Table of Contents

Contents List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgment Introduction Printing, Eurocentrism, and the Study of the Social in Early Modern China 1 Chapter One Cost of Production and Book Prices Chapter Two The Chinese Book and Late Ming Publishing Chapter Three Commodification of Writing, Examination, and Publishing Chapter Four Paratext: Commentaries, Ideology, and Politics Chapter Five Public Authority, Literary Critics, and Organizational Power Conclusion Appendices Reference Matter List of Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Glossary Index Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication: Printing China History, China Civilization 960-1644

About the Author

Kai-wing Chow is Associate Professor of History and East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He is the author of The Rise of Confucian Ritualism in Late Imperial China (Stanford, 1997).

Reviews

"Within the past two decades, the history of print and book culture in late imperial China has engaged the interest and efforts of scholars throughout the world...Kai-wing Chow's book, a thought-provoking addition to this literature, analyzes the social, cultural, and political impact of commercial and private publishing of examination literature in the late Ming." - Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies "[This] monograph is very well researched and makes a valuable contribution to the historiography of early modern China as well as the history of publishing." - Sixteenth Century Journal "The author is to be applauded for taking up unexplored questions in the history of Chinese printing, for engaging with analytical frameworks derived from sociologists such as Pierre Bourdieu and literary theorists such as Gerald Genette, and for introducing a comparative perspective." - Technology and Culture "This book has accomplished much and deserves our praise and careful attention." - SHARP News "This is a carefully researched and cogently argued study of the publishing industry in late Ming China Chow's insightful exploration of the intersection between printing, examination-based mobility, and political power demonstrates that the relationship between the political field and the field of cultural production was profoundly altered by the late-Ming commercial publishing boom. His book is a major contribution to the field of late-imperial Chinese studies." - Thomas D. Curran, Sacred Heart University