The Book in Ming China: History & Analysis

Course Description

This course is intended for scholars in History, Literature, Art, Religion, or other fields, already familiar with Ming studies, who are looking to get ideas for their current or future research projects. The course will introduce the collection of some 2,000 Ming editions held at the East Asian Library and elsewhere in the Princeton University Library system. Princeton’s collection of books published during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 CE) is unique in the world in its breadth and depth of coverage, with special strengths in Buddhism, literary compilations, and medical and other scientific texts. Participants will have the chance to investigate opportunities for research in Princeton’s East Asian Rare Books Collection and generate ideas for current and future research projects in Ming Studies. The morning sessions will offer an abbreviated history of books in China from the beginning of book production in East Asia during the first millennium BCE until the end of the twentieth century. In addition to describing the physical aspects of traditional Chinese books and their evolution over many centuries, the class will also explore their social and cultural roles as bearers of text and transmitters of knowledge within the context of China’s long and complex history. Subjects treated will include the invention of paper, manuscript culture, woodblock printing and the forms of movable type, book forms and format, commercial and non-commercial publishing, languages and script in publications, texts vs. paratexts, and the wave of Western influences on the Chinese book beginning in the nineteenth century. Afternoons will be focused on the actual holdings of Ming editions in Princeton, in particular its Gest Collection. The class will begin by introducing the basic characteristics of Ming books, including regional and genre-specific patterns of book production between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. Participants will then be presented with a wide representative variety of both known major works and more ordinary items of the wider field of Ming editions. The course is open to all applicants from advanced Ph.D. students to established scholars who can make a case that they would benefit from the class. Knowledge of the Chinese language and the Ming Studies field in general are required. Toward the end of the class, participants will give a preliminary report of their findings and plans for future research.

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Advance Reading List

Preliminary Advices

Revised 3/5/24

* = PDF available

*Heijdra, Martin. “The East Asian Library and the Gest Collection at Princeton University,” in: Peter X. Zhou, ed., Collecting Asia: East Asian Libraries in North America, 1868-2008 (Ann Arbor: Association for Asian Studies, 2010, pp. 120-135. USE UPDATED VERSION OF 2018 (PROVIDED).

*Mote, Frederick and Hung-lam Chu. Calligraphy and the East Asian Book. Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1989. NK3634.A2 M67 1989. Same as The Gest Library Journal II:2 (1988).

Pulinsidun daxue tushuguan cang Zhongwen shanben shumu 普林斯頓大學圖書館藏中文善本書目, 北京市 : 國家圖書館出版社, 2017, 2 volumes. Cf. http://gest.princeton.edu/rarebook.htm (click on “subject”).

Required Reading

*Brokaw, Cynthia. “On the History of the Book in China,” In: Cynthia Brokaw and Kai-Wing Chow, eds., Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005, pp. 3–54.

*Dai, Lianbin. “China’s Bibliographic Tradition and the History of the Book,” Book History 17 (2014), 1–50.

Edgren, Sören, ed. Chinese Rare Books in American Collections. New York: China Institute, 1984.

*pp. 10–15 (Introduction by Sören Edgren)

*pp. 16–25 (“Technical Aspects of Chinese Printing” by Tsuen-Hsuin Tsien)

*pp. 26–30 (“Chinese Type Design and Calligraphy” by Wan-Go Weng)

*pp. 31–43 (“Book Illustration in Late Ming and Early Qing China” by Wang Fang-yu)

*pp. 88–125 (Ming-Qing printing by Sören Edgren).

*Edgren, Sören. “The Traditional Chinese Book: Form & Function.” Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum, 1995 (catalogue brochure).

*Edgren, J. S. “The History of the Book in China,” in: Michael F. Suarez, S.J. and H. R. Woudhuysen eds., The Oxford Companion to the Book, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 353–65.

*Heijdra, Martin, “Cataloging Chinese Rare Books at Princeton,” Princeton University Library Chronicle, 78:1 (Autumn–Winter 2020), pp. 56-70 (Download from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/48693091?seq=1)

*Heijdra, Martin, “Technology, Culture, and Economics: Movable Type Versus Woodblock Printing in East Asia,” in: Isobe Akira 磯部彰, ed., Higashi Ajia Shuppan Bunka Kenkyū: Niwatazumi 東アジア出版文化研究. にわたずみ, 東京 : 二玄社, 2004, pp. 223-240.

*(forthcoming), Heijdra, Martin and Ling Yiming, “Muluxue,” in: Glenn W. Most, Martin Kern and Anne Eusterschulte eds., Philological practices: a comparative historical lexicon, Princeton: Princeton University Press [extended version].

*Kornicki, P. F. “The History of the Book in Japan,” in: Michael F. Suarez, S.J. and H. R. Woudhuysen eds., The Oxford Companion to the Book, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 375–85.

*McKillop, Beth. “The History of the Book in Korea,” in: Michael F. Suarez, S.J. and H. R. Woudhuysen eds., The Oxford Companion to the Book, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 366–73.

*McDermott, Joseph. A Social History of the Chinese Book. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006, pp. 43-81.

*Xiao, Dongfa, ed. From Oracle Bones to E-Publications. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2009, pp.15–97.

Recommended Reading

Brokaw, Cynthia. “Book History in Premodern China: The State of the Discipline I.” Book History, vol. 10 (2007), 253-290 (Download from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30227406).

*Darnton, Robert. “What is the History of Books?” Daedalus 111, no. 3 (1982): 65–83. Also published in Darnton’s The Kiss of Lamourette. New York: W. W. Norton, 1995, pp. 107–135.

*Edgren, J. S. “Late-Ming Erotic Book Illustrations and the Origins of Ukiyo-e Prints.” Arts Asiatiques, 66 (2011), 117-134.

*Heijdra, Martin, “I. V. Gillis, Cataloger of the Mu and Gest Collections”, in: Qiao Xiaoqin 喬曉勤 (Stephen Qiao) (ed.), Jianada Duolunduo Daxue Mushi Cangshumu 加拿大多伦多大学慕氏藏书目 [Catalog of the Mu Collection in the Toronto University, Canada], 北京市 : 國家圖書館出版社, 2022, v. 1, pp. 1-9.

McDermott, Joseph and Peter Burke (ed.). The Book Worlds of East Asia and Europe, 1450- 1850, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2015.

Meyer-Fong, Tobie. “The Printed World: Books, Publishing Culture, and Society in Late Imperial China,” Journal of Asian Studies 66:3 (2007), 787-817 (Download from https://www.jstor.org/stable/20203205).

*Munn, Jesse. “Side-stitched books of China, Korea and Japan in Western Collections,” Journal of the Institute of Conservation 32, no. 1 (2009), pp. 103–27.

*Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin. “Paper and Printing.” Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, pt. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985 (Third printing, revised 1987, and later printings), pp. 23-84; 194-291.

Additional Reading

Beijing yishu bowuguan cang Mingdai Dazangjing sichou biaofeng yanjiu 北京艺术博物馆藏明代大藏经丝绸裱封研究 , Beijing: Xueyuan chubanshe, 2013.

Brokaw, Cynthia. Commerce in Culture, Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007.

Bussotti, Michela ed., “Dossier ‘Livres des gens de Hui,’”  (Michela Bussotti, “Introduction” (Download from https://www.jstor.org/stable/43733748); Jean-Pierre Drège, “De Dunhuang à Huizhou: notes brèves sur la géographie des premiers temps du livre imprimé en Chine” (Download from https://www.jstor.org/stable/43733749); Michela Bussotti, “Compiler, éditer, illustrer: les monographies du district de Xiuning” (Download from https://www.jstor.org/stable/43733750); Lin Li-chiang, “Wang Tingne Unveiled through the Study of the Late Ming Woodblock-Printed Book Renjing Yangqiu” (Download from https://www.jstor.org/stable/43733751); Lucille Chia, “Huizhou Natives and the Publishing World of Late Ming China” (Download from https://www.jstor.org/stable/43733752); Pierre-Henri Durand, “Zhang Chao et les Ombres de Rêves ou les amitiés d’un éditeur au temps de l’empereur Kangxi,” (Download from https://www.jstor.org/stable/43733753), Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 95-96 (2008-2009), 2012.

Bussotti, Michela, Gravures de Hui : Étude du livre illustré chinois (fin du XVIe siècle-première moitié du XVIIe siècle), Paris : École française d’extrême-Orient, 2001.

Ce fu qian hua: zhengui guji diaoban tezhan tulu 册府千华 : 珍贵古籍雕版特展图录 , 北京 : 国家图书馆出版社, 2015.

Chen Duo 陈铎, Jianben yu Jian’an banhua 建本与建安版画, [福州市] : 福建美术出版社, 2006.

Chen Hongyan 陈红彦, Zhang Ping 张平, eds., Zhongguo guji zhuangju 中国古籍装具, 北京: 国家图书馆出版社, 2012.

Chen Zhenghong 陈正宏, Dong Ya Hanji banbenxue chutan 东亚汉籍版本学初探 , 上海市 : 中西書局, 2014.

Chen Zhenghong 陈正宏, Liang Ying 梁颖, Guji yinben jianding gaishuo 古籍印本鉴定概说 , 上海 : 上海辞书出版社, 2005.

Cheng Huanwen 程焕文, Zhongguo tushu wenhua daolun 中国图书文化导论, 广州中山大学出版社, 1995.

Chia, Lucille and Hilde de Weerdt, eds. Knowledge and Text Production in an Age of Print: China, 900-1400, Leiden: Brill, 2011.

Chia, Lucille, “Of Three Mountains Street: The Commercial Publishers of Ming Nanjing,” in: Cynthia Brokaw and Kai-Wing Chow, eds., Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005, pp. 107-151 (Download from https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1ppz91.8).

Chia, Lucille, “The life and afterlife of Qisha Canon,” in: Jiang Wu and Lucille Chia eds., Spreading Buddha’s word in East Asia: the formation and transformation of the Chinese Buddhist canon, New York : Columbia University Press, [2016] , pp. 181-218, (Download from https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/wu–17160.12).

Chia, Lucille. Printing for Profit, Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2002.

Chow, Kai-wing, Publishing, Culture, and Power in Early Modern China, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004.

Cui Jianli 崔建利, Minguo shiqi de guji congshu yanjiu 民国时期的古籍丛书研究, 北京 : 中國社会科学出版社, 2016.

Dai, Lianbin, “The Economics of the Jiaxing Edition of the Buddhist Tripitaka,” T’oung Pao, Second Series, Vol. 94, Fasc. 4/5 (2008), pp. 306-359, (Download from https://brill.com/view/journals/tpao/94/4/article-p306_2.xml).

Dennis, Joseph R., Writing, Publishing, and Reading Local Gazetteers in Imperial China, 1100-1700, Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Asia Center : Distributed By Harvard University Press, 2015.

Drège, Jean-Pierre. Le papier dans la Chine impériale. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1971.

Du Weisheng 杜伟生, Zhongguo guji xiufu yu zhuangzheng jishu tujie 中国古籍修复与装帧技术图解, 北京图书馆出版社, 2003.

*Edgren, J. S. “Review of Zhongguo guji zhuangju (Traditional Chinese book enclosures).” East Asian Publishing and Society 5 (2015), 129-134.

*Edgren, Sören. “Southern Song Printing at Hangzhou,” Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, No. 61 (1989), pp. 1-212.

*Edgren, Sören, “The fengmianye (cover page) as a source for Chinese publishing history,” in: Isobe Akira 磯部彰, ed., Higashi Ajia Shuppan Bunka Kenkyū: Niwatazumi 東アジア出版文化研究. にわたずみ, 東京 : 二玄社, 2004, pp. 261-267.

Farrer, Anne et al., Handbook of the Colour Print in China 1600-1800, Leiden: Brill, 2021.

*Fitzgerald, Devin, “Spreading Without Being Seen: Towards a Global History of Early Modern Chinese Papers,” Ars Orientalis 51, 2022, pp. 105-132.

Gugong bowuyuan 故宮博物院, Sheng shi wen zhi : Qinggong dianji wenhua 盛世文治 : 清宮典籍文化, 北京紫禁城出版社, 2005.

Guo Lixuan 郭立暄, Zhongguo guji yuanke fanke yu chuyin houyin yanjiu 中國古籍原刻翻刻與初印後印研究 , 上海市 : 中西書局, 2015, 3 volumes.

He, Yuming. Home and the World, Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2013.

*Heijdra, Martin “A Tale of Two Aesthetics: Typography versus Calligraphy in the Pre-modern Chinese Book,” in: Ming Wilson and Stacey Pierson ed., The Art of the Book in China (Colloquies on Art & Archaeology in Asia No. 23), London: University of London, Percival David Foundation Of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2006, pp. 15-27.

*Heijdra, Martin, “Book review of Christopher A. Reed, Gutenberg in Shanghai: Chinese Print Capitalism, 1876-1937,” SHARP News (Society for the history of authorship, reading and publishing) 15:2-3 (Spring-Summer 2006), p. 22-23.

*Heijdra, Martin, “Book review of Joseph R. Dennis, Writing, Publishing, and Reading Local Gazetteers in Imperial China, 1100-1700,” Zhongguo wenhua yanjiusuo xuebao 63 (July 2016), pp. 287-298.

*Heijdra, Martin, “Book review of Lucille Chia and Hilde De Weerdt, eds, Knowledge and text production in an age of print: China, 900-1400, Journal of Asian Studies 71:4 (November 2012), pp. 1099-1101.

*Heijdra, Martin, “Book review of Timothy Brook, Geographical Sources of Ming-Qing History,” Ming Studies, 29 (1990), pp. 65-69.

*Heijdra, Martin, “Book review of Yuming He, Home and the World: Editing the ‘Glorious Ming’ in Woodblock-Printed Books of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” Zhongguo wenhua yanjiusuo xuebao 59 (July 2014), pp. 303-311.

*Heijdra, Martin, “The Development of Modern Typography in East Asia, 1850–2000,” East Asian Library Journal XI:2 (2004), pp. 100-168.

*Heijdra, Martin, “Typography and the East Asian Book: The Evolution of the Grid,” in: Perry Link, ed., The Scholar’s Mind: Essays in Honor of Frederick W. Mote, Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2009, pp. 115-145.

*Heijdra, Martin, and Cao Shuwen, “The World’s Earliest Extant Book Printed from Wooden Movable Type? Chüan Seventy-seven of the Tangut Translation of the Garland Sutra,” Gest Library Journal 5:1 (1992), pp. 70-89.

*Helliwell, David. “Repair and Binding of Old Chinese Books,” East Asian Library Journal, VIII:1 (1998), 27-149.

Inoue Susumu 井上進, Chūgoku shuppan bunkashi: shomotsu sekai to chi no fūkei 中国出版文化史 : 書物世界と知の風景 , 名古屋 : 名古屋大学出版会, 2002.

Kerlouégan, Jérôme, “Printing for Prestige? Publishing and Publications by Ming Princes,” East Asian Publishing and Society 1(2011), pp. 39-73, 105-44, and 2(2012), pp. 39-73 (Download from https://brill.com/view/journals/eaps/1/1/article-p39_2.xml), 105-44 (Download from https://brill.com/view/journals/eaps/1/2/article-p105_1.xml), and 2 (2012), pp. 3-75 (Download from https://brill.com/view/journals/eaps/2/1/article-p3_2.xml), 109-98 (Download from https://brill.com/view/journals/eaps/2/2/article-p109_1.xml).

Ki Shōshun 祁小春, Chūgoku koseki no hankoku shohō 中国古籍の板刻書法 , 大阪市 : 東方出版, 1998.

Li Kaisheng 李開升, Mingdai Jiajing keben yanjiu 明嘉靖刻本研究 , 上海 : 中西書局, 2019.

Long, Darui, “Managing the Dharma Treasure: collation, carving, printing, and distribution of the Canon in late imperial China,” in: Jiang Wu and Lucille Chia eds., Spreading Buddha’s word in East Asia: the formation and transformation of the Chinese Buddhist canon, New York: Columbia University Press, [2016], New York : Columbia University Press, [2016] , pp. 219-246 (Download from https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/wu–17160.13).

McLaren, Anne, “Constructing New Reading Publics in Late Ming China.” in: Cynthia Brokaw and Kai-Wing Chow, eds., Printing and Book Culture in Late Imperial China, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005, pp. 152-183 (Download from https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1ppz91.9).

Ōki Yasushi 大木康, Minmatsu Kōnan no shuppan bunka 明末江南の出版文化, 東京 : 研文出版, 2004.

Ōki Yasushi 大木康, Chūgoku Minmatsu no media kakumei : shomin ga hon o yomu 中国明末のメディア革命 : 庶民が本を読む, 東京 : 刀水書房, 2009.

Pan Jixing 潘吉星, Zhongguo kexue jishushi: zaozhi yu yinshua juan 中国科学技术史：造纸与印刷卷,北京科学出版社, 1998.

Park, J. P, Art by the Book, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2012.

Qian Yongxing 钱永兴, Minjian riyong diaoban yinshuapin tuzhi 民间日用雕版印刷品图志 , 扬州市 : 广陵书社, 2010.

Reed, Christopher, Gutenberg in Shanghai: Chinese Print Capitalism, 1876-1937, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004.

Shaw, Shiow-Jyu Lu, The Imperial Printing of Early Qing China, 1644-1805, Taibei: Chinese Materials Center, 1983.

Shi Zongyuan 石宗源, Liu Binjie 柳斌杰 Zhongguo chuban tongshi 中国出版通史, 北京市 : 中国书籍出版社, 2008, 9 v.

*Shum Chum 沈津, “Mingdai fangke tushu zhi liutong yu jiage 明代坊刻圖書之流通與價格,” Guojia tushuguan guankan 國家圖書館舘刊 1996:1, pp. 101-118.

Son, Suyoung, Writing for print: publishing and the making of textual authority in late imperial China, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center, 2018.

*Standaert, Nicolas, “Ritual Dances and Their Visual Representations in the Ming and the Qing,” East Asian Library Journal 12:1 (Spring 2006), pp. 68-181.

*Swann, Nancy Lee, “Seven Intimate Library Owners,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 1:3-4 (1936), pp. 363-390.

*Tomasko, Nancy, “Chinese Handmade Paper,” Hand Papermaking 19:1 (Summer 2004), 20-32.

Tsien, Tsuen-Hsuin, Written on Bamboo and Silk. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Read pp. 1–206.

Twitchett, Denis, Printing and Publishing in Medieval China. London: Wynkyn de Worde Society; New York: Frederic Beil, 1983.

*Volkmar, Barbara, “The Physician and the Plagiarist: The Fate of the Legacy of Wan Quan,” East Asian Library Journal 9:1 (Spring 2000), 1-77.

Wang, Rongguo 王榮國 et al., Mingdai Min Ling ke taoyinben tulu 明代閔淩刻套印本圖錄, 揚州廣陵書社, 2006.

*Wu, K. T., “Ming printing and printers,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 7:3 (1943), pp. 203-260.

Xu, Yuanting 許媛婷 ed., Guren zhangzhongshu 古人掌中書 : 院藏巾箱本特展 = Books in the palm of your hand: the kerchief-box editions in the National Palace Museum collection, 臺北市 : 國立故宮博物院, [2019].

Yang, Yuanzheng, Chinese Music in Print: From the Great Sage to the Lady Literata, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2023.

Yin, Yijun 尹伊君, Gu zhi yi lü : Yin cang Qingdai falü wenshu 故紙遺律 : 尹藏清代法律文书 , 北京市 : 北京大学出版社, 2013.

Yoneyama, Toratarō 米山寅太郎, Zusetsu Chūgoku insatsushi 図說中国印刷史, 東京 : 汲古書院, 2005.

Zhang, Ting, Circulating the code: print media and legal knowledge in Qing China, Seattle: University of Washington Press, [2020].

Zhang, Xiumin 张秀民, Han Qi 韩琦, Zhongguo huozi yinshuashi 中国活字印刷史, 北京中国书籍出版社, 1998.

Zhang, Xiumin, The History of Chinese Printing. Paramus (N.J.): Homa & Sekey Books, 2009.

Zhang, Xiumin 张秀民, Han Qi 韩琦, Zhongguo yinshuashi 中国印刷史（插图珍藏增订版）杭州浙江古籍出版社, 2006. Rev. ed.

Zhongguo banben wenhua congshu 中國版本文化叢書 (14 vols., Zhao Qian 赵前, Ming ben 明本 ; 韦力 Wei Li, Pijiao ben 批校本; Huang Runhua 黄润华, Shaoshu minzu guji banben 少数民族古籍版本; Jiang Deming姜德明, Xin wenxue banben 新文学版本; Huang Zhenwei 黄镇伟, Fangke ben 坊刻本; Li Jining李际宁, Fojing banben 佛经版本; Jiang Qingbo 江庆柏, Gao ben 稿本; Xi Chunnian奚椿年, Zhongguo shu yuanliu 中国书源流; Huang Shang 黄裳, Qing keben 清刻本; Xue Bing 薛冰, Chatu ben 插图本; Xu Yinong 徐忆农, Huozi ben 活字本; Cheng Youqing 程有庆、Zhang Lijuan 张丽娟, Song ben 宋本; Chen Hongyan 陈红彦, Yuan ben 元本; Wang Guiping 王桂平, Jiake ben 家刻本), 南京市 : 江苏古籍出版社, 2002.

*Zhou Qirong 周启荣, “Ming-Qing yinshua shuji chengben, jiage ji qi shangpin jazhi de yanjiu 明清印刷书籍成本 、价格及其商品价值的研究,” Zhejiang daxue xuebao (Renwen shehui kexueban) 浙江大学学报(人文社会科学版) 40:1 (2010), pp. 5-17.

 

References

Chen Xianxing, et al., 陳先行等編, Zhongguo guji gao chao jiao ben tulu 中國古籍稿鈔校本圖錄, 上海: 上海書店出版社, 2000. 3 vols.

Du Xinfu 杜信孚, ed., Mingdai banke zongmu 明代版刻綜目, 揚州: 廣陵古籍刻印社, 1983. 8 volumes.

Miao Yonghe 缪咏禾, Mingdai chuban shigao 明代出版史稿, 南京: 江苏人民出版社, 2000.

Pan Chengbi 潘承弼, Gu Tinglong 顧廷龍, eds., Mingdai banben tulu chubian 明代版本圖錄初編, 上海: 開明書店, 1941, 4 volumes. Also: 臺北: 文海出版社, 1971, 1 volume.

Zhao Qian 趙前, Mingdai banke tudian 明代版刻圖典, 北京: 文物出版社, 2008.

Zhou Xinhui 周心慧, ed., Mingdai banke tushi 明代版刻图释, 北京: 学苑出版社, 1998. 4 volumes.

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Course Evaluations

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Course History