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WESTERN APPLIANCES IN THE CHINESE PRINTING INDUSTRY
by
F. Hirth, PH.D.
JOURNAL OF THE CHINA BRANCH
OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY
New Series, VOL. XX (1885),
pp. 163-177.
ARTICLE VII.
WESTERN APPLIANCES IN THE CHINESE PRINTING INDUSTRY.
BY F. HIRTH, PH.D.
The art of photolithography which has in Europe during the last ten years or so conquered its own province, the reproduction of pictorial works, and which is now universally employed in the printing of illustrations, of manuscripts and of rare old prints, is about to create a revolution in the book trade of China. There is probably no country in the world, and, apart from the kindred Japanese literature, no class of graphic industry, in which this new process could be turned to hotter account than in China and in the re-printing of Chinese works.
It is well known that repeated attempts have been made to induce Chinese printers to abandon the primitive wood block in favour of movable type.[1] The T'u-shu-chi-ch'ng and the great "Catalogue of the Imperial Library," two. of the best known productions of Chinese literary enterprise of the last century, were printed with movable type; and there we have an example of a western art being recommended to the nation, as it were, by the example of Imperial authority. Yet, it seems that this new departure in a branch of industry which had been practised in China since the sixth century A.D. was not deemed to be worth living by the side of the time-honoured block : the font of copper type by means of which the T'u-shu-chi-ch'eng, the grandest work of typography the world has ever seen, was produced, became a prey to the reckless plundering of thievish custodians ; a considerable part of these beautiful characters had disappeared, and to
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prevent further pillage, the entire font was melted down into copper cash. The wooden type with which the great Catalogue (the Ssŭ-k'u-ch'an-shu), and a collection of re-prints (ts'ung-shu) were printed, had shrunk and become useless, and though having apparently done good service, was not renewed. [2]
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In recent times the use of movable metallic Chinese type appears to have been first introduced in the foreign literature treating on Chinese subjects. The earlier works as, for instance, Baeyer's Museum Sinicum, which appeared in A.D. 1730, show as yet no attempts at introducing single characters in the foreign text, but all Chinese matter is printed by way of appendix on extra plates, though I possess a work, printed in A.D. 1696, [3] containing the names of all the Chinese emperors down to K'ang-hi, in Chinese characters inserted in the German text. Francisco Varo's Lengua Mandarina was printed on wood blocks in 1703, and for a considerable time foreign grammatical and lexicographical works existed merely in manuscript, apparently owing to the difficulty of having them printed. Marshman's Clovis Sinica appears to have been the first work in which a considerable stock of fine movable metallic type was introduced; it appeared at Serampore in 1814; and about the same time as Marshmann's work was printed, De Guignes junior passed his Dictionnaire through the press, in which the beautiful Paris font of large Chinese type, a monument of the great. Napoleon's liberality in literary matters, was first turned to use.
The Chinese metallic type industry, if we may so call it, had since received much encouragement both in Europe and in the East; but principally in the East, where Missionary work soon became a greater stimulus to Chinese printing than the purely scientific interest taken in the matter by European scholars and their patrons. The East India Company deserves much credit for the financial assistance granted in creating the font of type which rendered the printing of Morrison's Dictionary possible; but the Rev. Samuel Dyer of Penang was apparently the first to make the serious suggestion of employing movable metallic type for printing Chinese texts on a large scale. The only three fonts existing up to this time, i.e. in A.D. 1833, in the East were those at Macao, Malacca and Serampore. As they had been used in printing Anglo-Chinese works, they were, of course, extremely
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deficient; moreover, the characters had been engraved upon the face of the metal type block and had a foreign look about them, which rendered it unadvisable to print with them purely Chinese books for Chinese use.[4] Dyer's font was at first small and made but little progress owing to want of financial support on a larger scale; in 1836 it was removed from Penang to Malaeca[5], and whatever its destiny may have been there, credit is due to the Penang Missionary for having first created a font of useful type not engraved, but cast.[6] The Chinese Repository, in communicating his report on the scheme in 1833, says : " having no type for Chinese printing, we must omit Mr. Dyer's illustration of this part of his subject; " and so it was for the next seven years : the volumes of the Repository contain no Chinese text till 1840, since when the font of type which helped to print Bridgman's Chrestomathy at Macao was occasionally made to contribute Chinese illustrative text to the Canton periodical.
In 1844 the attempt suggested and carried out about ten years before by Pauthier was made at the Presbyterian Mission Press of Macao to print with Chinese divisible type,[7] the principle of which consists in this, that compound characters are dissolved into their component parts each of which has its own type. This procedure, of course, greatly reduced the number of characters required for ordinary printing; but I must confess that it does not improve the beauty of the characters so printed, the component parts being necessarily quite out of proportion with each other.
Stereotyped plates cast from wooden blocks were first made at Boston in the spring of 1834 [8]; American Missionary printers practice this branch of industry up to the present day as the work done by the American Presbyterian Mission Press at Shanghai may show.
All these improvements in the Chinese printing industry were introduced by foreign enterprise, and it appears that, in purely
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Chinese circles, the advantages of printing with movable metal type were not considered for practical purposes and on a larger scale previous to 1850,[9] when a Mr. Tong, a partner in a book-selling firm in Canton, created two fonts containing over 150,000 types cast in moulds. The original motive for embarking in this enterprise, however, was not the printing of books, but the manufacture of lottery tickets, though other jobs were not despised. A specimen page printed with this type may be found in the Chinese Repository (Vol. XIX, p. 248). It compares well with almost anything printed by wood block in the same size.
I have entered upon the details of the history of printing enterprise in China in order to show that up to a short time ago the superiority of western appliances did not find general recognition in purely native circles. Surely, there must be a better reason for this than the conservative mind of the nation, as there has been ample opportunity for anyone interested in the industry to study the perfections of the foreign process. Habit is in itself a strong agent in the stability of old institutions; it interferes with progress even among civilised nations. I admit with many of my countrymen all the advantages of the use of Roman type in German books; yet, an uncomfortable sensation would befall me if I were to read a German novel printed with any other but Gothic type. It may be some similar sensation which makes the Chinese man of letters prefer to see his classics printed
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in the accustomed style, and not with movable type. But apart from this, there is one great advantage in the old style which I notice has been overlooked by the author of the "Literary Notices" in the Chinese Repository (Vol. I, p. 419 seqq.) who, while discussing the advantages and disadvantages of the two rival methods ascribes to the wood block greater ease, the facility of printing in as many sizes as one likes, without depending upon the fonts one happens to have, and the simplicity of the apparatus. I would add that the peculiarity of the Chinese written language renders it the safest method of producing an accurate text. Anyone familiar with the routine of printing Chinese must admit that even the completest font of type is not sufficient to guard against errors in the text which could be easily avoided by an intelligent block cutter. Characters not represented in the font occur very frequently in every branch of literature, but especially when a book or document is printed differing in language from the style for which the font had been originally created. The result is constant delay caused by the necessity of having supplementary type cut or cast; but the principal shortcoming attending the method is the great temptation, to which compositors are exposed, of substituting unauthorised characters for the correct ones. On the other hand, the method of block cutting which consists in pasting either the manuscript to be printed, or a copy of the text to be re-printed, on the smooth surface of the block, and chiselling out all the white parts of the paper, secures an almost identical reproduction of the original. This it seems to me is one of the principal advantages in the tradition of Chinese texts over that of texts in Western literature. Chinese standard texts printed 700 years ago contain hardly any deviations in either the wording or the shape of the characters used when compared to the corresponding books of the present day. This is not so with us.
So much stress is laid on this advantage in Chinese literary circles that, in spite of the many movable type printing offices existing at Hongkong, Shanghai and other ports, the industry cannot be said to have brought about any serious change in the native book trade. Apart from prints serving the Missionary interest both from the religious and general educational point of view, the principal use of foreign type is now made in printing Chinese newspapers, a class of literature in which block-printing could have never been even moderately successful.
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As I have. intimated already, the only branch of Western printing industry which is likely to affect Chinese literary life successfully is photolithography. Since the few years of its existence it has become already an important factor in the native book trade, which consists almost entirely in the reproduction of standard works, the literature of the day playing a much less conspicuous part in China than it does in European countries. The greater part of all the books sold in Chinese book shops are re-prints of older works, and the better establishments usually have on hand, besides re-prints lately issued, second hand old editions of valuable works. Modern re-prints, a great many, of which come from Su-chou, the city of publishers par excellence, usually have fixed prices, and it is generally difficult to obtain on them a reduction amounting to more than a trifling percentage on the amounts marked in the printed catalogues kept in all the larger magazines. In this respect the Chinese usage differs somewhat from the practice prevailing in Europe. Most of these modern re-prints are, however, not comparable in looks and accuracy to the better class of prints dating from former centuries, not to speak of the so-called palace editions. These are only occasionally to be got and at very irregular prices so that the same work may be sold at 100 taels on one occasion and at. 50 taels on another. It is on account of the great scarcity, and of the exorbitancy and irregularity in the cost, of really good editions that the invention of photolithography has become an inestimable boon to the Chinese hook industry.
There are at present at Shanghai two establishments the principal work done by which consists in the reproduction of Chinese prints by the photolithographic process: the Tien-shih-chai ( 點石齋 ), and the T'ung-wn-shu-ch (同文書局).
The editions of the first named establishment, which flourishes under the able management of a European firm, are distinguished by extreme cheapness; but the economy which has to be observed in producing such cheap books for the million does not allow of much care being exercised in the selection of original copies; moreover, the text is necessarily of the smallest size, so that, for instance, purchasers of what may be called a diamond edition of the P'ei-wn-yn-fu are provided with a magnifying glass in order to enable them to work their way through its columns. While it
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must be admitted that the facility to purchase a correct edition of this great work at the price of $15 is a great temptation to the 'collector of substantial literature who would otherwise have to pay $45 for an imperfect Cantonese print; yet, a foreigner who is afraid of " ugenpulver " will not easily make up his mind to invest in it even this comparatively small amount. The historical classics published by the Tien-shih-chai Establishment are slightly larger in size, but to read even in them for any length of time is exceedingly trying to the eyes. However, these editions have the great advantage over all the cheap block-cut editions that every character of' the text can be clearly recognised somehow or other and that they contain no spots where characters are either illegibly, or not at all, impressed upon the paper. The Tien-shih-chai editions may, therefore, be recommended to all readers who cannot invest much capital in their Chinese libraries and are willing to put up with the discomfort of small print.[10]
Editions of K'ang-hsi's Dictionary may be had at prices varying from $1.60 up to $3; the abridged edition of the "Catalogue of the Imperial Library" at $2.75; the Annals of the Han Dynasty (Ch'ien-hou-han-shu) at $4.50; the Shih-chi at .$2.50. The same establishment has also published a number of very useful maps and illustrated works. But, as has been insinuated already, it appears that cheapness is the first principle kept in view, and as the Chinese reading public happens to be, it is very likely that these books will sell with all their short-comings in the way of small print.
The rival establishment of the Tien-shih-chai is a purely Chinese undertaking, the T'ung-wn-shu-ch (同文書局), founded in 1881. It is a company of native friends of Chinese literature who have subscribed the capital necessary for the printing and publishing of facsimile editions of the best productions of Chinese
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literature. Really good standard editions of national authors are highly valued in China, and heavy sums are spent by the better classes on the best prints, especially the so called "palace editions." The classical books, the national historians and the standard cyclopaedias, dictionaries, etc., exist in numerous editions printed at Wu-chang, Su-chou, Canton, Ningpo, Nanking and other places; but most of these unrecognised provincial prints, though offered at comparatively low prices, are generally full of errors which render them more than useless to the serious student. Really good editions are very expensive, and the trade in them becomes still more unsatisfactory by there being no fixed prices attached to them, so that some of the rarer works may be said to be sold at real fancy prices.
All these evils have been done away with by the establishment of the T'ung-wn-shu-ch. Every work leaving the press at this establishment is a facsimile reproduction of a recognised best edition. The method adopted, of course, excludes the occurrence of printer's errors; every character appears as clearly as possible, and white patches in the text are an impossibility. About a dozen photographic apparatus are employed in producing negatives on lithographic stone, and the printing is done on twelve machines driven by steam. The establishment employs 500 Chinese workmen, and works entirely without foreign assistance; it is under the management of Ms. Hsu (徐), a native of Hsiangshan near Macao.
Of the works now in hand the one which may interest a foreign reader most is an edition of the Erh-shih-ssŭ-shih (二十四史 ), or the Twenty-four Dynastic Histories. The new edition is a reproduction of the celebrated palace edition of' the 4th year of Kien-lung (=A.D. 1739) of' which I understand there is a copy in the National Library at Paris. In the original, 20 columns appear on each leaf, besides the margin, on which the year of publication is printed, and the new edition is an exact facsimile of the original, each character of the ordinary text measuring about 0,6 centimeter in height. Such as it is the new edition represents in my opinion the most comfortable style of a Chinese book one may wish to possess for frequent use. The complete collection of these histories which carries the reader from the Shih-chi of Ssu-ma Chien down to the Annals of' the Ming
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dynasty and embraces all the works mentioned on p. 13 of Wylie's Notes on Chinese Literature, is now offered at the subscription price of $125, it being the intention of the publishers to raise the price to $200, after the subscription is closed. The complete series it is expected will be ready for sale in 1886 or 1887. Up
to the present the following parts of the collection have been published and may be purchased separately :
Shih-chi (史記), 26 Vols. in 4 t'o, . . . . . $10.
Chien-han-shu (前漢書), 32 Vols. in 4 t`ao, . . . . . $12.
Hou-han-shu (後漢書), 28 Vols. in 4 t'ao, . . . . . $10.
San-kuo-chih (三國志) , 14 Vols. in 2 t`ao,. . . . . . $6.
Ch'n-shu (陳書), 6 Vols . . . . . $2.
The Chin-shu (晉書) is in the press.
Another most useful publication is a handy edition of K'ang-hsi's Dictionary (康熙字典). It is a reprint of the original palace edition published in the 55th year of K`ang-hsi (A.D. 1716). The original is printed on white paper; each page of the body of the work contains 24 characters of the ordinary size, or the corresponding space, the characters explained, or head words as we may call them, being of double the size of those of the ordinary text. Each double leaf of the original contains 32 columns besides the middle margin, and so do all the editions I have seen.* In the new photo-lithographed edition, four leaves have been made into one by cutting a copy of the original into strips; the newly arranged text, in which omissions could be easily checked as the end of each fourth page in the original must coincide with the end of the corresponding single page in the re-print, has been carefully compared with a second complete copy of the original edition so that the book before us may be said to represent a
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facsimile copy of the editio princeps brought into a more convenient shape. This new arrangement has placed the publishers in the position to reduce the matter of 24 volumes to the size of six. These I would recommend the foreign purchaser to have made into two volumes bound in the European style, which will be found the most convenient arrangement a Chinese Dictionary of the size of K`ang-hsi's could possibly have for handy reference.
The list of works printed at the the T'ung-wn-shu-ch contains one item which will prove of the greatest interest to all friends of Chinese literature. It is the announcement of a new edition of the T`u-shu-chi-ch'ng (圖書集成), the gigantic Cyclopedia printed during the reign of Kien-lung. It represents a complete library and saves the purchase of a large collection of other books to those who possess this work, in as much as it contains all the necessary extracts from the existing literature on any possible subject. [11] The complete work, of which I have seen two copies, one printed on white paper, the other on bamboo paperat the the T'ung-wn-shu-ch library, contains 5,020 pn, or Chinese volumes, with 426,204 leaves. As each leave contains, besides the middle margin, 18 t'ang or columns, i.e. nine t'ang on each side or page, and as each t'ang contains 20 characters or the equivalent space, which means that each leave has room for 360 characters, the whole work would contain the space of 153,433,440 characters. If we make ample allowance for space not covered with characters owing to the interruptions occasioned in the text by the division into chapters and paragraphs, the lowering of the text in certain special cases, the insertion of tabular lists, illustrations, etc., the work may be safely estimated to contain considerably more than 100 millions of printed characters or words.
It is stated that originally less than 100 copies were printed. [12] When the work was first issued, each of the Imperial princes of the first rank (chin-wang, 親王), the ministers of state (ta-chen, 大臣 ), and the officials superintending the print, was presented with one copy. The remainder of the edition was kept in the
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Nei-fu (内府) or Imperial Library. During the emperor Kien-lung's life time one copy each was presented to the national libraries (Ko, 閣) at Yang-chou, Chinkiang and Hang-chou, [13] and also one copy each to the four families Fan (范), Pao (鮑), Wang (汪) and Ma (馬), who had brought considerable sacrifices in promoting the compilation of the "Catalogue of the Imperial Library" by presenting the court with hundreds of valuable books out of their private libraries.[14] It is not known whether further copies were given away, but it seems that inquiry with the descendants of the four private families presented with copies has had this result that the copies were scattered about during the T'ai-p'ing rebellion, so that no complete sets remained in their hands. The copies of the three national libraries had disappeared altogether after the rebellion, though I am informed that a complete copy still exists at Hang-chou. When the interest in the work was revived amongst friends of the native literature it had become extremely difficult to obtain a set. The T'ung-wn-shu-ch managed to secure a copy printed on white paper at the cost of over 10,000 Taels (=2,500).[15] A second copy printed on bamboo paper, which is of a yellowish colour was purchased at 6,000 Taels (=1,500). The reason why two copies were bought instead of one is this : the original scheme of the publishers was to bring out an edition in smaller print and in fewer volumes, which would have considerably lowered the cost of paper; in this case the columns of a copy of the white paper edition would have been cut into strips like the original edition of K'ang-hi's Dictionary so as to get one page of the new print out of four pages
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of the original; the bamboo paper edition would in this case have served as a check on the correct sequence and general arrangement of the strips pasted on large sheets of paper to be photographed. This original plan has since been abandoned, and the work will be printed page for page as it stands in the original. The number to be struck off has been limited to a thousand copies. The subscription price of a complete set of 5,020 volumes has been fixed at Shanghai Taels 360 (=90, more or less according to exchange). Up to the present day only the Mu-lu or Table of Contents has been printed; it contains 20 volumes (or 2 t'ao) which are sold separately for $10. As the coming year will be devoted to the printing of the National Histories, the T'u-shu-chi-ch'ng, the printing of which is estimated to take up about three years, cannot be ready before the end of 1889.
Among the useful compilations published by order of the emperor K'ang-hi there is one which I do not remember having seen noticed anywhere, although a glance at its contents seems to show its obvious utility to the student of Chinese literature. In the 44th year of K`ang-hi (A.D. 1705) an Imperial edict appointed five high officials to superintend the compilation of a sort of bibliographical cyclopaedia of books and pictures, contained in the Imperial collections, under the title P`ei-wn-chai shu-hua-pu (佩文齋書畫譜). The work was compiled from 1,844 different works, a list of which appears in the first volume, and the preface was written in A.D. 1708. The complete work is divided into 100 books or chan, containing most elaborate essays on the history of writing and printing, biographical and bibliographical dates, in fact all a student may wish to know in respect of literature and art. It is alike a most useful handbook to the collector of old pictures and scrolls, and the student of old books and of stone Inscriptions. I understand that copies of this work have hitherto been exceedingly rare and very expensive which may account for its being so little known amongst Europeans, and the re-print now offered at the price of $7, must be very welcome to all scholars who can make use of such a thesaurus of information.
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The Catalogue of re-prints issued at the T'ung-wn-shu-ch office contains a long list of highly useful works. I confine myself to noticing the following as likely to interest European students.
Pi-hseh-lu (碧血錄), 5 Vols., $1," The Record of Precious Blood,"a biographical work illustrated by a vast number of well drawn pictures of patriots having sacrificed their lives for some good cause during the various dynasties from the Ts'in down to the Ming. It was printed during the last century and is very popular among native readers. Foreign students will find it a useful supplement to the first part of Mayers' "Chinese Reader's Manual."
Erh-ya-t'u (爾雅圖), 2 Vols., $0.60. The rh-ya is one of the oldest glossaries of terms used in the classical and other ancient works of the Chinese, and is frequently quoted in K'ang-hi's Dictionary as an ancient authority. The well-known illustrated edition of this work, of which the above is a neatly printed facsimile reproduction was printed (for the second time) in 1801. It contains illustrations of all possible objects, the botanical ones being especially well done. Apart from the peculiar value of the text as an almost contemporaneous commentary of many of the best known authors of antiquity, the illustrations added to it in later centuries render it a handy orbis pictus and a most useful guide in the explanation of difficult terms.
Mao shih chi-ku-pien (毛詩稽古), 8 Vols., $2. An explanation of the original text of the Shih-ching or Book of Odes as handed down by Mao Ch'ang (毛萇) of the 2nd century B.C. It was published in A.D. 1687 and is spoken of at large in the Catalogue of the Imperial Library, although it is not mentioned in Wylie's list. The preface of the original edition printed at Yang-chou, of which this re-print is a facsimile copy, is dated May, 1813. Dr. Legge (Chinese Classics, Vol. IV, Part I, Prolegg. p. 177) says with regard to this commentary : " I do not know of a more exhaustive work than this from the author's point of view. It had occupied him for 14 years, during which he thrice wrote out his manuscript. He is a thorough advocate of the old school."
Ssŭ-shu wei-kn-lu (四書味根錄), 2 Vols., $. An edition of the Four Classical Books with an exhaustive commentary. Owing to the fullness of the material tendered in this handy diamond
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edition it is much used by students who are about to pass their examination.
Sung-pn-chi (宋本集), 8 Vols., $1.40. A collection of poets from the classical period of the T'ang dynasty, the original being printed during the Sung period.
Tien-pn chuan-wn Liu-ching Ssŭ-shu (殿本篆文六經四書), 10 Vols., $2. Facsimile reprint of a palace edition of the Six Classics and the Five Books, in seal characters (Chuan-wn); the style in which they are supposed to have been originally written.
K'ung-tzŭ chia-y (孔子家語), 5 Vols., $1. A beautiful and handy edition of the " Traditional Sayings of Confucius," with the Commentary of Wang Su (王肅), who wrote at the beginning of the third century A.D. and is credited with having been the author. "Although it is known to be spurious, it is yet valued for the amount of traditional matter, which the author has collected from various sources at that period" (Wylie, p. 66).
NOTES
[1] See Julien, Documents sur l'art d'imprimer l'aide de planches en bois, de planches en pierre, et des types mobiles, invents en Chine, Paris, 1847, and the same author's "Notice sur l'art d'imprimer en Chine" in Journ. Asiat., 4. ser., IX, 1846, p. 505. The reader will find a clear synopsis of facts relating to this subject in Herr von Brandt's essay on " Sprache und Schrift der Chinesen," Deutsche Bcherei, No. 32, Breslau, 1884.
[2] Regarding the history of works printed with this movable wooden type under Kien-lung and with the copper type under K'ang-hi see Mayers' 'Bibliography of the Chinese Imperial Collections of Literature " in China Review, Vol. VI., pp. 218 seqq. and 291 seqq. Julien has shown in his "Documents sur l'art d'imprimer" that some sort of movable type was known to the Chinese before A.D. 1049, and Mayers (l.c., p. 295, note) draws attention to a passage in the K'o-chih-ching-yan, overlooked by Julien, which seems to prove that metallic type was employed in Central China early during the sixteenth century. Movable characters, made of burned clay and placed in a frame for printing, are also stated to have been employed during the reign of Ti-ping of the Southern Sung dynasty, i.e. about A.D. 1278, just at the time of Marco Polo's residence in China. (See E. C. Bridgman, " Chronology of the Chinese," in Chin. Rep., Vol. X, p. 154). Probably this process was something similar to the invention made, according to Julien's Chinese authority, two hundred years before. Yet, in reading of this coincidence in time of Marco Polo's visit in China with such a revival of a clever invention in the printing industry, we cannot but regret that the observing traveller, being a native of the very city which was destined to give birth to the Manuzzi family, did not avail himself of this chance to forestall the great era of civilisation in Europe by at least some 175 years. For, although the Chinese passage translated by Julien does certainly not deprive the German inventor Guttenberg of the honour of having first thought of movable type in the modern sense, as Dr. Williams ("Movable Types for printing Chinese," in Chin. Recorder, Vol. VI, p. 24) seems to assume, the Chinese fa-tz described in the Mng-chi-pi-tan (夢溪筆談) would have soon led European artisans to a more perfect method. The perusal of Julien's translation shows that the so-called "movable type " was not used to ,make an impression on paper as is the case with our modern type, but that an impression was made on a plate composed of resin, wax and lime, this plate being further used for printing on paper with a brush in the wood block style. I understand from Mayers' notes on "The Peking Gazette " (in Chin. Rev., Vol. III, p. 16) that the chang-pn issue of the Gazette is still printed "on sheets of wax, which are afterwards smoothed again to receive fresh matter." I should be glad if someone would enquire as to the method employed in preparing these sheets of wax, in order to ascertain whether they are engraved by hand like wood blocks, or whether movable matrices are impressed on them. Unless such "movable matrices" be called "movable type," which they are certainly not in the eyes of a printer, we ought not to assume that the type process as now practised in Europe is a Chinese invention. The huo-tzǔ-pan (活字板) of copper, employed in printing the T'u-shu-chi-ch'ng, were probably suggested by the Jesuits living at the court of the emperor K'ang-hi, and should not be confounded with the huo-pan or "movable matrices" of the Sung dynasty. It seems we possess no proof to show that the process practised in A.D. 1278 was anything different from the wax sheet invention of the eleventh century.
[3] Ch. Mentzel, Chronologia oder Zeit-Register tiller Chinesischen Kayser. Berlin, 1696.
[4] Chin. Repos., Vol. I, p. 414 seqq. A specimen impression of Dyer's type will be found on p. 128 of Vol. XIV.
[5] Ibid. Vol. V, p. 88.
[6] Dyer's experiments were soon followed by those of Pauthier's, resulting in the cutting of steel punches for a font of 2,000 of the most common characters in 1834 by Marcellin-Legrand, a skilful Paris type cutter.
[7] Chin. Repos., Vol. XIII, p. 656, and XIV p. 124 seqq.
[8] Ibid. Vol. III, p. 530.
[9] According to the Chinese Repository and Williams (Chin. Rec., Vol. VI, p. 24). This would however, not agree with Julien's statement (l.c.) that three Chinese works copies of which were seen by him in Paris, the Wu-ch'ien-hou-pien (" un Trait sur l'art militaire "), the Li-tai-ti-li-yn-pien, and the Hai-kuo-t'u-chih, were printed with movable type. The lecture in which this statement was first made by Julien was held before the Acadmia Royale des Sciences in June 1847 (see Comptes rendus, t. XXIV) ; the first edition of the last named Chinese work appeared in 1844, the second edition in 1849 ; I am not prepared to fix dates for the other two works as I have not seen them. If Julien is right, there must have been a purely Chinese movable type printing office doing work on a large scale established somewhere in China previous to 1844. I am not sure, however, if Julien was not in error. The second edition of the Hai-huo-t'u-chih, printed in 1849, of which I possess a copy might at first sight also be declared a movable type print, and it requires a printer's eye accustomed to Chinese work to find out that it is block-printed. However, I do not wish to do more than conjecture the possibility of an error, and to say that Julien's statement requires further examination in order to ascertain at what period the movable type industry was first adopted in purely Chinese printing offices.
[10] The same establishment has lately highly distinguished itself by publishing an illustrated Chinese Journal, the Tien-shih-chai Hua-pao (畫報) issued at short intervals and containing in each number about a dozen drawings in the Chinese style which, if we make allowance for the traditional shortcomings attending all Chinese art, betray considerable genius and great power of observation in the artist furnishing the original sketches. The Hua-pao has paid special attention to the placing on record not only of the great moments of Chinese diplomacy and warfare, but also of glimpses -of Chinese social scenery and especially of Shanghai street life.
[11] It is a common feature in Chinese standard literature to have editions of all sizes so printed that the pages cover each other exactly. This is not done for the purpose of facilitating the quoting of passages as is for instance the case with certain editions of Humboldt's Cosmos, or the Casaubonus edition of Strabo, for Chinese authors hardly ever give more than the title of a book when quoting passages ; but in order to secure a check on the block cutter and to avoid omissions in printing the work.
[12] I have recently had an opportunity to convince myself of the completeness of its extracts in the matter of texts relating to Ta-ts'in. See China and the Roman Orient, p. 25 seq.
[13]"Current tradition at Peking states it at 100 sets, and this may very probably be correct or nearly so." Mayers in Chin. Rev., Vol. VI, p. 222.
[14] Cf. Mayers, l.c. p. 295.
[15] Ibid., p. 293.
[16] Mayers, l.c., p. 222, says that "some eight or ten years ago " 14,000 Taels was asked for a set, and that Mr. Trubner tried in vain to obtain it at a lower price. The copy purchased for the Chinese library of the British Museum was, according to Mayers, " not printed upon the best white paper," i.e. it was probably a copy of the otherwise identical bamboo paper edition. The white paper copy I saw at the T'ung-wn-shu-ch is packed in elegantly carved camphor-wood boxes each containing about ten pn. Each box contains a false bottom which is-filled with drugs to attract the damp and keep away insects. I am told that Messrs. Major Bros., the proprietors of the Tien-shih-chai Establishment, who are about to publish a cheap edition of the T'u-shu-chi-ch'ng printed with type, have bought a bamboo paper edition, not a complete one, though, at the price of only $3,500.