Jinling Publishing House And The Late Qing Dynasty (1864-1911)

From it’s establishment in April 1864 to the incorporation into “Jiangnan Library”in 1911,the main activities of “Jinling Publishing House”in late Qing had lasted for nearly half a century.As one of the most prestigious local publishing houses in late Qing,Jinling Publishing House showed its classics in terms of creators,editors,publishing books and so on.The history of its rise and fall was also closely related to the social changes,political development and academic evolution in late Qing.The historical developments of Jinling Publishing House showed three periods.The period of Anqing Zeng’s Publishing House(May 1864 to September 1865).Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan set up Anqing Zeng’s Publishing House in May 1864 which was relocated to Jinling Tiezuofang in September and withdrewed in September the following year.Anqing Zeng’s Publishing House was established for “Wang Fuzhi’s posthumous work”.It’s nature was still the traditional shogunate publishing books organization,but it had particularity and complexity compared with traditional shogunate publishing books.The period of "Jinling Publishing House "(June 1865 to 1874).In June 1865,Li Hongzhang set up the Tongzi-lane publishing house and use the "Jinling Publishing House " brand.The Tiezuofang publishing house had been replaced by the Tongzi-Lane publishing house,which marked the transformation of Jinling Publishing House from shogunate publishing books organization to the local publishing house.The center of publishing books was “the Four Books and the Thirteen Classics” and “the Fourteen Histories” in this period.From Li Hongzhang’s publishing "the Four Books and the Thirteen Classics ",Zeng Guofan’s publishing "the Four Histories ",Ma Xinyi’s participation of the Five Publishing Houses’ s publishing "the Twentyfour Histories" to Zeng Guofan’s publishing "the Thirteen Classics,Annotated and Explcated",Jinling Publishing House maintained the prosperity of nearly ten years and had developed into the most influential local publishing house in late Qing.The rise of the local publishing houses was a remarkable political and cultural phenomenon in the middle and late 19 th century.It was caused by the interaction of social changes,political development and academic evolution after the Peasant War of Taiping Heavenly and the Second Opium War.The period of "Jiangnan Publishing House"(1875 to 1911).In the early Guangxu Dynasty,"Jinling Publishing House" was renamed "Jiangnan Publishing House ".The center of publishing books was changed to "rare books and good edition of Confucian Classics".Despite the financial crisis and personnel changes,Jiangnan Publishing House still had a great influence in the early Guangxu Dynasty.After 1880,Jiangnan Publishing House gradually declined.In the period of reform movement of 1898-1900,Jiangnan Publishing House changed to the jurisdiction of Jiangning Prefecture and subsequently merged into the “Jiangchu Compiling Publishing House”.Jiangnan Publishing House was incorporated into Jiangnan Library in 1911.The most direct reason for the decline of local publishing houses was the abolition of the breau.The general abolition of local publishing houses was the important links in the process of the modernization of education,which showed the changes of the time barycenter and the academic trend.After the turmoil and turbulence in the Xianfeng Dynasty,traditional academia had been bloodied.Jinling Publishing House had published a large number of books in the nearly half century of the late Qing,which played an important role in the social reconstruction and renewal and also influenced the ideology and culture in late Qing.The books of Jinling Publishing House mainly focused on Neo-Confucianism books,supplemented by books of Confucian Sinology,the local and contemporary history,traditional science and technology and military writings and other non-mainstream schools.The books published by Jinling Publishing House show diversified academic tendencies,which can be said to be the overall characteristics of the local publishing houses in late Qing.This kind of diversified academic tendencies was not only the symbol of the evolution of the traditional academic,but also further promoted the development of the academic pluralism in late Qing and prospered the books publishing of the late Qing.Academic history was not only a static history of books publishing,but also a dynamic history of human writings and academic exchanges in specific spaces.Jinling Publishing House was not only an important books publishing organization in the Jiangnan area in late Qing,but also an open academic communication space and cultural communication center.Jinling Publishing House converged a group of influential scholars.These scholars were active in writing and learning,besides their daily editing books and poetry assembly.In these academic activities,the most representative were the Neo-Confucianism and Confucian Sinology discuss between Dai Wang,Han Biyuan and Qiang Ruxun,the Analects of Confucius discuss between Liu Gongmian and Dai Wang and the the pre-Qin philosophies discuss between Dai Wang and Sun Yirang.These writings and discussion activities not only showed the friendship of scholars,but also extended and supplemented the history of academic thought which should also constituted a vivid composition of academic history.