明代方志出版中的财务问题

Financial Aspects of Publishing Local Gazetteers in the Ming Dynasty

明代地方志出版中的财务问题可以根据五百多种明代府、州、县方志来考察。地方志比其他书籍更有可能包含生产成本的信息,因为监督地方志编纂的官员们需要核算费用。编纂出版一部地方志需要购买原材料和生产设备,需要支付编纂人员和工匠的工资、工人的伙食费、给协助编纂或撰写序言者馈赠的礼品费用,以及诸如运输和储存费用等杂项支出。对这些条目繁多的花费情况的考察,不论是对中国地方志的研究,还是对普遍意义上的书史研究,都是很有意义的。

This paper is a study of the financial aspects of publishing local gazetteers in Ming China. It is based on data collected in my review of over 500 Ming county, department, and prefectural histories. Local histories are more likely than other book genres to contain information on their production costs because their compilation was supervised by bureaucrats who needed to track expenses. To compile and publish a local history, source materials and production supplies had to be bought, salaries for editorial personnel and wages for craftsmen paid, workers fed, gifts for those who assisted in the compilation or wrote prefaces purchased, and incidental expenses such as transportation and storage covered. My study examines how much these various items cost. The information presented in this paper will be useful not only to the study of Chinese local histories, but to book history in general.