The development of printing in human society has promoted the development of social civilization. The birth of printing means that human beings have mastered the principle of copying text information and can mass produce text. After the Song Dynasty, China's papermaking made an important historical contribution to the cultural communication in the surrounding East Asia and the West. The prosperity of printed books in Song Dynasty was not achieved overnight, but a very long historical process. In this long historical process, the print media has been popularized and adopted by the people and politics in the process of continuous improvement and perfection.
First, the breakthrough of printing in Song Dynasty
In the Song Dynasty, there was a new breakthrough in printing technology. In the Northern Song Dynasty, movable type printing in Bi Sheng was standardized and mass-produced. With the movable type printing in Bi Sheng, copperplate prints appeared and acted on the currency in Song Dynasty. Movable type printing also spread to other neighboring countries, and the publishing industry in Song Dynasty developed accordingly. During the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, scholars also worshipped books published in the Song Dynasty.
Song history records:? Seal the book of rites with a new seal? "The Scholars" gives an axis of Chinese book, several meters, two systems and three views. First of all, he tried to be a scholar, with the title "The Scholars", which was intended to urge scholars to practice Confucianism, hence the name engraving.
The right writing policy promoted the popularization of printing and publishing in Song Dynasty. The policy of valuing literature over martial arts in Song Dynasty attracted a large number of scholars, which was more important to them. Even in the army, commanders are mostly literati, and this employment policy makes advocating culture a social atmosphere. Secondly, using block printing can rule the world with books. Relying on the cultural policy of these books to win the hearts of the people, people are keen on the imperial examination, which makes the ranks of scholars expand rapidly, and the subjects that must be tested in the examination are in urgent need of reference books, which also promotes the commercial operation of the publishing industry.
Second, the cultural characteristics of printing and publishing in Song Dynasty
In the prosperous engraving and printing industry in Song Dynasty, Confucian classics, as the highest classics of the highest ruling class, are also in great demand by scholars from all over the world as research books. From the imperial court to the local government, books are needed as the main content of learning, so from the central government to the local government, a lot of energy should be invested in the production of Confucian classics. Imperial academy, as the highest institution of learning in the feudal dynasty of China, is also the most authoritative publishing institution and management department in China. It mainly prints national classics, which represents the national publishing consciousness in Song Dynasty.
The content of printing is also very extensive. In addition to the official printing of Confucian classics to represent the will of the ruling class, the contents of folk block printing are also varied. It involves many fields of human beings, from the initial Confucianism to world history, geography, poetry, novels and so on, especially in medicine. The relaxed cultural environment and its prosperous commercial trade promoted the rapid development of folk printing and publishing in the Song Dynasty, which led to the emergence of many works in the fields of literature, art, science and technology, which had a far-reaching impact on later generations.
conclusion
The Song Dynasty is the second period in the history of China where a hundred schools of thought contend. During this period, the thought was very open, which promoted the development of commerce, made the commodity economy very prosperous, and became an unprecedented historical peak in ancient China. Although movable type printing in Song Dynasty was more advanced than block printing, clay characters could not be reused and preserved because they were easily damaged. Imperial academy, the highest institution in the central government, mostly uses block printing to print books. Although there was a new breakthrough in movable type printing in Song Dynasty, it still could not completely replace block printing.
Printing and publishing in Song Dynasty played an important role in the inheritance of Chinese civilization and had a far-reaching impact on all literary fields in feudal times. Chinese characters have been in a lofty position for a long time, and the spread of a large number of Confucian classics among the people has educated the people and formed a universal cultural identity.