A Study On The Characteristics Of Illustrations Of Chemistry Textbooks In The Late Qing Dynasty

Illustrations are very important to textbooks,and the features of illustrations are subject related.Illustrations also serve a variety of important functions.The late Qing Dynasty is the creation period of Chinese chemistry textbooks.In order to present the characteristics of chemistry textbook illustrations and show the compilation level of chemistry textbooks,this study focuses on the illustrations of Chinese chemistry textbooks in the late Qing Dynasty and selects 10 versions of chemistry textbooks as research objects for statistics and analysis.Based on the literature review at home and abroad,this study selects the important factors affecting the effect of illustrations,combined with the characteristics of chemistry textbooks in the late Qing Dynasty,and constructs an analysis framework from three dimensions of the relationships between illustrations and text,illustration functions and content forms.Then,this framework is used to encode the selected textbooks and analyze the data obtained,so as to find the overall characteristics of the illustrations and the commonalities and differences presented by different versions of chemistry textbooks.In addition,based on textbook editors,this study divides the selected textbooks into three categories: translated Japanese textbooks(Class A),compiled textbooks(Class B)and local textbooks(Class C)for comparative analysis,looking for the similarities and differences of their illustration features.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)The number of illustrations in chemistry textbooks in the late Qing Dynasty is reasonable,and the arrangement of illustrations is detailed and complete.(2)The illustrations of chemistry textbooks in the late Qing Dynasty have a close relationship with text.The main type of correlation between illustrations and text is "reappearance",and the spatial arrangement of illustrations and text is insufficient.Different versions of chemistry textbooks have obvious differences in the relevance of illustrations and text,and some "extended" illustrations bring extra difficulty in understanding.The layout of illustrations and text is not reasonable,and the proportion of illustrations of "far away" type is 22.6%.Among the different classes of chemistry textbooks,Class C textbooks have the closest correlation of illustrations and the text.(3)The illustrations of chemistry textbooks in the late Qing Dynasty have various functions,reflecting the high level of compiling.The chemistry textbooks mainly use representational illustrations and seldom use decorative illustrations,which reflects the pragmatic orientation.Promotional illustrations account for a large proportion,indicating that textbooks focus on using illustrations to promote students’ cognitive development.Procedural illustrations have been used in textbooks in the late Qing Dynasty to present operational content.In the three types of textbooks,the proportions of illustration functions are different.In Class C textbooks,the proportion of explanatory illustration is large and the text description is detailed,while in Class B textbooks,the proportion of promoting illustration is large and the difficulty is relatively high.(4)The illustrations of chemistry textbooks in the late Qing Dynasty had various contents and obvious characteristics of the times.The textbooks emphasis on the presentation of industrial principles in modern times.The textbooks also focus on the connection between chemistry and daily life,showing the changes of people’s production mode in the late Qing Dynasty.Among the chemistry textbooks of different categories,Class C textbooks focuses on the presentation of chemical experimental methods and industrial production principles,and pay attention to the cultivation of professional talents.