The Commercial Press was a giant in the publishing industry in the late Qing dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. It can be said that the Commercial Press has risen and developed by relying on the compilation and publication of modern textbooks. So, why did the Commercial Press rise? First of all, to occupy the market, this depends on textbooks, and English textbooks are an important aspect.
In modern times Chinese learn English, and the first trend was formed in coastal treaty port cities such as Guangzhou and Shanghai. English teaching either passively or actively formed a scale in the Beijing Normal Tongwenguan, Shanghai Cantonese Dialect Museum and Guangzhou Tongwenguan, that is, the so-called "Tongwen Sanguan" officially sponsored foreign language schools, and English readers also formed a series of foreign missionaries, official publishing institutions and folk bookstores in the second half of the 19th century, but the compilation of formal English textbooks was gradually on the right track due to the preparation of the "English Department" of the Commercial Press Compilation Institute, and the construction of scale effects. The reason why the Commercial Press was able to hold the market of English textbooks in the late Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic of China was that it was good at recruiting English talents, attaching importance to the power of compilation outside the library, carefully selecting famous translators, and establishing its own criticism system.
Q1
"Hongmao Dialect" and "Pidgin English" and the government-run foreign language school
In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, the earliest European languages Chinese were Portuguese and Spanish. English was only formally introduced in the early 19th century because British Protestant missionaries such as Morrison came to China. In ancient times, Chinese had the concept of "heavenly dynastic centrism", and many scholars and doctors in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties disdained learning Western languages. Until the beginning of the 19th century, Chinese still referred to the European script as "crab line script" and the European language as "bird language". At that time, some merchants on the southeast coast also learned a little English for commercial needs. At that time, the English language was called "pidgin English", or "red haired words". "Red hair" refers to Europeans because they are red-haired or blonde-haired. At that time, the low-level businessmen used the dialect reading book in a lexical style, a bit like today's foreign language learning vocabulary list. "Hongmao Dialect Reader" or "General Dialect Reader" is divided into "Business Number Gate", "Character Colloquialism Gate", "Speech General Door", "Food Miscellaneous Door", etc., each category is composed of dozens of nouns, there is no English letter under each entry, all of which use Chinese to mark the pronunciation of European languages. For example, the pronunciation of 1 to 10 is Wen, Du, Geography, Branch, Hui, Xishi, Heart, Choke, , and Bump. This pronunciation is mostly the pronunciation of the Cantonese system. These "Hongmao Dialect Readers" were very popular at that time, and there were many versions, but some common features: the first was a small vocabulary; the second was a simplified pronunciation; the third was to leave traces of "Pidgin Portuguese", most of which had no English annotations, only heavy words, not sentences.
The translators who were initially active in some treaty ports such as Shanghai or Ningbo were a group of so-called "open-air circulars". Through reading the book, they learned some "pidgin English". There are also some people who learn English through the so-called "pidgin English mountain songs", which have been popular in Shanghai and have many versions. "Mountain song" is also Chinese characters, and the English in parentheses is marked by posterity. For example, the following business communication phrase "mountain song" is pronounced in Shanghainese, which is closer to the pronunciation of English:
To come is to be "go", to be called "yes" (yes) not to be called "no". "Skipping Ladder" (eat tea) Please eat tea, "Snow Hall Snow Hall" (sitdown, sitdown) please sit. "Mark" (mark, mark) banknotes, twenty-four pieces of tungsten "swallowed fufu" (twentyfour). The real "very good", and so so "so and so".
Another example is the following paragraph about items:
Baked potatoes are called "potatoes", boots are called boots, and shoes are called "shoe". The small steamer is called the steamer, and the Toyo car is called the rickshaw.
There is also the following paragraph that indicates different titles or titles:
The foreign comprador "comprador", the bastard wang ba "egg wind stove" (daw fellow), "Namo Wen" (number one) Mr. Ada, Mr. Running Street "kill the old man" (shroff), "Bi Shengji" (poor person) when the ticket is more, the red-headed Ah San "keep person" (keep person). His brother "brother", his grandfather wants to "send tea" (father), his mother "buys tea" (mother), and his father-in-law "pronounces father-in-law".
Such pidgin "mountain songs" were very popular at the time, and were recorded in many different literature in Shanghai.
In 1856, the Second Opium War broke out, and the Anglo-French army reached Beijing. The Treaty of Tianjin was signed in 1860, stipulating that all future Sino-foreign treaties should be accompanied by foreign languages (mainly English). Therefore, the Qing government needed its own translators, and most of the people who understood English at that time were born at the bottom and learned business English by relying on the "Pidgin Mountain Song". "Pidgin English" is not on the table, nor can these people participate in negotiations between governments. The Qing government felt the need for the government to set up a foreign language school to train translators.
Yi Bi, the leader of the Western affairs faction, wrote in the recital that he hoped to select children aged 13 to 14 in Guangdong and Shanghai to study foreign Chinese in the school in preparation for translating diplomatic documents and acting as interpreters in the future. Prime Minister Yamen invited Xu Jishe, the author of the Yinghuan Zhiluo, to serve as the minister in charge of tongwenguan affairs, equivalent to today's principal. Since 1862, foreign language schools have been successively established in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other coastal cities along the river. Among them, the Beijing Division Tongwen Museum, the Shanghai Cantonese Dialect Museum and the Guangzhou Tongwen Museum, the so-called "Tongwen Three Pavilions", are the most important. In addition to teaching foreign languages, Tongwen Sankan also teaches science and other knowledge. Among the English textbooks compiled by the late Qing Dynasty, the most famous is Wang Fengzao's translation of the English grammar textbook "English Juyu", which is based on the American Simon Kerl's "English Grammar" book. Now it seems that the content of the textbook is very simple, mainly related to English nouns, pronouns, articles, adjectives, verbs, verbs, prepositions, conjunctions, exclamations, the way of writing at that time is different from today, called jingzi, dai jingzi, district finger characters, static characters, verbs, system verbs, ligatures, transit words, and pronunciation words.
In the folk, in addition to the "Pidgin Reader", some missionaries also participated in the preparation of English readings. For example, the British missionary Morrison published in Macao in 1823 in the "Biography of the English Language", the British diplomat Robertson compiled the "Chinese-English General Miscellaneous", and so on. Some Chinese scholars also participated in the compilation of reading books, such as Ziqing's "Huaying Call" and "Huaying Call Collection". Also circulating in Ningbo and Shanghai are the Commentaries on the English Language. The Ningbo version of the book is divided into 39 categories, the first part is the classification of things, there are the head gate of the town, astronomy, geography, seasons, monarchs, humanities, teachers and friends, craftsmen, palace offices, houses, accounting rooms, boats, military tools, utensils, beds, feasts, clothes, grains, edibles, medical roads, human beings, animals, flowers, plants, bamboo, numbers, silver numbers, foreign numbers, hardware, colors, snakes and insects, scales, taxes, imports, export goods, the content is more formal than the aforementioned "Red HairEd Words", including Chinese and English, There are also English pronunciations that are marked Chinese. The second part of the book is a few simple dialogues, with short sentences and long sentences, but it does not get rid of the expression of "pidgin". For example, "Don't you know", the English label is "You can understand"; "when do you go" as "You go what time"; "Don't forget" as "No want forget". When it comes to the English pronunciation of the Chinese, "Hongmao Fanyan" is mostly Cantonese pronunciation, while "English Annotations" are all Ningbo pronunciation, which was called "Gouzhang Xiangyin" at that time.
At that time, there were many readings similar to the "Commentary on English" compiled by Chinese, such as: Tang Tingshu's "Complete Collection of English" published by Guangdong Weijingtang in 1862, "English Preliminary Order" and "English Hui" compiled by Kuang Qizhao in 1868, "Introduction to English Characters" compiled by Cao Jun, published by Shanghai Declaration Hall in 1874, and "English Records without Teachers and Self-Communication" published in 1884. There are also english readings compiled by Chinese, which are published in the publishing institutions of the church system, such as Yang Xun's "Guide to English Characters" published in the Meihua Library in 1879. It can be said that missionaries, official publishing systems and Private Chinese Engraving Books and Commercial Bookstores have jointly participated in the publication of English readers.
The English readings edited and published by these institutions not only lack modernity in content, but also are not written step by step according to the curriculum system of modern academies. Similar to "The English Road Without a Teacher", it is all composed of sentences, rather than textbooks with the first and second lessons, and lack of teaching system. The large-scale publishing of regular English textbooks, English teaching materials, And English-Chinese dictionaries can be said to have been initiated by the preparation of the English Department of the Commercial Press, and has gradually moved towards the right track and constructed scale effects.
Q2
The Commercial Press "English Department"
The Commercial Press was founded in 1897 and has been publishing English readers since 1898. In the 14 years from 1898 to 1911, a total of 126 kinds of English textbooks and English-Chinese reference books (excluding dictionaries) were introduced, and about 180 English readings were published by the publishing industry during this period, and the Commercial Press accounted for about 70% of the total. The Commercial Press's 126 english readings cover seven major aspects: "Primary and Primary and Secondary School Textbooks", "Phonetic Conversation", "English Grammar", "English Writing", "English Anthologies and Knowledge Readers", "English-Chinese-English Translations" and "English-Chinese-English Dictionaries". Whether from the number of publications or the breadth of content, in the late Qing Dynasty English textbook publishing market, the Commercial Press can be called a bull's ear holder. This publication fact is closely related to the fact that the Commercial Press attaches great importance to the compilation of English textbooks and the establishment of the "English Department" at the beginning of the establishment of the Compilation Institute in 1902.
At the beginning of the establishment of the Commercial Press, it was a printing workshop opened in the alley, the downstairs was a printing workshop, and the upstairs lived people, and Xia Ruifang lived upstairs. The name "The Commercial Press", whether in English Chinese, indicates that this is a commercial printing house, and its image change began with the textbook "Huaying Beginner" - the "Huaying Preliminary Stage" published in 1898 and the subsequent "Huaying Advanced", which can be said to be the first set of English reading books with the nature of modern textbooks in China. However, before 1898, the Commercial Press did not have a compilation office (it was only established in 1902). At that time, the compilation of textbooks did not form a group, mainly relying on Xie Hongzhao. In 1900, Xia Ruifang acquired the Japanese-funded Juwen Printing House, and at the same time purchased a number of low-quality Japanese translations, which was economically damaged and the publishing practice in the past three years made him feel more and more that the Commercial Press should have its own compilation team. Therefore, in 1902, he discussed with Zhang Yuanji, who was then in charge of the Nanyang Public School Translation Institute, to establish the core department of the "Commercial Press Compilation Institute". Prior to 1931, the Institute was a publishing department under the Commercial Press that was responsible for translation, compilation and editing in parallel with the Printing House and the Distribution Office. The Compilation Institute has various professional departments, and its Chinese, English, and miscellaneous departments are the three earliest professional departments. According to my research, the use of "English Department" as the official name was probably in the early years of the Republic of China.
Mao Dun has a detailed description of the "English Department" in 1916 in his memoir "The Road I Walked", when he was working in the English correspondence school of the "English Department". At this time, there were only 7 people in the "English Department", including Minister Kwong Fuzhuo, Director Zhou Yueran, Editor Ping Hailan and Zhou Youlan (Zhou Yueran's brother), Huang Yuanshu, and Clerk Hu Xiongcai. The Shanghai Library exhibited a photograph of the Compilation Office of the Commercial Press in the 1920s, the "English Department" is on the second floor of this rectangular three-story Ocean Building, with windows on three sides, and the entrance door is first three reception rooms, half-cut panel walls, each with doors and windows, and a panel wall separates the reception room from the editorial department hall, a bit like the lattice room in today's company. According to Mao Dun's description, the ministers of various ministries and the editorial directors of various magazines, including Zhou Yueran, director of the "English Correspondence School", all used a general writing desk, and only Kwong Fuzhuo, director of the English Department, used a large and up-to-date writing desk. One-third of the countertop is equipped with wooden frames about two feet high, divided into many small compartments for various documents. There is a roller shutter wooden cover mounted on the top of the wooden frame, pull it down, you can cover the entire countertop, with a dark lock, when Kwong Fu burns away, as long as the roller shutter wooden cover is pulled down, you can lock the files covered inside.
Ge Chuanliang, later a professor in the Department of Foreign Languages at Fudan University, was a minor editor at the Commercial Press in the 1920s. He recounted the details of the later English department: at the end of 1926 "I went to work in the English department, and I was the youngest of all (only slightly more than twenty years old). The Minister is Dr Kwong Phu Cheuk... He hardly understood Chinese (Author's Note: According to many people's recollections, Kwong went to the United States when he was very young). Everyone talks to each other in Chinese, but to talk to Dr. Kwong you must speak English, calling him 'Dr. Fong'; you must also write a note to him in English. In addition to Dr. Kwong, everyone talked in Chinese, but they called each other 'Mr.' plus their surnames, instead of 'Mr.', 'Jun', 'Brother', 'Weng', etc., which was the practice of some 'high-level Chinese' in Shanghai at that time... The English department has a wealth of information, and it is also popular to ask each other for advice... My first job was as a teacher at the fourth level of the English Section of the Correspondence Society. The so-called "teaching" is to modify the homework and answer the questions. Whether it's modifying assignments or answering questions, I always have questions that I don't have the shame to ask, and I benefit a lot... I try to make use of the various reference books available in the English Department. Before I went to the English Department, although I knew some large English dictionaries, such as The Oxford English Dictionary in the United Kingdom and Webster's New International English Dictionary in the United States; I had never seen it, and when I came to the English Department, it was an eye-opener. In 1929, Kwong Retired, and the "English Department" was succeeded as minister by The English Editor Hu Zhemou.
In the 1920s, the Commercial Press compiled the English department on the second floor of this rectangular three-story ocean building
Q3
Hsieh Hong-lai and the localization of "Indian Reader" English textbooks
Xia Ruifang and several other founders of the Commercial Press (such as Bao Xian'en and Bao Xianchang) used textbooks in the early days of their studies at the church school Qingxin Academy, the Primer compiled by the British for Indian primary school students. However, much of the content in the book is used as examples of British or Indian content, which is a great inconvenience to Chinese English learners. As a result, Xia Ruifang keenly paid attention to the problem of sinicization of English readers. So, who will do the Localization of Chinese annotations for textbooks? Xia Ruifang thought of Entrepreneurial Colleague Bao Xianen and Bao Xianchang's Ningbo compatriot Xie Honggen. At the age of 11, Xie Hongzhao was selected to study at the Suzhou Boxue Academy, and he was highly regarded by Zhu Dingqing, a teacher of Chinese language. Under zhu's guidance, Xie Hongzhao read a large number of Confucian classics and gained a deeper understanding of traditional Chinese culture. His diligence and solid knowledge of Chinese and Western studies were appreciated by Pan Shenwen, the dean of the college. In 1892, Xie Graduated from the Academy of Learning. In 1895, Pan Shenwen was transferred to the president of the Shanghai Zhongxi Academy, and Xie Honggeng came to the Zhongxi Academy. He is a typical "workaholic", involved in the preparation of a large number of textbooks, and also compiled many articles in major magazines in Shanghai. When Xia Ruifang was invited to the Commercial Press as a part-time editor, Xie Hongzhao completed all the work by himself. Sadly, he died of lung disease at the age of 43. In 1898, after the Commercial Press launched the two books "Huaying Preliminary Stage" and "Huaying Advanced", it successively compiled the 2nd to 5th episodes of "Huaying Advancement". In 1899, he published a collection of "Initial Order" and "Advanced", entitled "Huaying Advanced Complete Collection".
"Huaying Advanced Complete Collection" is rich in content, selecting a lot of Western celebrity biographies, life knowledge, anecdotes, etc., 2 to 4 episodes involve a large number of animals, and 5 episodes are mixed with a lot of grammar, applied stylistic writing and other content of the text. Most importantly, xie Honggeng followed the habits of Chinese, deleted many of the contents of the original work, deleted the content about life in India, and added Chinese-related content, such as the Chinese private school he wrote in 4 episodes. The compilation method of the Complete Works of The Advanced Works of Huaying has begun to take shape in the model of modern English textbooks. The first is to adopt the arrangement of Chinese and English contrasts, and the purpose of compiling the book is to teach the simplest and most practical vocabulary through a gradual course, and to arrange the content of English teaching step by step according to the degree of beginners. After teaching 6 new words in each lesson, there are 6 example sentences, accompanied by translations of the text. For example, "My" translates to "I"; "He and I can go", which translates to "He and I can go". The book is divided into "alphabet", "two-word", "three-word sentence", until "five-word sentence", etc., and finally "Religious Lessons", which contains some Christian propaganda, such as "God gave me", translated as "God made me". Second, there is "teacher guidance" in each lesson, which Xie Honggeng joined, so as to guide and suggest the teaching skills of teachers in view of the teaching points of the text. In the note "Pronunciation", which is specially used for new words, emphasis is placed on the position of the lips and tongue when pronouncing, and strives to let students lay a good oral foundation with the help of teachers. Third, every two to three lessons, there is a "revision class" that lists confusing words for inspection. This textbook preparation method set a good example for Chinese to compile their own English textbooks later.
The influence of this series of textbooks is very great, Hu Shi, Liang Shuming, Zheng Xiaocang, Qian Xuantong, Zhang Kebiao, Dai Jiaxiang and others, early learning English are reading this batch of textbooks. One Yang Yuting, when the Qing Dynasty government selected students to test foreign languages in Japan in 1902, it is said that he memorized the "Complete Collection of Advanced Huaying" from beginning to end, which can also prove that this textbook was very popular at that time. In 1907 and 1908, Zhang Yuanji presented books to the Guangxu Emperor, who was studying English, including the Complete Collection of Huaying Advancement. It can be said that the Choice of "Indian Reader" Primer by the Commercial Press as the first shot in the textbook market is the result of the dual choice of the business founder "market research" and the "academic analysis" of English expert Xie Honggeng. Although the Commercial Press did not have an "English Department" when it was first established, these two books are outstanding reading materials in English textbooks, and Xie Honggeng was actually the most important person in charge of the "English Department" before its establishment.
Q4
Yan Huiqing and the Yinghua Dictionary
Yan Huiqing was a native of Shanghai, Jiangsu Province, and his father, Yan Yongjing, was a famous Chinese missionary and Western translator in the late Qing Dynasty. In her childhood, Yan Huiqing cultivated good English skills under the guidance of her father. In 1895, Yan Huiqing went to the United States to study, first into the Episcopal High School, and then into the University of Virginia. In 1899, Yan Huiqing, while studying abroad, cooperated with Wang Zuoting, another editor of the Commercial Press, to revise the "Chinese-English Dictionary of the Commercial Library" compiled by Kuang Qizhao. Shortly after graduating in 1900 and returning to China, he was hired by St. John's University in Shanghai as a teacher of English and mathematics. When teaching English at St. John's University, he took the initiative to use English-Chinese translation materials to compile a reading book of "Chinese-English Translation Decision", which was published by the Commercial Press in 1904. The book consists of 100 lessons, similar to a textbook.
Considering the need for English dictionaries in society at that time, the Commercial Press invited Yan Huiqing to compile a "Yinghua Dictionary". Yan Huiqing was still a teacher at St. John's University at that time, and led graduates Yan Heling, Xu Shanxiang, Zhou Yichun, Cao Qingwu, Yu Qingen, Zhao Guocai, Chen Dade, Xie Changxi, Zhou Senyou, Xu Milling, Zhang Wenting, Wu Zunchao, etc., to participate in the compilation of the "Yinghua Dictionary". Many of these people later entered the "English Department" of commerce as editors. In 1908, the Anglo-Chinese Dictionary was officially published. This book is based on the foreigner's Dictionary of Na Tao Er Clan. However, since most of the earliest English-Chinese dictionaries were compiled by missionaries, most scientific translations of names have not yet been specially examined, and there is no unified method of translating names. To this end, Yan Huiqing collected and referred to the translation names used in various translated books since the 1860s, including publications of the China Education Association and the Chinese Medical Association, various lists of titles published by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, textbooks from the Commercial Press, and famous works translated by Yan Fu.
The Yinghua Dictionary contains 120,000 words, a total of 3,000 pages, 1,000 drawings, and 5 appendices. The appendix of the book is very distinctive: Appendix I "English Quotation of Bangzi Interpretation", which contains 1200 articles of Latin, French and Italian commonly used in English; Appendix II "Abbreviation", which contains 1200 abbreviations; Appendix III "Explanation of Marks", which contains 88 commonly used marks in mathematics, commerce and grammar; Appendix IV "Anglo-Chinese Gazetteer", which is a Chinese and English comparison of 1400 Chinese and foreign names; Appendix V, "List of Names of People", which includes the nationality, identity and year of birth and death of more than 9,000 foreign celebrities. In this way, this "Anglo-Chinese Dictionary" is not a general dictionary, but more similar to an "encyclopedia". We now call the inscription, preface, and annotation "sub-text", and Zhang Yuanji knows very well how to use "famous artists" for marketing - please Sheng Xuanhuai inscription, please repeat the preface, which was very sensational at that time. Yan Fu spoke very highly of this dictionary in the preface, saying that it played a great role in promoting the study of English in the late Qing Dynasty.
I would like to summarize several characteristics of the "Yinghua Dictionary": first, on the basis of the old dictionary, the newly emerging entries and interpretations were extracted from several authoritative Anglo-American dictionaries at that time; second, the content was more extensive and rich than that of similar Anglo-Chinese dictionaries published by the Commercial Press before; third, the translations were made to be accurate; fourth, specialized terms were listed, and the number of illustrations greatly exceeded that of similar dictionaries before; fifth, the dictionary began to take on the nature of an encyclopedic dictionary to a certain extent, in the case of the urgent need for Western studies and foreign affairs in the late Qing Dynasty and the extraordinary shortage of reference books. It has great appeal.
In 1908, Yan Huiqing entered the diplomatic circle and accompanied Wu Tingfang on an envoy to the United States as a second-class counselor. During this time, he continued to work part-time at the Commercial Press. For example, he edited a translation of the Dictionary of Idioms. At the same time, on behalf of the Commercial Press, he wrote letters to some American book companies to obtain copyright for the Commercial Press to obtain the copyright of other English books. In 1909, he also proofread Chen Mengming's translation of the English idiom Cilin by Tiksson.
Q5
Kwong Fu Chui and his compiled English textbooks
Before and after the formal establishment of the "English Department" of the Compilation Institute, there were three main people as the main force in the compilation of English textbooks: Xie Honggeng, Yan Huiqing, and Kwong Fuzhuo. Among them, Kwong Fuzhuo is the scholar who compiles the most English textbooks in the "English Department". Born in 1869 and died in 1938, Kwong Fuzhuo was a native of Taishan, Guangdong, the hometown of overseas Chinese. Kwong FuZhuo came from a poor family, studied at the age of 7, and followed his father to work overseas at the age of 12. On his way to the United States, he began to learn English from his companions. After arriving in the United States, he worked while learning English at a night school set up by Congregational priests. At the age of 17, he joined the Christian Salvation Army and went to various cities in the Pacific to preach. Because of his hard work, he rose from a small cook to a clerk in the Pacific Coast Army. He once said that his fluency in English played a big role in this class change. In 1897, he entered the Congregational Institute at Panmanet University in Crémont, southern California. He was admitted to the University of California in 1902 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1905. In 1905, he entered Columbia University to specialize in English and Education, and received a Master of Arts degree in 1906. Kwong Fuzhuo returned to China in 1907, first taught at the Guangzhou Dialect School, and then participated in the examination for international students, and won the honor of literary jinshi issued by the Qing government (author's note: The imperial examination was abolished in 1905, but international students could take the exam after returning, and the honor of jinshi was given, Yan Fu, Wu Guangjian, and Kwong Fuzhuo all won such honors), and was therefore awarded the post of Shangshu by the Ministry of Posts and Communications by the Qing court, he believed that although the official had more money, it was of great significance to Enter the Commercial Press to compile English textbooks for Chinese English education. It will play a greater role in society. After Yan Huiqing resigned, Kwong Fuzhuo succeeded him as the director of the "English Department". Later, the Commercial Press had such a large circulation of reading instincts, which had a lot to do with Kwong Fuzhuo's personal efforts.
Kwong Fu-chuo, Director of the English Department of the Commercial Press Compilation Institute (right)
Kwong's main contribution throughout his life was the compilation of English textbooks. In 1908 he compiled the English Conversation Textbook for business. The textbook was very large in circulation and was reprinted seven times by 1912. In 1909, Kwong also completed the English Composition Textbook. Because of Kwong's achievements in promoting English teaching in China, his alma mater, Pan Manet University, awarded him a doctorate in literature in 1922. Kwong Fu Zhuo has a characteristic: while compiling and printing textbooks, he also inspects the status of English teaching in surrounding schools. In 1908, he often visited the English Seminar run by Mao Shijun, a model school in Suzhou at that time for teaching English. This method of "editing" and "teaching" allowed him to link the writing of English textbooks with the actual situation of English teaching, which is a very far-sighted approach.
From 1908 to around 1929, Kwong worked at the Commercial Press for more than 20 years. Relevant statistics show that during this period, the Commercial Press published as many as 81 kinds of English textbooks, all of which were examined and approved by Kwong FuZhuo himself, and 21 kinds of English textbooks were directly signed and edited by him. Kwong also presided over the compilation of a large number of English textbooks and English-Chinese dictionaries. As the director of the "English Department", Kwong Spent a lot of time revising the writings of others, and in 1909 he revised the "English Puzzle Reader" written by Qi Tianxi, the head of the Biology Department of Soochow University, which is a concise English reading for learning the basics of Western science, with a total of 32 lessons. The book uses common fish, insects, birds, animals and crafts, simple physiology as the theme, such as cats, bees, rice, eyes, snakes, silk, cattle, tea, teeth and so on. In 1909, he edited the six-volume English New Reader (Business Library) and the New French English Course compiled by R.S. Anderson. At that time, most of the English readers were written by British and American scholars, so the books often used British and American historical figures as materials, which may not be completely in line with the tastes of Chinese students, and the book was specially invited by the Commercial Press to be born in Suzhou and had a better understanding of Chinese culture, and through the careful revision of Kwong Fuzhuo, the "(Commercial Library) English New Reader" was based on Chinese temperament and customs, "especially to revitalize the concept of the people." In addition, many researchers have said that forty or fifty years ago, almost all the students who had read middle schools and universities in China had read the texts and extracurricular reading materials written by Kwong Fuzhuo. Including the "English Magazine" and "English Weekly", which are two important publications published by the "English Department" of the Commercial Press. Kwong Fu is gentle in temperament, very serious, and not scrupulous. He was loyal to the Commercial Press, his salary was calculated in silver according to the contract, and all his savings were invested in commercial stocks. Moreover, he has no doubt about the administrative management of all the personnel employed in the "English Department" and has very strict requirements.
Historically, the development of early commercial presses coincided with the popularization of English learning in China, and the history of the development of commercial presses is also a history of modern Chinese understanding and learning English.
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