Studies On Zhang Yuanji

Zhang Yuanji,was born in 1867 and died in 1959.His life had gone through the periods of late Qing,the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China,which was almost throughout the whole modern history of China.He had no declaration,no banner,and no too much theory.Also,he had himself disdained to make any grandiose explanations for his choice.However,he was enlightened,moderate,insightful and effective,which spurred himself to find his career appropriately in the severe circumstance in which both radical and conservative forces penetrated.He worked with perseverance and consistency and upgraded the Commercial Press from a simple and crude factory into China's largest publishing company.In this process,he himself also had changed from a member of the Imperial Academy into a endsville publisher,and his name represents a brand new era in China's Publishing history.In the recent 40 years,the research on Zhang Yuanji has gained wide concern by the academic field.There are numerous related works,including more than 20 kinds of Zhang Yuanji's biography,and more than 1000 articles published on various newspapers and periodicals,and etc.However,confined to the material and field of vision factor,there still existed many uncared or superficial discussed questions to be further clarified.Some details and declarations in recent related research should also be chacked and get new understanding.Accordingly,my study will penetrate into these kinds of questions,and tries to further expand,enrich and deepen the intension and extension of the study on Zhang Yuanji,thereby manifesting the uniqueness and significance of the "existence" of Zhang Yuanji.The major part of the study includes six chapters except the Preface,Conclusions and the Appendix.Chapter 1 reviews Zhang Yuanji's educating life and ambition for his career,and analyzes the reason for the great success of his leading the Commercial Press in the troubled times.Chapter 2 discusses his way of running the press:compliableness,contravention,advances and retreats before and after the May-fourth era,which also brought profound influence for the Commercial Press and the the New Culture Movement.Chapter 3 explores 21 proposals suggested by Zhang Yuanji from"Proceedings of Directors' Meeting of the Commercial Press",through which Zhang Yuanji's knowledge,insight,capability,wisdom and conscience as a leader of a large-scale cultural enterprise are showed.Chapter 4 takes the letters between Zhang Yuanji and his Japanese friends promulgated by Shanghai Archives and other public and private libraries as key materials.Along with using other related historical materials,this chapter clarifies the process of going to Japan for precious books and the subsequent complex events,and analyzes several significances of the event in the book intercourse history between China and Japan in the modern times-Chapter 5 explores the initiating,selection of contents,photoing and the declaration of stopping publication of "Series of Rare Books".Chapter 6 exhibits the academic intercourse between Zhang Yuanji and Fu Sinian,and the close cooperation between the Commercial Press and the Institute of History and Philology in Chinese Academy of Sciences(Taiwan)encouraged by their intercourse.The appendix is a Finishing draft of "Proceedings of Directors' Meeting of the Commercial Press".Zhang Yuanji played a key role in the operation of the board of the Commercial Press from the beginning to the end.Therefore,this draft is of great importance to do study on Zhang Yuanji and the Commercial Press.So I put it here as a further reference to the major part of this book.