何以为印:20世纪二三十年代中国古旧书籍出版探析

How to Be Printed: An Analysis of the Publishing of Old Books in the 1920s and 1930s

20世纪二三十年代,中国出版界兴起了一股旧书重印热潮,以具有公共版权性质的古旧书籍为知识商品,通过影印、排印等手段,实现了对旧书的再版、售卖与流通。究其缘由,一方面是近代中国优质出版资源匮乏、古旧书利润空间较大;另一方面是近代印刷技术由刻到印的刺激与推动。虽然这一热潮受到了部分时人的批判与讽刺,引发了“向前看”还是“向后看”的争辩。但不可否认,大规模的旧书出版活动推动了中国传统知识的近代化,保存、传播、推广了中国传统文化经典,为时人提供了一定的阅读食粮。

In the 1920s and 1930s, a trend of reprinting old books emerged in the Chinese publishing industry. Old books with public copyright were regarded as "intellectual goods", and reprinting, sales and circulation of old books were realized through photocopying and printing. On the one hand, it was due to the lack of high-quality publishing resources in modern China and the large profit margin of old books;on the other hand, it was the stimulation and promotion of modern printing technology from engraving to printing. Though this boom was criticized and satirized by some people, triggered the debate of "looking forward" or "going backward", but there is no denying the fact that the large scale old books publishing activities have greatly promoted the "modernization" of Chinese traditional knowledge,preservation, dissemination and promotion of the Chinese traditional culture and classics, and provided food for thought for contemporary people.