Guangzhi Bookstore

Founded in Shanghai in early 20th century, QUONG JEE SUE KOUK (Guangzhi Shuju) was a publishing house specializing in publishing translated works. Although owned by Feng Jingru, a Hong Kong business man, it was actually under the distant control of Liang Qichao, who was then sent in exile in Yokohama, Japan, and was in essence an institute belonging to the Royalist Society. Ever since its establishment, it somehow worked as a secret political organization. QUONG JEE SUE KOUK published a great number of translated works concerning western new thoughts and academic theories, which led the eastward spread of western culture in late Qing dynasty. Meanwhile, it also served as the main channel for Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao to communicate their voice to China from overseas. QUONG JEE SUE KOUK was responsible for publishing most works produced by Kang and Liang during their exile, and was also the agent to distribute reformist publications such as Xinmin Congbao and New Novel to mainland China. However, QUONG JEE SUE KOUK was by no means a successful player in terms of revenue and profit.This thesis provides a comprehensive view of QUONG JEE SUE KOUK by regarding it as an important organ in Kang and Liang's political activities. Through studying its interaction with the Royalist Society, the complete course of QUONG JEE's establishment, development and shutting down is depicted vividly. When reviewing its publications, the thesis tries to take a comprehensive perspective by jointly considering the original script and other relevant materials.In addition to introduction and conclusion, the main body of the thesis is made up of three chapters. The first chapter primarily concludes the outline of Kang and Liang's political activities through studying how they organized the Translating House during 1895-1898. Then the chapter moved to review the establishment of QUONG JEE through exploring its role as a secret political organization to interact with Kang and Liang's overseas activities. Facts that have never been clearly listed, such as establishment date, location, source of capital, financial relations and so on are also recorded orderly in this chapter. The second chapter studies the business operation of QUONG JEE as an organ of Royalist Society, and discussed the inside reason why it had been poorly operated as a commercial entity. The third chapter focuses on QUONG JEE's nature as a cultural and publishing institute and explored its publications both quantitatively and qualitatively, trying to identify its cultural contribution to the eastward spread of western culture.Attached with a Catalogue of QUONG JEE SUE KOUK, which includes 410 publications that are categorized into 14 groups. Each book has a remark of its category, author, translator, book name, age and other necessary information.