Six Researches On The History Of Chinese Printing

THE INVENTION OF PRINTING IN CHINA AND ITS SPREAD WESTWARD is the first book in the academic history and its author Thomas Francis Carter had a deep relationship with China.The book is succinct,logical,informative and classic and it has been published for more than 90 years even frequently quoted.Its frame structure undoubtedly influenced the writing of the study of Chinese printing history,some of the important conclusions about printing are still revered as classics today.But previous studies have been mostly simple reviews,the framework,main content and comparative historiography thoughts of the book were not explored in detail.Therefore,the in-depth study on the book can help us to learn better about its status and value in the academic history.The main content of this thesis is divided into six parts: The first part focuses on the development environment,personal character of Carter,his career choice,the process of writing and purport of THE INVENTION OF PRINTING IN CHINA AND ITS SPREAD WESTWARD.Carter came to China twice and he had lived in China for more than ten years.And then He traveled around Europe and was invited to be the head of the Chinese language department at Columbia University in 1923.The writing of the book,though,was an occasional idea,it was that concept of long-term culture,the deep love of Chinese culture and the responsibility of publicizing the excellent culture of Carter to facilitate him to finished it.The second part mainly analyzes the frame structure and some important conclusions about the book.Its structure focuses on the origin and spread of Chinese printing,especially its spread westward and the heuristic to printing?s invention of European.The important conclusion concerns the background and foundation of the invention of printing,the time when printing was invented and the connection between the east and west transportation and its spread westward.The third part analyzes the comparative method of history,including historical data and historical phenomenon.The former refers to the comparison between theground historical materials and underground historical materials ? the comparison between domestic historical materials and historical materials of other countries,the latter involves the different invention background of printing in China and European?the contribution of printing to China and European and Chinese and European?s different attitudes toward Movable Type and Block Printing.The fourth part analyzes the two books?frame structure and main content about Chinese printing history,which were deeply influenced by THE INVENTION OF PRINTING IN CHINA AND ITS SPREAD WESTWARD.One is China's Paper and Cultural History of Printing by Qian Cunxun,another is A History of China's Printing by Zhangxiumin.The fifth part analyzes the basic situation of the Tibetan tripitaka.From song dynasty to the Qing dynasty,there were many different kinds of Tibetan tripitaka including Chinese characters,Tibetan,Mongolian and Tangut.The most systematic is the Chinese characters Tibetan tripitaka.It has a separate directory system.The sixth part analyzes the artistic beauty of ancient Chinese chromatic engraving.Block printing was always the most important printing method in ancient China,constant improvement making the engraving to have high artistic quality.Engraving developed into an independent art,and the chromatic engraving was the peak of the art of engraving art.The representative are two works by Zhengyanhu which had mainly used two important technologies.Through the above discussion,I wish to further expand the research field of philology from the perspective of history of printing.