Chapter 27 Chapter 9: The Emergence of the Modern Library

The whole set of Chinese typefaces was first made by the British Taiyueer in Singapore in 1838. It was transported to Hong Kong in the 22nd year of Daoguang (AD 1842) and used in Hong Kong in the 22nd year of Daoguang (AD 1844). American Gu Xuan (R .Cole) set up Huahua Bible Study Room in Macau, and printed Chinese Bibles with Tyol's set of typefaces.The following year, the study moved to Ningbo and was renamed Huamei Library, and moved to Shanghai in the ninth year of Xianfeng (1859 AD).William Gamble, an American technician of the museum, reformed the specifications of Chinese movable type, set seven standards, invented electroplated Chinese character molds, and improved the printing quality.

Compared with this, my country's inherent woodblock printing has gradually failed to meet the needs of the Chinese intellectuals at that time to propagate the revolution and learn knowledge.In this way, Western printing technology has been adopted one after another.The first printed books and magazines still completely imitated the traditional model of engraved books in terms of form.In the fifth year of Guangxu (AD 1879), the British JD Clack (JDClack, AD 1840-1922) began to use gas engine rotary printing presses in Shanghai, which greatly improved the printing efficiency and became the main printing method for books and periodicals.As for the arrangement of characters, the Chinese customary method was basically followed at that time, and vertical arrangement was adopted.The horizontal layout appeared only when the layout of mathematical formulas needed to be arranged horizontally. Later, except for books on mathematics, physics and chemistry that contained mathematical formulas, they were all horizontally arranged. Until 1949, Chinese books basically adopted the vertical format.

With the popularization of printing and the introduction of Western newsprint and coated paper, books printed on both sides of a single page appeared. This printing method can not only save paper, but also improve efficiency and reduce costs.This printing method soon became popular.Due to the change of the format, the traditional thread binding can no longer adapt to this change, so the Western-style binding method (that is, today's so-called hardcover and paperback) is adopted.As Li Wenqi said in the article "The Changes of Bookbinding in China", "In the recent printing boom, all books tend to be more important than the so-called printing. Except for the printed books, which still need thread binding, half of the rest have been changed to backpacks. Others For the fine ones on the back of the package, thick paper is used to cover leather or cloth, or hot stamped characters, or printed in black, commonly known as hardcover. The second one does not use thick paper, but only uses various types of book cover paper, or prints it. The cover is used as a back pack, commonly known as 'paperback'."

Initially, most of the type printing houses were in the hands of foreigners, and most of the type printed books were religious propaganda materials, such as Bibles, catechisms, and various books on good deeds, as well as books from church schools.Among them, American Merchants, Meihua and British Merchants' Mohai Libraries are the most popular.In the 23rd year of Guangxu (AD 1897), the giant of my country's publishing and printing industry, the Commercial Press, was established, and then became a competitor in the printing industry of foreign companies.The Commercial Press originally specialized in printing, mainly printing commercial advertisements, account books and other supplies, hence the name Commercial Press.Books began to be published after the 26th year of Guangxu (AD 1900).In the twenty-eighth year of Guangxu (AD 1902), it edited textbooks and magazines and became the largest publishing and printing organization in the country. Wenming Bookstore, founded in 1902, also had its own printing office (Wingming Bookstore merged with Zhonghua Bookstore shortly after its establishment).The establishment of new publishing and printing institutions in China, especially the establishment of the Commercial Press, gradually replaced foreign libraries.For example, the Meihua Library started its business in 1845. In the past 50 years, it has published a total of 400,000 volumes of books. Due to the establishment of the Commercial Press, the library's business has gradually declined.

At the beginning of the 20th century, mechanized printing institutions have been established in Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Hankou and other major cities in my country, gradually becoming the mainstream of the printing industry, thus providing conditions for the prosperity of the book publishing industry.