以编辑为核心的近代中国出版史——读《近代中国的印刷力量:晚清民国至共和国初期的知识分子与工业化出版》

A History of Modern Chinese Publishing with a Focus on Editing:A Review of The Power of Print in Modern China:Intellectuals and Industrial Publishing from the End of Empire to Maoist State Socialism by Robert Culp

高哲一的《近代中国的印刷力量:晚清民国至共和国初期的知识分子与工业化出版》一书以编辑为核心来阐释近代中国出版史。此书基于结构—功能框架,对商务印书馆、中华书局、世界书局三大出版社的编辑部门和编辑活动进行考察,提出工业化印刷对多样化大规模文本产出的需求,决定了近代出版机构编辑部门中的生产动态。同时成功运用出版生活史的研究方法,展现出编辑群体从晚清到共和国时期的动态演变过程。本文对全书的各章节的主要内容进行了归纳梳理,在此基础上,论述了此书在理论建构和研究方法上对中国近代出版史研究的意义,并指出书中若干论证薄弱之处。最后,本文指出,近代中国出版业本身是外国经验与中国国情结合的产物,作者所具有的中外比较视野,正是此书取得理论突破的关键所在。

The Power of Print in Modern China:Intellectuals and Industrial Publishing from the End of Empire to Maoist State Socialism written by Robert Culp explains the history of modern Chinese publishing by focusing on the activities of editors.This book takes a closer look at the editorial departments and editing activities in of the three largest publishing houses,the Commercial Press,Zhonghua Book Company and the World Book Company on the basis of structural functionalism.It argues that the demand for the large scale production of varied texts by industrialized printing determined the production dynamics of editorial departments in modern publishing institutions.At the same time,the book successfully applies the research methodology of publishing life history to showcase the dynamic transformation of the editorial communities from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republican period.This paper summarizes the key points of each chapter of the book and uses that as a basis to evaluate the book s significance to the study of the modern Chinese publishing history,in terms of theoretical construction and research technique.It also identifies certain flaws in the book s arguments.This paper concludes by pointing out that modern China publishing is the product of both foreign influence and domestic conditions.The comparative perspective of China and other countries offered by the author is crucial to the theoretical breakthrough achieved by this book.