Chapter 24 2. Ming and Qing engraved books and their version characteristics

The Ming Dynasty began to have the "Neifu Ben".The so-called Neifuben are books engraved by the court.It is presided over by the Lijian of the inner government, and there are Jingjing factories under the Lijian, which are divided into Hanjing Factory, Fanjing Factory and Daojing Factory.The Hanjing factory specializes in engraving the traditional classics, history, zi and ji, and the other two factories print Buddhist scriptures and Taoist scriptures respectively.Therefore, the Neifu version is also called the "Jingchang version".Although most of the books engraved here are huge volumes, and the paper and ink engraving is quite excellent, but because the engraving work is presided over by eunuchs, the collation is not accurate enough, so it is not valued by later generations.

In the center, Guozijian engraved books according to the old system of the past dynasties. Since the capital of Nanjing was established in the early Ming Dynasty, and then moved to Beijing, there were two Guozijians in the south and north. Therefore, there were special "South Jianben" and "North Jianben" in the Ming Dynasty.When Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, invaded Beijing, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty, in the first year of Hongwu (1368), he collected all the engravings of the Song and Yuan Dynasties and concentrated them in the West Lake Academy.Later they were all handed over to Nanjing Guozijian.Therefore, most of the books printed by Nanjian in the early Ming Dynasty were old editions of Song and Yuan Dynasties, among which "Seventeen Histories" is the most famous.The books printed by the Northern Supervisor are all based on the Southern Supervisor's Edition, which is not as many as the Southern Supervisor's. The printed books include "Thirteen Classics", "Twenty-one Histories" and so on.

There are also engraved books by the chief ministers and inspectors of various provinces in the official engraved books, and the Suzhou government is the most, followed by the Huai'an government.In addition, many prefectures and counties also engraved local chronicles. In the Ming Dynasty, there were also engraved editions of Fanfu.This is a major feature of engraved books in the Ming Dynasty.Due to the enfeoffment system of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor's descendants were enfeoffed as vassals of various places.Some of these vassal kings paid attention to proofreading and engraving books, and the famous ones were Ningfan, Jifu, Zhaofu, Defu, Lufan and so on.The books they engraved are called "Fan Fu Block Books".Zhu Quan, king of Ningxian, and Zhu Zhongxuan, king of Jinzhuang, are the most famous inscribed books in the vassal mansion.Most of the books engraved by the vassals are based on the rare books of the Song and Yuan Dynasties awarded to them by the central government, coupled with rich material conditions and their own academic attainments, so there are many excellent ones.The collections engraved by the Jin Fan during the Jiajing period (1522-1566), the books of the masters engraved by the Ji Fan during the Wanli period (1573-1620), and the tea books engraved by the Yi Fan during the Chongzhen period (1628-1644) are all famous. , Known as the three masterpieces of the Fanfu.

The private engravings of the Ming Dynasty inherited the customs of the Song and Yuan Dynasties without much change.After Hongzhi, privately engraved books increased day by day.After Jiajing, it became more prosperous.Famous ones include "Jiaqutang" by Yuan Yu in Wu County, "Shidetang" by Gu Chun, "Dongyatang" by Xu Shitai in Suzhou, "Baowentang" by Chao Yu, "Qingpingshantang" by Hong Chen, Ye Sheng's "Lu Bamboo Hall" and so on.In addition to publishing and printing ancient books, they also reprinted famous Song and Yuan books.Privately engraved books in the Ming Dynasty actively adopted advanced technology, such as the aforementioned Wuxi Huajia and Anjia used copper movable type; Wu Xingling's and Min's set printing, etc.

One outstanding figure in private printing is Mao Jin.He proofread and engraved many books based on the rare books in his collection, among which the most famous ones are "Commentary to Thirteen Classics", "Seventeen Histories", "Sixty Kinds of Songs" and many collections of poems and essays by Tang and Song people.All his engraved books are marked with his "Ji Gu Pavilion".Many booksellers trafficked his books to him in Changshu.In order to print books, the paper he customized from Zhifang is commonly known as "Maobian" and "Maotai".

The business of engraving books in bookshops was the most prosperous in Fujian in the Ming Dynasty.Among them, "Qinyoutang", "Wanjuantang" and "Shendutang" all have a history of hundreds of years.Hangzhou and Sichuan were also book engraving centers in the early Ming Dynasty.After Jiajing, he arrived in the Jiangnan area.Bookstores in Nanjing and Suzhou flourished during the Wanli and Chongzhen years.In addition to inheriting the content of the previous generation to meet the needs of the masses for learning and daily life, the engraved books are also self-edited books, especially books, reading books, and novels.

The publishing and printing of books in the Ming Dynasty became more popular than before. The famous Buddhist scriptures published are "South Tibet" in the fifth year of Hongwu (1372), "Northern Tibet" in the eighth year of Yongle (1410), and "Xu Zang" in the 12th year of Wanli (1584).The Daozang published during the Zhengtong period (1436-1449) is the only version of Daozang in existence.Another major event in the printing of books in the Ming Dynasty was the printing of "Di Bao" with wooden movable type during the Chongzhen period, which was the beginning of printing newspapers and periodicals with movable type in my country.

The official engraved books in the Qing Dynasty were in charge of Wuyingdian, so they were called "Dianban".All the books published are "Orthodox", "Official History", "Imperial Writing", "Imperial Criticism" and "Imperial Designation".It takes the Kangxi Dynasty version as the most refined.Some of the palace editions are printed with movable type, and the famous ones are "Integrated Ancient and Modern Books" and "Juzhen Edition Series of Wuyingdian".Overprinting began in the Shunzhi period. There were many fine works of privately printed books in the Qing Dynasty.For example, the school magazine "Tongzhitang Jingjie" presided over by Xu Qianxue is engraved with handwriting on the upper plate, and the carving is exquisite.Wang Shizhen's "Yuyang Jinglu" was published after it was written by Lin Ji, a famous calligrapher at that time.

Bibliophiles and collators during the Qian and Jia Dynasties also published books, such as the famous Huang Pilie's "Shiliju Series", Bao Tingbo's "Zhibuzhai Series" and so on.The original is high-quality, the collation is meticulous, and it is a good product. Publishing series of books is a major feature of engraved books in the Qing Dynasty. In addition to the above mentioned, there are "Junyi Series" and "Clan Series" that specifically collect works of one place or one surname, such as "Taizhou Series" edited by Song Shiluo, Zhu Changtai The "Pucheng Suicide Notes" and so on are also very useful for studying the cultural development of a place.

With the development of social division of labor in the Qing Dynasty, most of the square carvings were transferred to selling books, and the square carvings gradually declined. Books of the Ming Dynasty were popular in Heikou before Jiajing, and the font style followed the style of the Yuan Dynasty.Only the Jingchang version has a unique style, with a wide frame, sparse lines, and characters as big as money.The paper, ink, and printing are all fine, and the font is in Zhao Mengmeng style, with the back line wrapped.During the Wanli period, due to the advocacy of retro culture, the style of the book also changed. It imitated the Baikou of the Northern Song Dynasty. The format was roughly the same as that of the Northern Song Dynasty. , white and delicate, bright ink color.After Wanli, black mouths gradually increased, and black and white book mouths became common in the future.In terms of fonts, it developed into a square font and gradually turned into a mechanical pattern. In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, it evolved into a square character with horizontal light vertical vertical and four corners. After the rise of lead movable type printing in the 19th century, it was used to cast lead type and became a standard printing font. The existing printing industry called it "Old Song Style". In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, thread-bound books appeared. This is what we see now In the form of a thread-bound book.