档案文献应用的典范——读《铸以代刻——十九世纪中文印刷变局》

Typecasting in Lieu of Woodblock-the Change in Chinese Printing in the 19^(th)Century,a Role Model in the Application of Archives

中国人千年来习惯的木刻印书,在19世纪内逐步被西式活字印刷所取代。这个转变是怎么发生的,转变的过程又是怎样?苏精教授通过精心梳理、比对十几年间在欧美各地图书馆所抄录的三百余万字教会档案文献,给读者立体呈现了这一转变的过程,给学界一个确切的答案。让档案来言说,充分运用中外档案文献,作出更精细的结论和更准确的判断,是苏精《铸以代刻——十九世纪中文印刷变局》一书的最大特色。

The woodblock printing which had been passed down for one thousand years in China was gradually replaced by the western movable type printing in the 19th century. But why this happened? How it happened? Professor Su Jing has vividly described the specific process for his readers and precisely given answers to the academicians through carefully streamlining and comparing the over-three-million-words of transcripts from the archives of missionaries which he copied at the European and American libraries over a period of more than ten years. Archives speak for themselves. Making more refined conclusions and more accurate judgments fully based on the Chinese and foreign archives stands out as the greatest characteristic of Professor Su ’ s book-Typecasting in Lieu of Woodblock-the Change in Chinese Printing in the 19th Century.