During the Zhao and Song dynasties, the Guozijian was the most important host institution for officially engraved books. After the engraving of the book was completed, in addition to providing it for the students in prison to read and the imperial court to grant local officials, the scholars were allowed to pay paper and ink money and obtain the printed copies.
"Chinese Reconstructed Rare Books" series of photocopies of Song Carved Yuan's revision of "Explanation of Words"
Ye Dehui, a person at the end of the Qing Dynasty, listed in the sixth volume of the "Shulin Qing Dialect" with the article "Song Jianshu Book Allows People to Print Themselves and Sell at a Price", one by one recording the relevant inscriptions seen in the Song Book, Shuyun:
In the Song Dynasty, the Guozi supervision board, for example, Xu Shiren took paper and ink money to print themselves. Where official engravings are also sold, there is also a price for sale. After the northern Song Dynasty's "Explanation of Words", there are yongxi three years of zhongshu under the door of the door of Xu Xuan and other newly revised "Explanation of Words", the text has "its books should be paid to the history museum, still let the Guozi supervise the carving as a printing plate, according to the "Nine Classics" book example, Xu Ren took paper and ink money to redeem" and so on. The Southern Song Dynasty carved Lin Yu's "Han Jun", there is a record of Yang Wang Xiu in the tenth year of Chunxi, Hou Yun: "Xiangshan County learned "Han Jun", each two volumes, see selling money six hundred wen foot. One hundred and sixty pieces of paper for printing, two pieces of green paper, one hundred pieces of money for the board, and one hundred and sixty pieces of ink for the back of the ink. He also asked the cloud: "Shan Ben Curium Wood, Chu Zhi County, and with the surplus of work ink as a helper." ”...... The old banknote copy of Song Kong Pingzhong's "Theory of the Continuation of the World" is twelve volumes, and there are two records before. One of the clouds: "Yuanzhou Minister Library re-repaired and carved to the "Continuation of the Theory" one part, one pick up the second scroll, one Bo Wu pick up the board." Pick up the land sheet with a paper three hundred one. The right is as before. One of the clouds: "This time, I have printed a part of the "Theory of the Continuation of the World", counting six volumes, and the money such as food and drink is the same as the queen." A printing paper ink worker food money, a total of 534 wen foot: one hundred and sixty-five pieces of large paper, counting thirty wen foot; work ink money, counting two (five? One hundred and four literary feet. A total of 281 pieces of paper are paid for the work of green paper: nine pieces of green and white paper, counting sixty-six pieces of paper; and two hundred and fifteen pieces of wax. The above shared money is eight hundred and fifteen pennies. Right body in front. "There is also the title of Shaoxing's March 27 school survey. ...... In the seventeenth year of the Ming Dynasty Song Shaoxing, Wang Huangzhou's "Collection of Small Animals" was thirty volumes, and the preceding note was a cloud: "Huangzhou Deed Survey Zhulu Prefecture Army, there are places to print books." Eavesdropping on Wang Huangzhou's "Small Animal Collection" article is elegant and beneficial to later learning, and the place has not been opened. Now I have to collect the old book one to pick up Lu Wansan Sansan Qian Hundred Wanton pick up the characters, check the Shaoxing order, and the privately carved and printed documents, and the selected officials of the Central Transport Division to which they belong are carefully determined, and the beneficial scholars listen to the printing line. In addition to the implementation of the above article, this is a carving of the "Small Animal Collection", a total of books, counting the two editions of the paper and ink, and the combined paper and ink work price: printing book paper and sub-boards, picking up one sheet of green paper on the back of the table, one piece of large paper, and a total of money and two hundred and one piece of paper. Ink money wu bai wen foot, loader food money to pick up the wen foot. In addition to the printing paper, a total of one hundred and three pieces of Lu Wenzu were collected. See the sale of the goods, the price of each part of Wu Guan Wen Province. The right is as before. July 17, Shaoxing. ”...... It can be seen that the Song Dynasty printed the cheap price of the work, and the scholar and doctor benefited the heart of the scholar, and the faith was beyond the reach of the ordinary officials.
Although the above quotation is quite omitted, the issue of the cost and price of the wages and prices of the official engraved books of the State Zijian and various localities that are discussed here is only a repetition of it, and no example of special significance is omitted.
Although there are many examples given by Ye Dehui, in concrete implementation, the printing cost of each kind of book (especially the paper cost) is still impossible to sort out one by one, so it is impossible to clearly understand the relationship between the price and cost of these books. Nevertheless, at least according to my understanding, it can be roughly inferred: First, the Guozijian engravings, such as "Commentaries on the Interpretation of Words", only received paper and ink and other labor costs (at the time of the case, the text was "Xu Ren accepted the price of paper and ink to collect redemption"). Second, the rest of the officially engraved books are allowed to make a small profit, but they should also be sold slightly higher than the cost, otherwise these trivial accounts would not have been produced one by one on the books like this. According to this understanding, Ye Dehui lamented that the price of Books in Song Shi was not necessarily very appropriate. Bookstores carve books for profit, and the price is naturally much higher than the cost.
After the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty Guozijian no longer presided over the engraving of books, mainly by the West Lake Academy in Hangzhou. The Ming Dynasty successively established two State Prisons in Nanjing and Beijing. Both the southern and northern prisons presided over the engraving of books like the Song Dynasty's Guozijian, while the southern supervisor flourished in the northern prison. Gainan Jian has the old version of the Southern Song Dynasty Guozijian preserved by the Yuanxihu Academy and many new editions of the West Lake Academy in the Yuan Dynasty, and also collected some other Song and Yuan book editions from the Jiangnan region, which have a really strong family foundation; in addition, because of the cultural origins of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, compared with the two prisons, "the North Supervisor has no many books, and the South Supervisor storage books are considered to be quite rich in the north" (Ming Lu Kejiao's "Lu Xueshi Manuscript" Volume 9 "Shen Rao Supervision Rules"), which is also an indispensable "resource" for engraving school books.
Ye Dehui did not explain how the books engraved by the northern and southern superintendents of the Ming Dynasty were put into circulation, because he accidentally read two related records, and now he briefly describes what he saw as follows, for the reference of those who pay attention to the history of publishing and printing.
Needless to say, since the Guozijian is a directly subordinate organ of the central government, the books it engraved and printed must be like the Zhao and Song dynasties, which will be awarded by the imperial court and used for reading by the superintendents (Ming Xu Xueju's "Guo Dynasty Classics" volume 129 "Ceremonial Department"). Ming He Qiao Yuan's "Famous Mountains and Collections" vol. 84 "Ru Lin Ji").
In addition to this must-have, Jiao Zhu's "Records of the Sacrifice of the State Dynasty" volume 74 Huang Zuo wrote the "Biography of Li Chongguang, the Classic Book of the Nanjing GuoziJian", to try and discuss related matters:
Li Chongguang, Zi Zongxian, a native of Gaoling, Shaanxi. Less for Yi students, gong into taixue. Zhengde Gengwu was awarded the Nanjing GuoziJian Classics. ...... In the national dynasty classics, the book board is mostly in the southern prison, and the gentry print thousands of papers, and the example loses five points of platinum, which is common in the classics. Sogo resigned, and the priest Xian Jiazhi was sacrificed.
The "gentry holders" mentioned here should refer to those scholars who have already obtained the name of the imperial examination, and the system of losing paper money to make it easy to obtain engraved copies is the same as the Song people's practice of "taking paper and ink to redeem" books.
In the Song Dynasty, the famous Tian Xi was known as Zhimu Prefecture, "Get off the bus and build a Confucius Ancestral Hall, teach the people to revitalize the school, please put the table into the paper Guozi Prison, and print the scriptures to the students." If you give it away, you will return it on paper" ("Printed to the Scriptures" in the "School" of the "Mountain Hall Examination"). Tian Xi's practice of exchanging books on paper is a good reflection of the situation mentioned above that the Song Dynasty Guozijian engraving only collects costs and does not make profits, and before Li Sogo sent books for free, the Ming Nanjing Guozijian determined the amount of "platinum" that is, the amount of silver, according to the amount of paper used to determine the demanders, that is, the amount of silver, and this amount of silver money reflects the printing cost of books.
The first typeset edition of the Republic of China Xue Yu's "Notes of Xue Harmonic Meng"
Xue Yu, another person at the end of the Ming Dynasty, also talked about the relevant situation when describing his family's book collection:
The books of the ancestors of the Yu family are very rich, and since the end of the book, each one has taken it according to the scroll, and it cannot be followed by the analogy, which is one and the same. It is divided into four sects in the whole library and three in the first room of the First Attendant. In the middle, such as the first Shangbao received more gifts from the four parties, which was several times that of the old reserve; the uncle Taixue Gong bought more books from The Book, and the number did not decrease the number of bozu; the Tai servants were printed from the Beijing Master to the "Thirteen Classics" and "Twenty-one Histories", and the divisions of the ancestors, although the miscellaneous parts were poor and thrifty, and the large volume was slightly prepared. (Xue Yu's Notes on Xue Huanmeng, vol. 2)
Comparing xue's "Thirteen Classics" and "Twenty-first History" with the books "purchased from Shujia", it is obvious that these "Thirteen Classics" and "Twenty-one Histories" can only be newly engraved books that have been printed by the Beijing Guozijian (these are all important classics engraved and printed by the Beijing Guozijian, and those who are a little familiar with the ancient book versions) should be the same as the situation in which the Nanjing Guozijian brushed and printed books at a cost price.