Before the Spring and Autumn Period in our country, books were in the hands of so-called historians, who were officials in charge of works, archives and books. Books are privately owned by a very small number of ruling class nobles and cannot be seen by ordinary people. After the Spring and Autumn Period, with the development of society, the scholar class emerged. They demanded to break the monopoly on knowledge, so books expanded to the scholar-officials. These "scholars" later became the reserve team of government officials. At this time, book production began to be officially written.
1. Qin Shihuang’s ban on books and Emperor Wu of Han’s collection of books
In the Qin Dynasty, due to Qin Shi Huang’s ban on books, private individuals were not allowed to collect books, let alone produce them. Therefore, my country's publishing institutions during the Qin Dynasty were still mainly official publications. Production books are written by hand on bamboo slips and silk.
Qin Shihuang’s ban on books continued to affect the early Han Dynasty. Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty did not pay much attention to poetry and books, and the prohibition on collecting books still existed. It was not until Emperor Hui of the Han Dynasty that the law prohibiting book collection was lifted, and only then could private collections of books be made public.
When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (140 BC to 87 BC) ordered the collection of books, this was the first time in the history of our country that the government collected books. At that time, libraries for collecting books were established within the government, and special national book collection institutions and officials who specialized in copying books were set up. This national book collection institution can be said to be the origin of the National Library of my country.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, extensive collection of books was carried out, which greatly increased the government's collection of books. When Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty (32 BC to 7 BC) ordered the collection of books again, he ordered scholar Liu Xiang to take charge of sorting out the large number of collected books. Liu Xiang and his son Liu Xin edited the first book classification and bibliography in Chinese history, "Seven Strategies".
The content of "Seven Strategies" includes: "Collection Strategy", "Six Arts Strategy", "Zhuzi Strategy", "Poetry Strategy", "Military Strategy", "Shu Shu Strategy", and "Fang Technique Strategy" 》. "Qilue" has been lost. Later Bangu wrote "Hanshu", which was adapted into "Yiwenzhi" based on "Qilue". It recorded six lutes, thirty-eight kinds, 596 families, and 13,000 books. One thousand two hundred and sixty-nine volumes.
"Seven Strategies" is the beginning of bibliography and collation in our country. In the early Han Dynasty, the large-scale collection of books and the designation of special personnel to organize books created very favorable conditions for the initial rise of publishing in ancient my country.
2. The emergence of bookstores in the Western Han Dynasty was the beginning of the publishing history of our country
During the reign of Liu Ying, Emperor Hui of the Western Han Dynasty, the ban on books was lifted. At this time, private individuals were allowed to collect books, and later they could write books. At that time, publishing In addition to official books, the institution also has private courses. During the Three Kingdoms, the Two Jins, and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, private history compilation was more popular, including five categories: the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, the History of the Three Kingdoms, the History of the Jin, the History of the Sixteen Kingdoms, and the History of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, with several types in each category.
Before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, official and privately revised books were collectively referred to as "manuscripts", which was the concept of "publishing" in a broad sense. After the Tang Dynasty, due to the invention and use of printing technology, book publishing had official engravings, home engravings and workshop engravings, collectively called "versions".
The publishing of books in our country has a long history and is universally recognized. However, the long history of book distribution in our country is not yet understood. In fact, as early as the Western Han Dynasty more than 2,000 years ago, our country had already exchanged and traded books. Early bookstores appeared in our country, which opened the prelude to the history of publishing and distribution in our country.
Bookstores appeared in our country during the Western Han Dynasty, which was the beginning of our country’s distribution institutions. Since then, my country's publishing and distribution institutions have gradually grown from establishment to development, and the printing of ancient books in my country has begun to take shape. At that time, book production in various countries around the world was still in its infancy. They were still using clay tablets, sheepskin and the like as books, so it was impossible for bookstores to exist. Even Europe, which later developed rapidly economically and culturally, was at least four or five centuries later than our country in the establishment of bookstores.
3. Reasons for the emergence of bookstores in the Han Dynasty
In ancient times, bookstores were called bookshops, also known as bookshops, bookstores, bookstores, bookshops, bookshelfs, bookshops, scripture shops, etc. A dozen names.
There are two basic conditions for the emergence of bookstores:
First, as more people read, the amount of books needed increases.
It is determined by social needs; second, the production of books increases, and books can be traded and exchanged as commodities in the market. It is also the product of the rapid development of publishing industry. In view of the fact that the above conditions were already present in my country during the Western Han Dynasty, the establishment of early bookstores in my country had its political, economic and cultural historical reasons.
When Liu Bang, the founder of the Western Han Dynasty, was in power, he formulated the political policy of "rest with the people", which laid the foundation for the prosperity of the Han Dynasty. By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, in order to consolidate the feudal centralization system, he strengthened the work of the superstructure and implemented the policy of "exclusively respecting Confucianism", which enabled unprecedented development of both official and private schools. At that time, the official school in the capital was mainly Taixue, with doctors from the Five Classics as instructors, and there were fifty formal students, called doctor disciples. Local government schools are called county schools.
With the political and economic development of the Han Dynasty, Taixue expanded rapidly. According to statistics: in the early and middle periods of the Western Han Dynasty, there were only doctoral disciples of Taixue in the capital; during the reign of Emperor Zhao of the Han Dynasty, there were one hundred Taixue students, which increased to 200 during the reign of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, to a thousand during the reign of Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty, and to 1,000 by the time of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty. Three thousand people. Other schools, such as local government schools and private schools, have more students.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used Cewen, that is, examination method, to encourage Confucian students to study and become officials. Scholars, Confucian scholars and scholars from all over the world must read Confucian classics in order to seek fame and wealth, which promoted the mass production of books and their widespread exchange and trade.
In addition, in the early Han Dynasty, the economy was developed and commerce was prosperous. Central commercial cities appeared across the country with Chang'an as the center, including Luoyang, Handan, Lin, Wan, Chengdu and other central commercial cities. As bulk materials were sold in the market, books gradually became commodities. According to Ban Gu's "Liangdu Fu", Zhang Heng's "Xijing Fu" and "Sanfu Huangtu", there were nine cities in Chang'an at that time, six of which were called Xishi to the west of the main road; three cities were called Xishi to the east of the main road. East Market. Besides the East and West markets, there is also a Sophora market, near Taixue. On the first and fifteenth day of every month, Tai students gather twice under the locust tree forest to exchange the specialties from their hometowns, sheng and chime instruments, and scriptures.
The buying and selling of scriptures by students of Taipei University was in the nature of exchanging what was needed at first. Later, some people copied the books and sold them, and books began to become commodities. As the supply and demand for books increased day by day, bookstores appeared that specialized in selling books.
The earliest record of the emergence of bookstores in my country’s Western Han Dynasty can be found in "Fa Yan Wu Zi Pian" written by Yang Xiong. Yang Xiong was a famous poet, philosopher, and linguist in the Western Han Dynasty. He was well-read and had outstanding talent and learning. "Dharma Preface: My Son Chapter" contains:
A good book should not be written by Zhongni. ?
It means that if you love books but do not learn according to Confucius’ teachings, then you are not studying but opening a bookstore. This shows that bookstores have begun to be established in the Western Han Dynasty.
Bookstores in the Western Han Dynasty first appeared in Chang'an, and were subsequently established in cities such as Luoyang, Handan, Lin, Wan, Chengdu and Fanqi. By the Eastern Han Dynasty, the establishment of bookstores in various places gradually increased, not only in big cities, but also in medium and small cities. According to the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Biography of Wang Chong", when Wang Chong was young, he came from a poor family and had no books. He often visited Luoyang shops and read the books sold. ?.
In big cities like Luoyang, bookstores are very common, with a wide variety of books, and they can be sold on open shelves, so readers can read them at will. In this way, Wang Chong, who came from a poor family and had no books, could teach himself in a bookstore and later became an outstanding thinker and literary theorist in the Han Dynasty. He wrote 85 articles in "Lunheng", which will forever be recorded in history.
What about the small and medium-sized cities at that time? According to Fan Wenlan's "Compendium of General History of China":
There were exclusive bookstores in the Eastern Han Dynasty. For example, Liu Liang made a business selling books in Ningyang County (Ningyang County, Shandong). ?
This means that in the small county town of Ningyang, there are also people who set up bookstores and open bookstores to sell books.
To sum up, the widespread establishment of bookstores in various places in my country during the Han Dynasty was not only the rise of my country's publishing industry, but also an important sign that my country's book publishing industry prospered and entered a new stage.
References:
"Yiwen Leiju" is quoted from "Sanfu Huangtu"
Fang Houshu: "A Brief History of Publishing in China". See "Publishing Work" Issue 8, 1981, edited by China Publishing Workers Association