made the book history mature. Mr. Qian collects relevant literature data in detail, comprehensively examines the development achievements of Chinese books from the generation of characters to the invention of printing, and the origin, content, nature and records of oracle bones, stone, pottery, stone carvings, bamboo rafts, enamel and paper rolls. The methods, production forms, and arrangement systems are all detailed and textualized, and many unique insights are put forward to correct the bias of book research after only printing the invention in the past, making up for the lack of time before the printing in the history of the book. The gap in the important stage of the richer book business has made the history of the book work through and before, giving people a comprehensive understanding.
The history of printing history is very similar to the history of book history research. China is the hometown of printing, and it can be said that historical materials are rich and the results are brilliant. However, the study of printing history started late, and many precious objects left over from history are scattered everywhere. The lack of systematic collection and collation of historical materials needs further exploration, and there are not many theoretical works of the system. This is inconsistent with the requirements of the times and the growing printing business. In recent years, the situation has changed significantly, and the research on printing history has developed greatly. As Comrade Wang Yi pointed out: "Because the Party Central Committee attaches importance to the collection and research work of party history materials and the attention of local localities in the compilation of local chronicles, in recent years, there has been great progress in the collection and research of printing history materials. Magazines often publish articles on print history, and print industry publishers also attach importance to the publication of print history books. These are all happy things." Especially in the large monograph of "The History of Chinese Science and Technology" by Mr. Qian Cunxun. The publication of Paper and Printing and the publication of Mr. Zhang Xiumin's "Printing History of China" made a comprehensive and systematic summary of the history of book printing development, which undoubtedly played an important role in promoting the in-depth development of printing history research. The study of printing history will be further developed and more research results will be achieved.
Third, Historical stage in three or two historical studies
Chinese books have a history of thousands of years. In the long road of development, it is divided into several stages. These stages are the stages of the history of the book. The history of Chinese books is a branch of China's general history. It is bound to be constrained by historical stages. Therefore, historical stage should be the general basis, that is, the five periods of social development. Book history is also a special history of the door, with its special contradiction. Books are both a cultural phenomenon and a social material product. Its development is subject to the laws governing the development of social history and its own special laws. This characteristic is reflected in the changes in the content and material form of the book; the content of the book changes with the change of social consciousness, and the form of the book changes with the change of social production level and technological level. Therefore, in the division of historical stages, we must take into account its characteristics, the book content, form and its role become an important basis for the division of the historical stage. In the primitive society, China has written characters. With the emergence of the class, the formation of the country, and the period of China's entry into slavery, there was a writing system for recording daily life and history, and books were produced. In the period of feudal society, there were changes in the Chinese characters, such as shackles, librarians, shackles, lines, and grasses. The books had successive developments of simple books, stipends, paper-written books, and printed books. Since China's feudal society has lasted for more than 2,000 years, in order to adapt to the characteristics of the development of words and books in this period, it is divided into three small stages: front, middle and back. In the early period of the feudal society, it was the period of short books and scripts in China, the middle period was the period of writing a book, and the later stage was the period of printing books. During the semi-feudal and semi-colonial period, the changes in the nature of society and the introduction and application of modern printing have had a certain impact on the development of books in China. However, due to the weakness of the Chinese bourgeoisie, the development of the book industry is not great. After the success of the proletarian revolution, when the country entered the socialist period, the books returned to the working people and became the people's wealth, and fundamental changes took place in the history of books. Under the leadership of the Party Central Committee and the government, through the compilation, publication and distribution of books, the Marxism-Leninism ideas and advanced science and technology are promoted. The scope of book writing has expanded rapidly, and the quality and quantity of printed and published books have been continuously improved. The change of book form, the innovation of printing technology and the gradual development of mechanization and automation have brought the book business into a completely new stage. The socialist system provides a broad prospect for the development of China's book industry.
The staging of the history of printing should be consistent with historical development and subject to the development of social history, but it should be based on the course of technological progress. According to the process of its dependence on power and technological progress, the stage of printing history can be divided into four stages: the first stage is the history before the invention of engraving, and the prehistory of printing. Due to the maturity of papermaking technology, the advancement of seals, inscriptions, and extension methods, coupled with the increasing demand for literature, the invention of printing became a necessity in the Tang Dynasty. According to the analysis of existing physical objects and literatures, the engraving and printing technology in the mid-Tang Dynasty has been quite mature. The 680-year-old "Dragons and the Great Datukoni" discovered in Korea and the 868 "Diamond Sutra" discovered in Dunhuang are A definite proof. Of course, the emergence of this technology will not be sudden, it must have a process of evolution. The second stage is the development of engraving and the development of movable type printing. Until the early nineteenth century, it was the traditional Chinese printing boom. The engraving and printing process has become more and more mature, reaching the peak in the Ming Dynasty, with the emergence of new technologies such as overprinting, stenciling and arching. All of this still can't get rid of the limitations of one plate making and one use. Therefore, movable type printing has been invented. It has superior aspects to engraving and printing. The three parts of lettering, typesetting and printing of movable type printing contained in "Meng Xi Bi Tan" are the prototype of modern printing. Regrettably, due to socio-economic and cultural reasons and the limitations of technical conditions, movable type printing has not been widely used in the feudal period of China. The third stage was the period of mechanical printing that began in the early nineteenth century. Modern printing has developed greatly in Europe before it was introduced to China. In 1450, the German Gutenberg used a simple typewriter to unveil the prelude of modern printing. Thus, after the Chinese version of the whole process of printing, Western mechanical printing has gradually advanced. China has experienced the shackles of long-term feudal ideology and has finally caught up with the pace of the world. Afterwards, some inventors in Europe and America applied the research results in physics and chemistry to improve the casting, plate making and printing technologies, gradually realized the mechanization and electrification of printing, and developed three printing technologies: letterpress, lithographic and gravure. The printing business was completely industrialized. The fourth stage is today in the information age. Specifically, it began in the 1970s, and it is an era of printing technology information processing that is gradually getting rid of the lead characters and moving toward computer digital technology, electrostatic copying technology and photosensitive technology.