Publishing, Culture, and Power in Early Modern China - Brossura

Chow, Kai-Wing

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0804733686 ISBN 13: 9780804733687

Casa editrice: Stanford Univ Pr, 2003

Riassunto

This book is a path-breaking study of print culture in early modern China. It argues that printing with both woodblocks and movable type exerted a profound influence on Chinese society in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The book examines the rise and impact of print culture from both economic and cultural perspectives.In economic terms, the central issues were the price of books and the costs of book production. Chow argues that contrary to accepted views, inexpensive books were widely available to a growing literate population. An analysis of the economic and operating advantages of woodblock printing explains why it remained the dominant technology even as the use of movable type was expanding. The cultural focus shows the impact of commercial publishing on the production of literary culture, particularly on the civil service examination. The expansion of the book market produced publicity for literary professionals whose authority came to challenge the authority of the official examiners.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Kai-wing Chow is Associate Professor of History and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He is the author of The Rise of Confucian Ritualism in Late Imperial China (Stanford, 1997).

Dalla quarta di copertina:

“Within the past two decades, the history of print and book culture in late imperial China has engaged the interest and efforts of scholars throughout the world....Kai-wing Chow’s book, a thought-provoking addition to this literature, analyzes the social, cultural, and political impact of commercial and private publishing of examination literature in the late Ming.”—Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
“[This] monograph is very well researched and makes a valuable contribution to the historiography of early modern China as well as the history of publishing.”—Sixteenth Century Journal

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Stanford Univ Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0804733686
• ISBN 13: 9780804733687
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 397